Run Figaf IRT in your own Cloud

/0 Comments/in , , /by

We have added the Figaf Cloud. as a way to allow users to run our tool to manage the SAP CPI and API management. It is a great way to scale and deploy your application.

We have it hosted in Google Cloud Platform in a Kubernetes cluster. It i pretty easy to do in GCP and it allow scaling of the application pretty easy. It did take some time to understand how to build the app and secure the application.

For customers, it is a really good way to get started using Figaf IRT because they don’t even need to install anything. And all their partners can get access to the network and run applications. So a customer can run all the application to perform DevOps on the SAP CPI and API management systems. The DevOps include

  • Monitoring and alerting
  • Change Tracking or Versioning, so you can link business requirement with a change
  • Documentation
  • Testing
  • Transport of CPI/API flows

With all the focus on data protection, it may prove to be difficult to control all your data that exists in the Figaf IRT solution. You want to have control of where it is located.

We have an ompremish installation of the Figaf IRT tool and it contains the same features as the cloud, though there can be a bit of delay with it because of the release cycles of the applications. One problem that we often hear is so where should we install the IRT application. It can sometime be deficult to find a database and a Virtual server where the Java application can run.

Cloud

For some customers it is much easier to go buy/start a server in the cloud from GCP, AWS or Azure. You can have a direct connection from the cloud enviorment to your on-premish system and thereby get access. The integration department can then get the server self and run it there.

Our installation is pretty simple you can basicly just start the application with the click of a button. It does require a bit more effort if you want to run it with specific databases and setup SSL. It take 30 minutes to install IRT if you have installed the database. The good thing about the cloud enviorments is they all have the PostgreSQL server that we use as a managed. It will then eliminate some of the Normal DB operations that you are doing and just handle it with a few click in the web configuration.

It will also be possible to provide upgrades fairly simple. We have made a docker image that you can use.

We have added a Docker image to DockerHub, so you can run IRT pretty simple to get started with using it. You will need to make a few configurations to get it running. We have a guide on running it on Azure with the hosted database.

The container for running IRT on a Docker image in one of the places starts at 200 USD a month, depending on how you want to scale and have it to perform.

Try it

You can also try Figaf IRT out on your own laptop fast.

Download Figaf IRT

SAP CPI course

/2 Comments/in , , , /by

Over the time I have gotten a lot of request for a SAP Cloud Platform Integration / Hana Cloud Integration (SAP CPI/HCI) course. I have always wanted to help solve clients needs but did not have the experience of creating integrations in SAP CPI self. It is first the last half year that I have really been involved in projects and I have learned a lot about how to create integrations. I did struggle a lot of times to understand how I should build my integrations the best way, and what it really is about.

I am happy to announce that I have put a lot of effort and energy in developing a brand new CPI course, which I am sure will be very valuable for you.

My goal

My goal has been to make a course that takes you thru the process of designing iflows without having to do as much research as I had to go thru to understand the basics of
building good integration. In the course, I’ll not go into details about all elements because it is a lot easier to find it directly in the manual.

Why take the SAP CPI Course?

Learning SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI aka HCI) can be pretty difficult. I was struggling when creating my first projects with on CPI. It was pretty easy to get started. In the design part, I ran into multiple problems, that I did not understand how to solve. It was all of the challenges the course will cover.

Why Cloud Integration?

Customers are moving to the cloud and also want easy to use the tool in the cloud All the competitors have a cloud product and if SAP customers are moving away from SAP
it is not a good thing. SAP needs to make it easier to integrate all their application, so customers will buy the full intelligent enterprise from SAP and not mix it. Cheap to get started with (Compared to SAP PI)

Modules in the course

In the CPI course I will take you through the following modules:

  • Getting started
  • Building
  • Communication
  • Advanced
  • (Bonus)

All the modules of the CPI course are not yet published. But they will be in a short
while. I also plan to do a Question and Answer-session.

Prize

The prize for the full course will be 147 euro, but if you buy no later than February 15., 2019 you will get a 50 euro discount, so your prize will be only 97 euro.

Do you want to learn more about the SAP CPI course?

If you have any comments or questions regarding the CPI course do not hesitate to contact me.

GET STARTED WITH SAP CPI COUSE

How to monitor SAP CPI using Figaf IRT

/1 Comment/in , , , /by

So, how can Figafs Integration Regression Tool help you to optimize your workflow while working on the CPI? You can do a lot of error handling in your flows. It does sometimes mean you will have to spend more time setting up correct error handling in each flow. We want to make it faster for you to develop and deliver your integrations.

In the standard CPI monitoring it is pretty fast to find errors, but if you want to find the iflows you have where there are extra attachments on it becomes more complex. You will have to use the OData interface self.

In Figaf IRT has many cool functions that will make your work a lot easier. IRT allows you to support and monitor all your different systems in one place. If you, for example, have many different kinds of errors in your system, it can be a big challenge to handle all of them, but with IRT you can set up rules, based on criteria of your choice.

A rule is defined with Xpath making it easy to figure out how to set it up with the information. Then you can send data to Jira, Slack or as an Email, then the correct persons can be informed about the error. You also have labels to identify what the error is related to and how critical it is.

In this video  I explain much more about how to monitor SAP CPI using Figaf IRT:

So, you want to try Figaf IRT? It is really easy to get started.

Try IRT FREE

You also have the option to subscribe to our coming Cloud solution for CPI.

