Containerization is everywhere these days, and technologists are scrambling to adopt it in their organizations. But what exactly is it? Is it actually beneficial, or just a fad? What's the best way to leverage it? And most importantly, how does it relate to HCL Accelerate?

OneDB 2.0 extends OneDB’s enterprise class database functionality to the cloud and now checks many of the boxes when selecting a database management system for use in Kubernetes managed cloud deployments. Let’s look at some of these capabilities. 

The phrase cloud native generally conjures images of containers, microservices and 'born on the cloud' 12-factor applications. Read the blog for more details.

HCL SoFy uses Helm technology to provide HCL products and APIs as cloud-ready building blocks. These catalog products and services are enabled for Kubernetes as docker images and helm charts

A could-native strategy allows an organization to realize business benefits through the use of public, private and hybrid cloud resources. Cloud resources can be used in different ways to achieve varying business objectives, including: reducing infrastructure costs, achieving faster application updates, and meeting data location requirements. Learn more about HCL Software's approach.

It is amazing to be part of how Unica is evolving. Expanding on the June 2020 HCL Commerce and Google Cloud partnership, HCL has announced that it has expanded the Google Cloud relationship to HCL’s Unica and DX solutions. This relationship is more than merely a cool-sounding announcement between our companies. Unica’s Cloud Native platform capabilities can now be deployed to Google within minutes, with more exciting Google capabilities coming in our next Unica V12.1 update.   HCL Unica is now offered on Google Cloud and clients will have access to the wide-ranging solutions that are included in the Google Cloud Platform, whether running on-premise or cloud deployment supporting private, public or hybrid cloud with no change in application functionality. For HCL Unica customers, this means they can maintain the investments they have made in the robust and proven Unica solutions while also taking advantage of the global reach, security, and elasticity of Google Cloud. Unica customers will gain insights into how customers are engaging and continue to encounter agile campaign and marketing execution combined with Google Cloud’s market-leading tools out of the box.   Insight Behind the Login  Together, Google Cloud and HCL provide robust, enterprise-grade solutions to global clients that are the heart of HCL customer experience solutions that include HCL Unica, HCL Commerce, and HCL Digital Experience. The power of these solutions comes together at the intersection of data, process, and applications behind the login – that is where the magic happens.  This joint program with HCL Software and Google Cloud brings a wealth of capabilities that HCL Unica customers can take advantage of for prescriptive solutions powered by Google cloud innovation, starting with our support to run a Kubernetes deployment in GCP for clients that seek cloud deployments. With the release of Unica 12.1, an Integrated Cloud-Native Marketing Platform, combined with Google Cloud Platform, provides cloud-native enhancements and expanded open stack support. Through simple but important solutions like these, this combination makes a real difference, and the business benefits increase significantly.   Beyond the obvious benefits that Google...

Why Unica Cloud-Native? We are in the midst of an information technology revolution driven by the cloud. The emergence of containers, with their fast startup, standardized application packaging, and isolation model, is further contributing to efficiency and agility. Along with the benefits of Docker like reducing hardware resource costs, ease-of-use, portability, scalability, and modularity of deployments, Kubernetes provides container-orchestration capabilities for automating application deployment (rollout and rollbacks), workload scaling, and high availability. Helm charts leverage Kubernetes packages to streamline the installation and management of applications deployed on Kubernetes. 1. Faster release pace  Unica Docker Images will be rolled out for each release and/or fix pack. Time to market has become the key differentiator between the most innovative organizations and their lagging competition. With this deployment approach, Unica can build and ship more value to its customers. With this deployment approach, it is very easy for customers to consume new releases. 2. Better CX HCL Unica will ship Docker Images with new features faster and keep iterating continuously. An extensive set of APIs in the Unica Products would enable integrations with enterprise data stores. Overall, Cloud-native applications allow you to improve your customer experiences. 3. Ease of Application management Cloud-native also has many options to make infrastructure management effortless. With helm charts, application management, monitoring, deployments will be easy, automated, and configuration driven. 4. Reduced cost through containerization Containers make it easy to manage and secure applications independently of the infrastructure that supports them. The industry is now consolidating around Kubernetes for the management of these containers at scale. Alongside Kubernetes, there’s a host of powerful cloud-native tools and standardization of infrastructure and tooling. This, along with open-source technologies, drives down costs. Pricing flexibility models are all enabled with a cloud-native deployment approach. 5. Building Reliable systems With modern cloud-native approaches...

Developers are becoming increasingly used to hearing the names Kubernetes and Docker in conjunction with one another. They’re both technologies associated with containers (packages of software that include all of the parts required to run an app, like the code and system libraries), but a common misconception is that they’re competing solutions. Developers might be familiar with “Kubernetes vs. Docker” discussions when, in fact, using Kubernetes with Docker is an excellent method of running containerized applications. But to understand what that means, we first have to look at what each platform does separately.  What Does Docker do?  Docker is currently the most popular container platform. In this context, containers are the solution to a classic developer dilemma: Often developers will write code that works perfectly well on their own machine, but fails when they try to implement it into the program it needs to live in. Containers are the solution to this dilemma — developers can package their code into one cohesive container image, which can then be run on any computer that also hosts a container platform.   30% of enterprise companies use Docker, and that number is steadily rising. If a developer can benefit from containerization, chances are they’ll look to Docker for their solution.  So, What Does Kubernetes Do, and How are They Related?  Now that you have a grasp on what Docker does and why it’s an important tool to be aware of, the first thing that’s important to understand about the Docker/Kubernetes relationship is that the two technologies serve fundamentally different purposes. As the Container Journal nicely put it, “Kubernetes takes containerization technology ... and turns it up to 11.”   Kubernetes arrived as a solution to the next conundrum that comes with containerization: Now that the containers exist, how can they be organized? If Docker is in charge of packaging and distributing an application, Kubernetes is in charge of scaling and monitoring those...

Great things come with Unica V12! We recently published a series on The 12 Things We Love About Unica V12.0, which focuses on the aspects unfolding from being a place for centralized offer management to the capabilities of turning cloud-native for deployments. It has demonstrated how Unica is easier to install, scale on-demand, faster to upgrade, and has received so much interest. #UNICAisDockerized  Docker is currently one of the most popular containerization technologies and an industry buzz. At HCL, we understand our customers’ need for greater usability, flexibility, and a high level of stability. We strive to provide all of this and more with the latest technology.  As Docker becomes more popular along with the availability of tools like Kubernetes and Helm, it has become a boon for IT professionals who have the requisite expertise. This not only includes pre-built Docker images but also leverages the orchestrating capability of Kubernetes and Helm. It is never a repeated day at HCL Software for any of our recently acquired products, including the full Unica Suite. With v12.1 release, Unica has dockerized all of its products, and Docker Images can now be deployed on Kubernetes using Helm charts. Dockerized Unica Products have many advantages ranging from easy installation to cloud readiness. What Problems Does Docker Solve for the CMO, CTO, the Marketing Leadership, and the User? For the Leadership (CMO, CTO, other C levels), the most significant problem is that of software currency and reliability. Software version stagnation is a known problem occurring in the Martech space. This is a situation, where whatever initial version of Martech software is installed, is rarely upgraded. The company faces challenges in experiencing great new features such as the goal-based marketing in Journey or the drag and drop features that come along with the new features and...