I like to think everyone has somewhere with a supply of batteries. They are essential items, yet taken for granted. TV remotes, torches, clocks. All items we need to use daily without thinking of them. We just expect them to work. And when we buy a new item, we tend not to think too much about it. “Oh, it needs batteries” we think. And we grab some from the drawer. We keep a supply of batteries as we never know when a new item might need batteries, or when an existing item needs more power.
A similar scenario exists with integration common in every business. Integration itself is one of those daily essential items in the IT environment. You need it, and just expect it to work. Your ordering system needs to exchange detail with invoicing? Your HR system with your payroll system? And when you want to add more of the same integration, or even add another item of integration, wouldn’t it be great if this was available in the same way, and with the same ease as pulling some spare batteries out of the drawer?
This benefit is available to those businesses who choose the Cloud Pak for Integration. With this Cloud Pak, you are not only getting an integrated platform, built to be cloud-native and deployable through Kubernetes Operators from the OpenShift Container Platform catalog, but you get access to the leading integration tools within a common, flexible licensing model. But what does this mean?
When using batteries in devices, the devices themselves were different, but the power packs they used were the same. You could use both devices separately as they both are designed to do different things. But also, you could use one device more than usual because you could use additional batteries. The power delivered is the same, and the way in which the power is made available is the same. If you need more power, you buy more batteries. It doesn't matter if you don't know which device you will use them in.
With Cloud Pak for Integration, all the components and functions are accessible from the Platform Navigator, and deployable using Operators from the OpenShift catalog. But all provide different capabilities and meet different use cases. With Cloud Pak for Integration entitlement, you get access to all the components. And using any of them, at any time requires license entitlement. But like the batteries in a huge range of devices, the license entitlement is completely interchangeable.
License entitlement in Cloud Pak for Integration applies to the components using ratios. This would be like the number of batteries needed for a device. A small torch might need 2 AAA batteries. A more powerful torch might be 4 AAA batteries, or even 3 AA batteries. The Cloud Pak for Integration ratios different for each component, and also are different depending on whether the deployment is for production or non-production use. Whichever the component, and whether for production or non-production, all the license entitlement needed is the right number of VPCs of Cloud Pak for Integration. In the same way, whether you are going to use the torch for 10 minutes or the game controller for 25 minutes, the battery is the same. You just need to plug it in.
Supposing you had entitlement to 30 VPCs of Cloud Pak for Integration. You were looking to deploy some API Connect, both production and non-production, to create and manage some APIs. The minimum size deployment for API Connect in Cloud Pak for Integration is 12 cores, and the ratio is 1:1 for production, and 2:1 for non-production. This means 12 cores of API Connect in production is 12 VPCs of Cloud Pak for Integration, and for non-production you would need 6 VPC of Cloud Pak for Integration. You still have 12 VPCs of CP4I, which allows you to deploy 4 cores of App Connect to allow you to connect and integrate diverse systems together, as this needs a 1:3 ratio, so 4 cores of App Connect need 12 VPCs of CP4I.
Now imagine it is a busy time for your infrastructure and you need to push more workload through your App Connect instances. You can remove the deployment of the non-production API Connect deployment (6 VPCs of CP4I) which would allow you to deploy 2 more cores of App Connect. Just in the same way that if I am looking for the cat in the garden at night, and I need extra light, I can take the batteries from the TV remote, put them into another torch, and we have more light. Obviously you can’t then use the TV remote without the batteries, but it is easy to put them back when your additional use is finished.
It is important to note that the flexible licensing doesn’t magic something out of nothing. You have the same maximum deployed capacity based on the number of your CP4I VPCs. Just as with the devices, where I can’t use the same batteries in the game controller if I am also using it in a torch, you can’t use CP4I VPCs for more than one component at a time. Hence why it can be important to have spare batteries in a drawer, or to have extra CP4I entitlements to provide more flexible deployments to meet your business need.
What flexible licensing does allow you to do is to try out new components without risk. Because in Cloud Pak for Integration there are multiple different integration components all accessible under the same entitlement, it gives you more choice. In the same way that you rely on your home devices using a predictable set of batteries. You know you will easily be able to plug in and go. That’s giving you power to the Pak.
