WSO2 Expands Integration Framework Options
WSO2 has revamped an integration engine that runs on top of Kubernetes to increase its appeal to organizations that need to integrate emerging microservices-based applications as well as legacy applications using a more traditional enterprise service bus (ESB)-based approach relying on graphical interfaces.
Company CTO Paul Fremantle says that while there’s a lot of interest in integrating applications using cloud-native middleware, many organizations can’t transition away from ESB-based workflows overnight.
WSO2 Enterprise Integrator 7.0 accommodates that requirement by adding a Micro-Integrator engine option that makes the core integration engine accessible via a graphical drag-and-drop integration flow designer. It also provides integration with continuous integration/continuous delivery (CI/CD) pipelines and code-driven integration tooling based on Visual Studio Code.
That option complements an existing Ballerina Integrator, a cloud-native integration framework based on a programming language developed by WSO2. Ballerina Integrator employs higher-level abstractions to represent services, endpoints and network data types while providing a sequence diagram-based visualization tool to keep track of interactions. Ballerina Integrator includes an integration development tool based on the Visual Studio Code source-code editor, integration templates and pre-built enterprise integration patterns and samples.
WSO2 Enterprise Integrator now natively supports Kubernetes and comes with tools for collecting metrics, as well as logging, tracing and visualizing messages using Elasticsearch, Logstash, Kibana, Prometheus, Grafana and Jaeger open source software.
At the same time, WSO2 is also now making available a Streaming Integrator runtime for mediating event streams and integrating event-driven systems.
Finally, WSO2 adds integrations with open source Camunda business process management (BPM) software, as well as the latest versions of WSO2 Integration Analytics and WSO2 Business Process Server.
Fremantle says IT organizations have made it clear that they intend to embrace microservices more aggressively as they move away from centralized approaches to integration in favor of giving developers more direct control. However, there are still plenty of legacy applications that require them to integrate using an ESB-based workflow. Rather than having to support two integration platforms, Freemantle says WSO2 is making it possible to support multiple styles of integration on top of the same core engine. Rather than forcing organizations to more aggressively embrace DevOps processes, WSO2 Enterprise Integrator can now meet IT teams anywhere they are along that journey, he notes.
Via either approach, WSO2 also will make it easier to leverage a Kubernetes-based platform to access application programming interface (API) management software and services meshes using a platform that soon will be easier to deploy using Kubernetes Operator tools being developed by WSO2, Freemantle says.
Freemantle says WSO2 expects Ballerina Integrator to become the preferred method for integrating modern applications. However, he notes there are very few “greenfield” IT environments. Most IT organizations are “brownfields” that require any transition to a new IT architecture to be managed over an extended period. The challenge those IT organizations face is how best to achieve that goal in a way that doesn’t exacerbate technical debt and results in them having to support two different platforms to achieve the same common goal.
