OpenShift, the Java EE cloud platform that every Java EE developer will love. #openshift #redhat #wildfly

I can remember this constant argument of many developers advocating other platforms in the past.

Yes you may use Java which is generally ok, but even if you develop an app using your frameworks, nobody is offering hosting for your application servers, there are simply not a lot JVMs in the cloud that you could easily code something and show off.

I think I am not the only Java developer in the world who has rented a linux box from a data center far away, spent hours and hours trying to patch it update it, then install his/her java environment then fire up the server and finally try some code etc. It did not work for me. I just wanted to write code and use the technologies I know best, I don't want to become an expert on configuring machines based on the specific setup of an internet provider or a cloud platform.

Then we have tried some early cloud offerings, but there were not so flexible enough. You could either get a servlet container and that's it. If you wanted something extra, a library, a framework, either you could not eventually set it up or it was prohibited or there was not enough access and flexibility.

Then I tried google app engine, which is not bad, as long as you code using the libraries and technologies the app engine supports. There is some sort of flexibility but, what I really wanted is to make use of the new JavaEE stuff I read everyday, make use of my JPA / EJB / CDI skills, test new JSF libraries and experiment with them. Code and show something.

After some time, while lots of people are already deploying and coding, I have finally spent some time reading about openshift (RedHat's cloud service). It took me 5 minutes to start a gear with the latest Jboss Application Server (Wildfly) yaaaay, following the latest JavaEE 7 spec, bundled with most of the libraries I use everyday.

For a Java EE developer Openshift feels like the cloud home we have been waiting for many many years. The extra cool thing about it, is that I am not forced to use any specific tools in order to push my code to their cloud. Git/ Maven and Java API(s), eventually what almost everybody uses everyday at work.

I think it tool me more time to write this small post, comparing to firing up my 'simple_ rest service'.

Well done RedHat/JBoss!

More experiments to come I guess.