Want to build great software? You’re going to need backing services to make them work properly. Databases, storage, and data processing services are all foundational elements of modern software development.
You now have an easier way to add backing services to your applications running on Pivotal Cloud Foundry: the Amazon Web Services (AWS) Open Service Broker for PCF is now an open beta!
The AWS Service Broker for PCF allows native AWS services to be exposed directly through Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF). It allows AWS services to be readily available directly within the application platform.
Want to add a relational database to your app? Easily bind to an instance of Amazon Relational Database Service (Amazon RDS) for MySQL or Amazon RDS for PostgreSQL. Or perhaps your use case is more suitable for NoSQL – use DynamoDB instead. Want to experiment with voice interfaces? Lex answers the call. You have 18 AWS services to choose from!
AWS Service Broker for PCF complies with the Open Service Broker API standard (more on this later). The broker was built by AWS engineers, and it is supported and maintained by the AWS team.
“We Want More Ways to Call AWS Services from Pivotal Cloud Foundry”
Pivotal and AWS have many common customers. They encouraged us to work more closely together. We rekindled the relationship with a Quick Start for automated deployment of PCF on AWS a few months back.
Deploy Pivotal Cloud Foundry (PCF) automatically on AWS using our new Quick Start! https://t.co/2p3FpmgEvf pic.twitter.com/Pf9TonPNXt
— Amazon Web Services (@awscloud) November 3, 2017
Now, with the AWS Service Broker for PCF, our joint customers have an easy way to add more AWS services to their cloud-native apps running on Pivotal Cloud Foundry. (Of course, you don’t need to be running on AWS to use the broker. You can add AWS services to your apps running anywhere, even on-premises. Of course, if your PCF foundation is hosted on AWS, you’ll have reduced latency. Chargeback and showback are easier too.)
Pivotal and Amazon Web Services are fortunate to have a wide range of customers willing to test out new features before they launch. So, what have our customers told us about the new AWS Service Broker for PCF?
“We’re excited to see how the AWS Service Broker for PCF enables us to take the next step by allowing us to easily add AWS services to our custom software running on PCF," said John Heveran, Chief Digital Enablement Officer, Liberty Mutual.
Learn more about Liberty Mutual’s cloud-native journey.
And expect more good things from the Pivotal-AWS relationship. Why? Sandy Carter explains:
“Enterprise customers are looking to Pivotal and Amazon Web Services for hybrid cloud options. The combination of Pivotal Cloud Foundry and the AWS Service Broker gives customers the best of both worlds – a modern application platform and easy access to a rich portfolio of AWS services. We’re excited to further our commitment to helping our shared customers on their cloud journey.” – Sandy Carter, Vice President, AWS Windows & Enterprise Workloads (VMware Cloud on AWS, SAP, IBM), Amazon Web Services, Inc.
For our part at Pivotal, we’re excited about this too:
“Our joint customers rely on Pivotal and AWS to become modern enterprises that rapidly and continuously deliver software to keep up with the demands of an ever-changing market,” said Nick Cayou, VP of Global Ecosystem at Pivotal. “The AWS Service Broker allows our customers' developers to take advantage of a broad catalog of AWS services that can be programmatically deployed, giving them speed, flexibility, and consistency—whether on and off prem.”
Learn more about Pivotal and AWS.
Some of the key features this new broker delivers are:
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Service plans that build in best practices for high availability, encryption and data retention
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Plans catered for production and development scenarios, as well as custom plans that let you tweak all the knobs
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Using CloudFormation templates, you can provide your own custom catalog, or customize the default one
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You can provision into different AWS accounts based on the Cloud Foundry org/space that is calling the broker.
A Look at the 18 Services in the AWS Service Broker for PCF
To become a modern, software-driven organization, you need more than elastic compute, storage, and networking. You need a modern platform like Pivotal Cloud Foundry. And you need backing services to store and process data. You need a range of database services to suite a variety of use cases. Of course, you need object storage. Image and video analysis? Yes please.
Enter the AWS Service Broker for PCF. The broker includes many of the most popular AWS services for cloud-native workloads:
Each of these services can be added to your apps on Pivotal Cloud Foundry. You just need to type a few simple commands, and you’re up and running!
The AWS Service Broker for PCF is OSBAPI Compliant. Here’s Why That Matters.
The Open Service Broker API is widely used in the Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes community. Here’s why the OSBAPI is so useful.
It’s Simple & Structured
Each service broker built to the Open Service Broker API specification has the same intuitive set of lifecycle commands. These commands do useful things such as:
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Fetching the catalog of backing services that a service broker offers
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Provisioning new service instances
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Connecting and disconnecting applications from those service instances
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Deprovisioning service instances
These commands are the same for service brokers compliant with the OSBAPI specification. If you’ve ever used any OSBAPI-compliant broker, you already know how to use the AWS Service Broker for PCF.
Use It to Connect Anything
Scores of service brokers are available. They are used in production by hundreds of enterprises. From service discovery to relational databases to messaging queues, there’s likely a service broker for your use case. The project aims to empower developers via self-service, and sunset the tedious, ticketing-based processes that plague enterprises today.
The AWS Service Broker for PCF includes 18 of the most popular AWS services. You’re going to find ways to use it on your next project!
It’s Secure By Default
Service brokers offer many security features that are critical for modern enterprises, including generating unique credentials for every connection. These credentials can be rotated or revoked independently.
Want to learn more about the Open Service Broker API? Check out this handy whitepaper:
[whitepaper] An Inside Look at the Open Service Broker API: Easily Deliver Services to Cloud Foundry and Kubernetes –> OSBAPI project co-chair @1mattmc explains the basic anatomy of a Service Broker and much more.https://t.co/zYqdWcZZTY
— Pivotal Cloud Foundry (@pivotalcf) July 11, 2018
See You at SpringOne Platform!
The AWS Service Broker for PCF is available here and AWS will be hosting a workshop at SpringOne Platform next week where you can see it in action. If you’re attending SpringOne Platform, be sure to register for the workshop as well. See you there!
