webMethods 10.11 Release Highlights

About webMethods DataHub

What it is

webMethods DataHub is a service to capture data flowing through webMethods Integration Server and make it available in a data lake. Once the data is in a data lake, business analysts and data scientists can use their choice of BI tools to access a sophisticated SQL interface and get valuable business insights. The main components of the DataHub are:

  • A new data capture package that is installed on Integration Server
  • Terracotta for storing realtime data immediately and offloading it to the data lake in the appropriate format
  • An administrative interface to configure the data capture settings
  • The Dremio engine [partner] to expose the data via SQL for 3rd party BI tools.

Why customers will need it

Much of the data that passes through Integration Server contains valuable business insights, but until now, the best way to access it was through ETL (extract, transform, and load) systems. These are expensive architectures and often require manual coding. What’s more, the lag time associated with ETL prevents businesses from taking effective action quickly.

What value it will bring

webMethods DataHub provides access to critical business data with an integrated toolset for extracting, transforming, and serving up integration data in near realtime for powerful analytics tools. With Integration Server at the core, you’ll be able to connect to hundreds of applications on premises and in the cloud. You can ingest terabytes of data into the data lake and get access to in-memory data analytics capabilities with little to no effort by leveraging your existing webMethods server. It’s a zero-code solution designed for business analysts to turn data into insights and action.

About webMethods Developer Portal

What it is

A new, lightweight portal that is designed to handle any kind of asset; APIs, microservices, events, integrations. It is a headless design with API-accessible functionality that can be embedded into branded websites and extended with custom assets and recipes. It comes with insightful dashboards, intuitive customizations and easy API tryout functionality. And every capability is API and event-enabled.

Why customers will need it

APIs have become products, and for businesses, that means they need a marketplace for them. But traditional API portals are difficult to customize, inflexible in their functionality, and don’t play well with all API gateways. Previously you could customize the Software AG portal, but not all functionality was available via APIs. Now it is fully API enabled and UI customization is simpler and richer. In addition, a simplified architecture has greatly reduced the installed footprint and hardware resources required. With event enablement, anything that happens can trigger an immediate response; when your API is downloaded, you can get notified, for example. Or when a question is posted to your API discussion on the Portal, you can have it forwarded to your team’s Slack channel.

What value it will bring

The Developer Portal is the new marketplace for businesses creating APIs as products. With a chameleon-like ability to appear as a branded website as well as extensive features to encourage interaction, the Developer Portal enables companies to create a rich ecosystem for APIs to be shared and promoted. It comes with a fully functional UI, but you can also create your own – you have a choice. You’ll be able to build and grow your developer community.

About webMethods.io MFT

What it is

webMethods.io MFT is a single solution for transferring files regardless of protocol – whether SFTP, WebDAV/s, FTP, or other—in a secure, encrypted and governed platform that delivers analytics and reporting. It provides acceleration and streaming capabilities and can be triggered by arrival or scheduled events. Standalone cloud product that is tightly integrated with the webMethods.io iPaaS.

Why customers will need it

File transfers are messy – but they’re still part of essential processes worldwide. With a huge range of applications, protocols, data, and external platforms involved, it’s challenging to ensure that file transfers are timely and reliable.

What value it will bring

Guaranteed delivery. Eliminates the need for manual intervention for failed transfers. Secure, encrypted, and governed file transfers with analytics and reporting. Transfer files faster with acceleration and streaming capabilities. Keeps your business running seamlessly. And because it’s in the cloud, no hardware required.

About the webMethods Connector Ecosystem

What it is

With the new Connector Development Program, ISVs, OEM partners, resellers and customers can partner with Software AG via our Technology Partnership Program. They can build, test, certify and publish connectors to webMethods.io and have them appear in the Connector Marketplace. In the future, Recipes will also be part of the program.

Why customers will need it

The number of SaaS apps is exploding, and it’s not possible for Software AG to create and maintain all the connectors to these apps. What’s more, many SaaS apps have multiple new releases per year, each of which can break existing connectors. Expanding the pool of talent that can build connectors, while ensuring they are reliable and stable, enables customers to create integrations to more applications easily.

What value it will bring

Democratizing connector development is a natural extension of webMethods’ commitment to open, standards-based tools without vendor lock-in. By expanding the pool of talent for building connectors, customers will have many more prebuilt connectors available so they can create fast and reliable integrations.

About the rest of the release

There are many new features in the remainder of the release. Some of the specific items to talk about include:

  • Async APIs in API Gateway – work with natively asynchronous APIs via websockets, messaging and event-enable synchronous APIs.
  • GraphQL support in API Gateway
  • Monetize APIs – package APIs as products, control their usage with terms & conditions controlled by the gateway, manage subscription requests, and analyze API subscriber activity
  • Containerization – many features enabling Microservices Runtime, Universal Messaging, MWS, and API Gateway to be more easily deployed and managed in containers. Why they need it: DevOps is complex. What value it will bring: Many product improvements to simplify running in K8S and with Docker with rapid deployment, high availability, easy upgrades, rollback functionality and scalability.
  • Security/standards – Integration Server now supports FIPS 140-3, LDAP v3, OAuth PKCE, public encrypt/decrypt services, gRPC, and Open API consumer.
  • B2B cloud migration – Migrate your TN assets to webMethods.io B2B easily with a 5 step process. Run your B2B integrations in the cloud, simplifying your IT. Why they need it: Reduce hardware management and maintenance. Scale more easily in the cloud. What value it will bring: Be able to onboard new partners even more easily, reduce IT costs.
  • webMethods.io B2B features – significant enhancements in ease of use, product parity with Trading Networks, and migration support. Why you need it: Missing product parity with TN. Value it will bring: Significant ease of use improvements, batching and queues for high volume, transaction dashboard for better tracking of B2B interactions, SFTP and 2-way SSL support for highly secure transactions, and RosettaNet 2.0 (RNIF 2.0), an essential B2B standard for many businesses.
  • webMethods.io Integration – End-to-end dev and monitoring experience for hybrid implementations. Enterprise messaging for event-based workflows. Two-way SSL. Complex mapping conditions for flow services. Quick start for new users.
  • Connectors – New Salesforce Marketing Cloud, SAP Commerce Cloud, Oracle ERP Cloud, Azure Service Bus, Docuware, Sitecore Content Hub, Amazon Glue, Amazon Polly, SendGrid, MessageBird. Updated Salesforce Bulk, ServiceNow, Azure Storage, DocuSign.
2 Likes