Casestory: Using Figaf IRT before testing SAP PI/PO upgrade

/0 Comments/in , , , , /by

Almost a year ago I had the great pleasure of having Mark Oshifeso on the sixth episode of the Integration Podcast. Mark was one of the first users of the  Integration Regression Tool for SAP PI/PO. Mark works for a mid-size oil and gas producer based in Texas, and he and his team found out, that using Figaf IRT made it a lot easier to do upgrades of the SAP PI/PO system. I haven´t had the resources to go deeper into the interview before now, but I do think it is interesting because Mark Oshifeso has some great insights from a customer point of view.

The episode was called How to automate SAP PI/PO testing with Mark Oshifeso from Anadarko Petroleum.

Stock image

You don´t need to be a scientist

By using Figafs IRT-tool Mark Oshifeso was able to test much faster.

“The tool is crazy easy to use. It is another generation from the usually SAP-tools, you list your Iflows, you mark those ones, you press record, and it is basically listening to messages in for example production. Once you have done that, you can run your test cases” Mark says and continue:

“The IRT tool helped us run a test circle with almost no human interaction, and we are now in the situation that we upgraded our production based on the automated testing, and we are hoping now to move from a 2-3 years cycle to a 6-month circle.”

Our ambition at Figaf is to create and keep on developing on the tool, so it is easy to use even in companies with many interfaces. Mark Oshifeso agrees that the tool gives a great overview in the process of the testing:

“It is easy to use, you don´t need to be a scientist, and this is really why we were able to introduce the tooling into our landscape of 300 interfaces. Some companies have more than 20.000 interfaces,
and if you have a large number of interfaces you need to have an easy tool. The tool helped us automate the test. The tool is really intuitive.”

“With IRT tool there is a very fast learning curve, and if another person takes over, you have people quickly getting familiar with this tool. There is no science, which is also why we choose it.”

There is no waiting anymore

What we want at Figaf is to give people a chance to optimize their workflow by using automated testing. And fortunately Mark Oshifeso thinks, that we have achieved this:

“The tool it selves is very speedy to use. There is no waiting anymore. The tool is really great to help facilitate, save money and especially save so many hours. The figaf tool is the most holistic approach, and easy to get everything set up, I don´t see anyone else so far on the market”, he says and finishes:

“I can really recommend this tool, if you want to go to automated testing, this is one of the tools
I would really look into.”

Here you can find the podcast: How to automate SAP PI/PO testing with Mark Oshifeso from Anadarko Petroleum.

As you can see Mark Oshifeso had great success using the tool. Since the interview we have made many improvements to the Integration Regression Tool, so I should be even more easy to use today.

Download IRT for now

 

 

Highlights from the Integration Podcast 2018

/0 Comments/in , , , /by

So, since I made the first episode of the Integration Podcast on February 4., 2018 I have published 29 episodes. There was one podcast that was skipped and delivered later. It has been a really interesting experience trying to understand how to do a podcast, interview people and learn about integration. I think the cool thing about creating the podcast has been the ability to ask really smart people about what they are working with and how they see the future of integration.

In this blog post, I will take a look back on the three episodes I like the most.

Episode 6: How to automate SAP PI/PO testing with Mark Oshifeso from Anadarko Petroleum

The first episode, I would like to mention is called How to automate SAP PI/PO testing with Mark Oshifeso from Anadarko Petroleum and was published February 28., 2018.

In this episode, I had Mark Oshifeso on the show. Mark was one of the first people to use Figaf´s
Integration Regression Tool for SAP PI/PO.

Mark wanted to make it a lot easier to do an upgrade of the SAP PI/PO system, and with the help of
Figaf IRT he was able to do so.

“It´s crazy easy to use”, Mark says.

Episode 24: SAP Integration and API

The second episode which I would like to highlight is called SAP Integration and API and was published Oktober 29., 2018. I did the episode at SAP Teched Barcelona and it was fun to sit down with Harsh.

In this episode, I talked with Harsh Jegadeesan, who is a product manager from SAP. He is responsible for quite a few of the integration as SAP and has a strong presence in SAP progress
to API.

We talked among other things about the following topics:

  • Using API as a way to remove the complexity of your landscape, as the bedsheet you use to throw over
    your bed to cover the mesh.
  • Why is the API different than the Enterprise SOA. One of the differences Harsh mentioned
    was that E-SOA was a waterfall approach whereas the API is a lot more agile. SAP is using
    the same API for UI so they will do a better job understanding them.

Episode 29: SAP Integration with Adam Kiwon

The last episode I would like to take a look at again is called SAP Integration with Adam Kiwon.

In this episode, I had a conversation with Adam Kiwon who is the part of WhitePaper InterfaceDesign. Adam and his team have created different CPI Adapters, content and products
for making SAP PI/PO better. The thing I liked about it was we got a really great conversion going about what was happening in SAP Integration.

In the podcast we talked among other things about the following topics:

  • Migration strategies when it makes sense. And we talk a little about upgrading single stack 7.31
    system and migration to single stack
  • Creating CPI adapters and how they did it
  • How to create CPI content as a partner and the CPI marketplace
  • How Adam sees the need for tools to improve CPI/PI where he has different interface
    monitoring systems
  • Why Adam had proposed to use the Figaf Seeburger tools for migrating to the B2B Add-on
    on a project
  • We talked about some of the training they where working on for the CPI

Highlights from the Figaf Blog 2018

So, I really hope you enjoyed the three podcasts, I had chosen to highlight. If so, you might also like to read this blog post: Highlights from the Figaf Blog 2018.