PaaS interesting comparison

Recently I saw a ppt about Paas comparison.It compares and contrasts leading PaaSes on multiple dimensions and feature sets to see where CF leads and lags.

Here we choose the six popular Paas to compare.

a.Microsoft’s Azure
b.Google App Engine (GAE), GAE4Business
c.Amazon AWS+, i.e, EC2, Beanstalk, + services
d.Heroku from SalesForce.com
e.OpenShift OSS PaaS from RedHat
f.CloudFoundry OSS PaaS

We will choose eight areas for comparison.
(1) workloads
(2) tooling
(3) integration services
(4) SLAs
(5) datastores
(6) programming models
(7) management
(8) miscellaneous

Prepare the local development environment for BlueMix

If you want to prepare local development env for BlueMix,the below things you must need to know.

1.Download node.js from http://www.nodejs.org/download

2.Install Nodeclipse CLI and Express

3.Install the client: Enide Studio 2014

It is enough for Node.js, JavaScript and Java development
Install in RSA4WS 9.0.0.1 using update site:

4.Install Git

5.Clone a Git repository in Enide Studio /RSA
a)Browse to your project page on DevOps Services.
b)Copy the Git URL from the right side of your project page.

As example – the git repository from Rainer
https://hub.jazz.net/git/rhocheck/MemoryMatters

My git repository  (forked from Rainers)
https://hub.jazz.net/git/blackwhites/MemoryMattersKF
6)Connecting to your DevOps Services Project with EGit
In Eclipse, select File > Import.
In the Import window, select Git > Projects from Git and click Next.
Select Clone URI and click Next.
Paste the copied Git URL in the URI field.
Enter your Jazz.net User ID and IBM ID password in the Authentication section.
Click Next.
Select the branches that you want to work on and click Next.
Update the Local Destination of the cloned repository if needed and click Next.
Click Next and then Finish.
Notes:
you can  use “connect” to more git repositories

Heroku VS BlueMix

Heroku is a cloud platform as a service (PaaS) supporting several programming languages. Heroku was acquired by Salesforce.com in 2010.It is one of the first cloud platforms, has been in development since June 2007, when it supported only the Ruby programming language, but has since added support forJava, Node.js, Scala, Clojure, Python and PHP and (undocumented) Perl. The base operating system is Debian or, in the newest stack, the Debian-basedUbuntu.

Today I will compare Heroku and BlueMix these two PAAS features.I list some comparison results below just for your reference.

1 Command line tool
They use different command line

Bluemix: Cloud Foundry command line: cf
e.g.  $ cf login
        $ cf push
        $ cf apps
   
Heroku: Heroku toolbelt (CLI tool for creating and managing Heroku apps)
   e.g.  $ heroku login
         $ heroku create
         $ heroku logs
2.Application deployment

Bluemix: by Cloud Foundry command line: cf push

Heroku: by git push. Better git integration

3.Application check

BlueMix N/A
Heroku: Run Production Check
run a series of tests on your app recommended for maintaining and monitoring availability. Each check includes useful links to related resources.

4.UI responsiveness

BlueMix Support mobile,PAD see below screenshot
Heroku  Not well support

5.Build in Service

BlueMix Support about 50 etc
Heroku  more then 100 services provided

6.third-party-buildpacks

BlueMix less
Heroku  third-party buildpacks available for use with your Heroku apps. These buildpacks enable you to use languages and frameworks beyond those officially supported by Heroku.

You can see some detail feature comparison result from below screen.

BlueMix workshop collection

If you are a bluemix newbie,I think the following provided workshop are best for you to learn BlueMix.I coolect some from internet,you can download and learn it by yourself.

Build Android Application using Mobile Cloud Boiler Plate
Building a PHP Application with a Buildpack on BlueMix 
Lab A - Build an Application on BlueMix
Lab B - Node.js Apps with JazzHub and BlueMix
Lab C - Build a Twitter Influencer Application in BlueMix
Lab D - Create your first Mobile app with MBaaS using BlueMix
Lab E - mapreduce
Creating Internet of Things apps using BlueMix
 Introduction to IBM DevOps Services on Bluemix

Waston and BlueMix

Watson, IBM’s artificial intelligence computing platform, is changing the way we compute. From its roots as a robotic contestant on Jeopardy, the machine-learning marvel is now being positioned as a tool for doctors, business people, and scientists worldwide--one that can answer any question posed to it in natural English.

Watson represents the first wave of a new era of computing in which cognitive systems think, improve by learning and turn massive amounts of data into insights to help businesses make better decisions.

What I learn Waston is serveral year ago ,IBM's Watson supercomputer destroys all humans in Jeopardy.You can see the cool video about that competition.

IBM Watson Engagement Advisor is a solution to transform the way people and organizations interact over the lifetime of their relationships

So what can I do waston on BlueMix?

There is an article about the Waston bluemix solution on the developerworks.

http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/cloud/library/cl-watson-films-bluemix-app/index.html

You can see the demo on the youtube here.

Advanced Features for the Applications in Bluemix

Today I listen to a session about "Advanced Features for the Applications in Bluemix" from product team,some new features are added on the BlueMix.I will share some new features here.

RMU(Runtime Management Utility )
The below scenario I think most developer will meet on BlueMix.
As the application operator,  I hope to generate dump files for running application in bluemix.
As the application operator, I hope to update the logger level dynamically to the running application in bluemix.

The RMU will provide the above feature to easy for you to debug the issue on the BlueMix.Let us see how it work.

a)Suppose you use  "Liberty for Java" to create a Java application.When you click the Liberty for java,you can see the instance details.

b)You can choose "trace" or "dump" feature.

c.You can set the log level for the trace.

d0Also you can create dump file and download it.

Auto Scaling 

Auto-Scaling, as indicated by the name, helps you to manage your application capacity automatically on target environment.You can see below artichure,

Metrics

CPU

Memory

Heap memory

Policy

Trigger (Threshold, statistic window)

minimum instance number

maxmum instance number

Scaling adjustment

Scaling adjustment type(percentage or number)

Let;s see how it work on the BlueMix.

You can bind this add-on to your application.

2.Click the DashBoard on the BlueMix.You can see which application used sceal add on.

3.Click the edit button,you can change the default policy for this application.You can define the rules to increase the instance based on the real needs.

4.You can also check the metric like CPU,memory used for this application.It will better help you to make the decision for the auto-scale.