This is a technical overview of IBM App Connect Enterprise as a Service, a highly scalable, multi-tenant iPaaS solution that connects all of your applications and data.
Introduction
IBM App Connect Enterprise as a Service (ACEaaS) is a managed service that is based on IBM App Connect Enterprise Certified Containers (ACEcc). The managed service offers a comparable set of features for authoring, deploying and managing integrations, hosted on AWS. IBM App Connect Enterprise as a Service is available on the AWS Marketplace, where you can provision your free trial service instance or paid subscription.
Once a service instance has been provisioned you are ready to develop, deploy and manage your integrations. Within the service, there are two main user interfaces:
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A Designer authoring tool for building and testing flows
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A Dashboard for deploying and managing your integration solutions
Building Flows
App Connect is specifically designed with a no-code interface equipped with AI-based features as well as a versatile development environment so that both business users and integration specialists alike can build and deploy flows using multiple integration technologies.
To get started, the Designer authoring tool is available within the managed service as a web-based experience for integrators, accessible with zero training. In addition, the templates gallery provides a number of templates covering a range of use cases to help get started quickly, and the catalog provides a means to connect to your application accounts and view events and actions that can be added to your flows.
To create your first flow, import a template from the template gallery, or alternatively create a new API or event-driven flow from scratch. You can connect to your application accounts from the catalog page or within the flow editor as you are building your flow, and can leverage the secure connectivity features to connect to applications on private networks.
The AI features provide assistance to build your flows and perform mappings. And, you can even test your flow as you are building it by leveraging the test features within the flow editor to modify sample data to test individual actions or the end-to-end experience.
Once you are satisfied with your flow, you can easily test it running. The tile for the flow will indicate the current status of the flow and you can view logs from within the built-in log viewer.
The Designer authoring tool is intended for authoring and testing, so when the flow is ready to run - export the flow as a BAR file runtime artefact ready to deploy.
For more advanced integration needs a second authoring tool is available to download. From the “Home” page there is a link to “Download IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit”, this is an Eclipse-based authoring tool with support for virtually any data format, and enables creation of integration solutions to solve more complex integration requirements.
Whether an integration solution has been built using the Designer or the Toolkit authoring tool the solution is packaged into a BAR file runtime artefact ready to deploy and manage using the Dashboard.
Deploying and Managing Integrations
Within App Connect, you can also find the App Connect Dashboard which provides a runtime environment for deploying and managing your integration solutions. Here, you can deploy integrations that you've created in either App Connect Designer or the IBM App Connect Enterprise Toolkit by creating integration runtimes to host your solutions.
Select to “Deploy integrations” and you will be guided through uploading your BAR file and configuring your runtime. Access the navigation pane to discover a number of views where you can manage your deployed integrations, BAR files and configurations.
Summary
IBM App Connect Enterprise as a Service is a highly scalable, multi-tenant iPaaS solution that connects any of your applications and data - from simple integrations to complex integration scenarios - so new and experienced integrators can create effective solutions for their business needs.
Need more proof or simply excited to get started? Try the service today by signing up to the free trial and see for yourself on the Amazon Marketplace.
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