As of the end of September 2013 IBM® will no longer offer support on WebSphere® Application Server 6.1. This means that you have two options; lose extended support on your WebSphere Application Server or migrate to WAS v8.x.
With WAS v8.x you will experience a number of upgrades along with additions to the application. You won’t just get an updated version of the application, you will also keep your costs down by avoiding support extensions and running your applications on an unsupported environment.
Not only does WAS 8.x have significant performance, productivity and security features, but it also allows you to take advantage of the additional 7 years of development and resulting capabilities driven into WAS since v6.1 was released. In addition, WAS v8.x allows you to take advantage of virtualization, web, mobile and cloud capabilities.
WAS v8.x has the highest performing foundation (Application Server) for dynamic, interconnected business processes and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA). You will also have the ability to manage large topologies asynchronously to standalone app servers or entire cells (WAS ND Job Manager and new WAS ND Liberty Collective Cluster Controller in v8.5.5).
There is not defined path that fits all migrations. Your decision to migrate should be based on three factors. One being that the versions involved in the customer migration scenario, moving from v6.1 to v8.5 would be different than v6.1 to v7.0. Two, the amount of change introduced in and between these versions. Moving from WAS v6.1 to v8.5 involves changes introduced by v7.0, v8.0 and v.8.5. And lastly, dependencies on third-party frameworks and libraries. Some frameworks/libraries are JRE-specific or unsupported on newer JREs, some libraries are now IN the JRE and can cause class collisions (Axis2/JAX-WS).
The best part about all of this is that TxMQ can help with your migration. TxMQ has experience with migrations (AIX, Linux, Windows, zOS), with systems evaluations and HealthChecks available too.
If you aren’t ready to switch just yet TxMQ can help with that too. We offer a remote support solution with ticketed handling of out of support WAS v6.1 issues by certified WAS technical Experts. This includes issue analysis, diagnosis, resolutions communication, infrastructure support and supplements internal teams with proactive maintenance services, consulting, training and problem resolution.
For more information please contact Miles Roty miles@txmq.com.
Tag: WebSphere Migration
New WebSphere products take center stage
Seems like there is always something cooking with IBM. Fall 2010 has been no different. I just attended a webinar regarding what’s new with their WebSphere Application Infrastructure products. Here’s what they discussed…
WebSphere Application Migration Toolkit Version 2.0
The new Toolkit Version 2.0 was released at the end of September. It was developed to help migrate from previous versions of WebSphere to WebSphere Version 7.
That means anyone with WAS V5.1, V6.0 and V6.1 can easily upgrade to V7 because the program automatically scans applications and identifies the changes required. It removes the barrier that prevents migration to new versions in one simple scan.
The best part? The product is risk-free. It’s a totally free program that you can download from the web and the support on the program is free.
Download it for free now. Try it out and see if it works for you.
WebSphere Application Server V7 Feature Pack for Modern Batch
WebSphere Batch is a technology modified for Java. This version was built for common batch architecture across enterprises. It allows you the ability to have consistent models across multiple platforms.
WebSphere Batch Value Proposition
- SOA alignment complements and leverages online application assets
- Application agility assists the development speed and power of Java
- Cost advantage lowers execution costs so you can focus on application and not time spent on middleware logics.
WebSphere Batch Technical Advantages
- Structured programming model
- Container managed checkpoint
- Time compression
- Multi-platform
WebSphere Batch provides Feature set options which allow you to begin with the Feature Pack and grow into the WebSphere Compute Grid. The Feature Pack includes the batch container, job scheduler and batch toolkit, while the WebSphere Compute Grid Product includes those three plus parallel job manager, enterprise connectors and advanced operations pack.
To find out more about the WebSphere Application Server V7 Feature Pack for Modern Batch click here.
WebSphere Application Server V8 Open Beta
Because the product is a Beta, IBM is looking for feedback on what’s delivered in the end, so they initiated this portion of the webinar with the following disclaimer:
“Product plans referenced in this document may change at any time at IBM’s sole discretion, and are not intended to be a commitment to future product or feature availability….”
Version 8 Beta is a follow-up from the Alpha 1H10 that was released in the summer of 2010. The Beta is a refresh of this product and was released in early October, 2010.
This version really addresses the market and enhanced productivity for developers and administrators. The goal of this version was to reduce the cots of ownership and increase business agility.
This was done in several ways:
1. Reducing Barriers to Adoption – allows administrators to configure the deployment environment so IT can use it faster.
2. Fit for Purpose Programming Models to Jumpstart Development – allows customers to choose program models that best suit their application needs.
3. Fit for Purpose Application Foundations & Tooling – focused on high performance, strength, scalability, security and more.
The advanced Beta themes included the broadest programming models and standards possible. It is meant to be fast, flexible and simplified with extensive deployment environments and utilize integrated joint solutions.
Download the WAS next open Beta here.
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