Blogging from 40,000 feet

Author: Bryon Kataoka, iSOA Group CTO and Thought Leader

Another Thursday and I’m jet setting across the US.  Another typical travel day: Up at 3:00am, driving in the fog, both physical and mental (at that time in the morning). Going through TSA-Pre, watching the crowds line up according to boarding number and herding their way into the Airbus.

Boy things have changed a lot during my years flying.  It sort of reminds me of Fixed Bid contracts.  Need a change… Pay some money.  Want a better seat… Pay some money.  Now at least there is better technology on the flights.  Oh and yes … want it?  Better pay some money.

As much change as we have experienced flying we have also seen great change in DataPower.  Let’s review DataPower Past, Present and Future.

I first was introduced to DataPower in January 2006 at the IBM Software University.  So readers may not be familiar with the Software University.  Over 10 years back IBM used to have all of its consultants and selected Business Partner come to Las Vegas to learn about IBM technology.  It was a wonderful way to learn about technology.  Its sort of similar to InterConnect and formerly Impact but it excluded customers.  It was just a bunch of technology nerds getting together to talk nerdy.

I became enamored with DataPower.  It seemed like the perfect product given where technology was at that time.  XML and XSL were key technologies and Web Services were the talk of the industry.  It was wonderful to see the security capabilities in DataPower (XML Encryption, Digital Signature and WS-Security).  Remember the colors of the appliances.  Green for the XA35, Yellow for the XS40 and Blue for the XI50.  It makes me laugh when I see resumes with references to XA35, XS40.   I don’t know if they actually worked on them with only 1 year experience but it makes me wonder.

Over the years how DataPower is presented and used has changed.  It started as security but with its routing and transformation capabilities it later was labeled a lightweight ESB.  I even did a presentation at Impact called “DataPower as an ESB”.

IBM has added various addition features during the early years such as the MQ Client and WTX.  Later they added various networking and service additions.  Application Optimization, On Demand Router, Link Aggregation, Web Sockets, OAuth, Web Token Services and the list goes on and on.  There is a saying “if its not broken don’t fix it” but I prefer to label DataPower is “if it not broken, innovate”.  And it’s the innovation that continues to make DataPower a key infrastructure component to many environments.

The future is now.  DataPower now supports virtual environments and even AWS.  It’s the key component in API Management.  Its bigger and faster and I’m sure there will be more additions.

I wonder what the next big feature will be.  Only time will tell.

Ok.  The Fasten Seat Belt sign is off and its time to go!

Bryon Kataoka is the iSOA Group, Inc. CTO sharing his experience as a technical leader for over  20 years.  In his role at iSOA Group, Inc. he is a thought leader as well as a consultant to many companies helping them be successful with their Middleware strategy and implementations.