Enterprise Java & WebLogic Roadmap 2019Report from Oracle OpenWorld 2019Michel Schildmeijer

RoadmapAn important part of the conference for me is the product roadmaps. Because Oracle is aiming for the cloud, there are less road-maps. However, for the WebLogic Oracle Product, Director Will Lyons told us what the plans are.

There are 3 key components to consider in Oracle’s strategy:

- Oracle WebLogic: Oracle’s Strategic platform for Java Applications

- Oracle Coherence: In memory Data Grid- Helidon: Technology for “micro servi-

cing” Java Applications- Furthermore, Oracle will continue to

support Cloud Native container techno-logies:

• Kubernetes• Docker• Cri-O and Kata Containers

WebLogicOracle’s Strategic platform for applications will still be WebLogic. However, there will be some transformations of how WebLogic is going to be positioned. WebLogic will be the Java EE /Jakarta EE application server, plus the core platform for Oracle’s Fusion Middleware platform, and it will also be the platform for the cloud for PaaS and SaaS applications. The current version of WebLogic, 12.2.1.3, supports Java EE 7 and JDK 8. The final 12 release, 12.2.1.4, will come out in Q3 this year, which will be a maintenance release. The next version will be version 14.1.1. It will support:

Support for versionsThe scheme below is an extract from Oracle’s Roadmap for versions and their support, which will give you a good overview on when premier or extended support will ex-pire. Note that even the old 10.3.6. version will have ex-tended support until 2022, unless you use JDK 7:

WebLogic technical bitsWebLogic as a platform can be divided in several subsections:- Development: It will continue to support Java, including the developing tools, such as Eclipse, JDeveloper, Maven- Manageability:

• Rolling Upgrade, Zero Downtime Patching, • Stretched Cluster Support, • Auto Scaling,• Cloud Automation with REST

Hybrid and traditional AppDev PlatformIn the hybrid Platform model, a merge between the tra-ditional and the Cloud approach will come together. Java applications and other technologies can migrate to micro-services. GraalVM is a new Oracle JVN based on an open source initiative. It also supports languages in its JVM, such as NodeJS, Ruby. In the management layer, you’ll find well known tools such as Logstash and Kibana, Promet-heus and Grafana, and so forth. All will land on a cloud native platform using container and orchestration techno-logies. They can all run in private, public or hybrid cloud.

Modern DevOps for Enterprise Java PlatformThis model uses the platform together with DevOps Methods and other technologies. It uses the common languages that are popular nowadays, including tools to support continuous and automation, and helps to realize a DevOps work methodology.

Oracle’s Enterprise Java StrategyFor Enterprise Java, Oracle will follow the Industry trends as they appear in the world of technology, such as microservices, serverless, private and public clouds, containers, and orchestration frameworks. WebLogic and its Data-Grid Coherence can be used to leverage a cloud neutral infrastructure, but it’s still in an evolving phase.

To do this, and also be the traditional platform for customers, Oracle will deliver two paths:

Transform traditional applicationsOracle is aiming for a container and microservices stra-tegy for a traditional application landscape. Containe-rization can be established using container technology such as Docker. Because of some serious security issues with Docker in the past, Oracle now also supports other technology: Cri-o / Kata containers. They started as Clear containers, but are now called Kata. They’re a light weight container with its own kernel, unlike Docker, where you share the kernel. Cri-o can also be managed by Kubernetes, which is the standard platform for container orchestration.

Next version K8S operatorRecently released is the WebLogic K8S operator version 2.3, and the WebLogic Deploy Tooling (WDT) with the fol-lowing characteristics:- Domain model: WebLogic domain on persistent vo-

lume (NFS, other)- Domain model: WebLogic domain in a Docker image.- Kubernetes Override configuration.- WebLogic domains as a Kubernetes resource (by using

a Kubernetes custom resource definition).- Regulate declarative startup parameters and desired

states.- Manage WebLogic dynamic clusters.- Expose the WebLogic Server Admin Console outside

the Kubernetes cluster.- Expose T3 channels.- Expose HTTP paths on a WebLogic domain outside

the Kubernetes using load balancing.- Scale WebLogic domains by starting and stopping

Managed Servers on demand, or by integrating with a REST API to initiate scaling based on WLDF, Promet-heus, Grafana, or other rules.

- Publish operator and WebLogic Server logs into Elas-ticsearch

WebLogic Server on Microsoft Azure IaaSNow, WebLogic on Azure is part of a bigger plan to lever-age Oracle Platforms on Azure IaaS, such as:- Oracle Linux- Oracle Database- Oracle WebLogic- Java- Oracle Apps

WebLogic version 12.2.1.3 will be supported on Azure somewhere in October 2019, with dynamic clustering and all the usual options from WebLogic.

The Azure offering will consist:- A WebLogic Adminserver-only domain- A multinode WebLogic cluster with the AdminServer

on 1 VM and cluster members on other VMs- A multinode WebLogic cluster with an Azure LoadBa-

lancer automatically configured for the cluster- A multinode WebLogic dynamic cluster with the

AdminServer on one VM and managed servers in a Dynamic cluster on the other nodes

- All the templates on Azure will be supplied and main-tained by Oracle

WebLogic on Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) is also sup-ported. The installation processes are the same as with Oracle’s Kubernetes Engine (OKE).

Fusion Middleware Products on KubernetesIn addition, other Fusion Middleware products will be sup-ported on Kubernetes. Oracle is porting all these products, even the SOA Cloud service, to be run on Kubernetes.Technically, this is already possible, but support will be-come available:- Oracle ADF (FMW Infrastructure) is already supported- SOA Developer is already supported, and production

support in CY2019- IDM Production support in CY2019- Access, Directory support in H1 CY2020- WebCenter Sites, Portal, Content planned for H12020

Oracle WebLogic 14.1.1Oracle announced the WebLogic 14 beta program in Sep-tember. Candidate form: https://pdpm.oracle.comIt’s still in an early beta phase, but these characteristics already apply:Java EE 8, Jakarta EE 8 Support. Jakarta EE is the Open Source edition and it’s really amazing. WebLogic will sup-port the following open standards:- JDK 8 and 11 Support- Compatible with prior versions- Available on premises and cloud- FMW Support in CY2020

There will soon be more!

Java EE path to microservicesOracle provides technology to migrate your Java applica-tions to microservices with Helidon, a set of libraries for writing microservices, which implements the latest micro-profile standards. It comes with:- JPA and JTA support- gRPC support- UCP support- GraalVM support- Other API’s such as JAX RS, CDI and JSON

Helidon can work with GraalVM. Together with Helidon, Oracle provides a native image for this Open JVM to pro-vide a platform for your Java microservices.Other technologies that work together with Helidon are:- Kubernetes- Docker- Jersey- OpenAPI- OpenTracing- Prometheus and Grafana- Jaeger- Zipkin

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Conclusions

Overall, you can see that Oracle is moving more and more to what is to be called an Open Cloud native platform, because of the adoption of containers, orchestration, Jakarta EE, and the support on WebLogic, GraalVM and Helidon, and many more. The last couple of years, I saw a lot of people who were into Oracle technology step away. From my honest and independent standpoint, I can tell them: Oracle is on the right path. The partnerships with Microsoft and VMWare make the platform even more powerful. And I didn’t even mention the autonomous buzzword