Blogs

Kim Meynendonckx
Integration Consultant
September 29, 2026

Automating IBM Cloud Pak for Integration on CodeReady Containers with GitOps

This article details how to automate the setup of IBM Cloud Pak for Integration on local OpenShift using Red Hat CodeReady Containers and ArgoCD. By combining custom shell scripts with a GitOps App-of-Apps pattern, the framework replaces manual CLI installation with a repeatable, single-command deployment workflow. Developers and integration architects can fork the repository to easily provision production-inspired environments for testing, demos, and workshops.

GitOps
CP4I
5 min
Kim Meynendonckx
Integration Consultant
September 1, 2026

Connect Bob to Your Local OpenShift Cluster Using the kubernetes MCP server

This article explains how to connect the AI coding assistant Bob to a local OpenShift or CodeReady Containers (CRC) cluster using the Kubernetes Model Context Protocol (MCP) server. By leveraging the uvx package executor, Bob automatically utilizes your existing kubeconfig and active authentication context without requiring dedicated plugins or complex credentials. Once configured, developers can query their OpenShift environment, inspect custom resources, and troubleshoot failing pods using natural language.

OpenShift
IBM Bob
3 min read
Niki Heyligen
Integration Consultant
August 25, 2026

IBM Event Endpoint Management: Enhancing data quality with broker-side validation

This blog post addresses the risks of relying solely on client-side schema validation in event-driven Kafka architectures, where producers can easily bypass checks and publish corrupt data to downstream consumers. It highlights how IBM Event Endpoint Management (EEM) solves this issue by routing traffic through an event gateway to enforce broker-side schema validation before messages reach the topic. Through practical demo scenarios, the author demonstrates that broker-side enforcement successfully blocks non-compliant "rogue events" at the gateway level, guaranteeing data integrity across integration systems.

EDA
Confluent
EEM
4 min
Niki Heyligen
Integration Consultant
July 13, 2026

The strategic choices behind data connectivity

This article warns against choosing integration tools like Kafka based on tech hype rather than business needs [1]. It provides a translation framework—focusing on latency, durability, scalability, and system autonomy to align technical choices with business value [1]. By shifting conversations from product features to business trade-offs, organizations build simpler, cost-effective architectures tailored to their actual requirements [1].

4 min
Niki Heyligen
Integration Consultant
June 11, 2026

​​​IBM MQ Channel and Transmission Queue segregation for performance isolation​

This article explores how default, shared transmission queues (XMITQs) and channels in IBM MQ create performance bottlenecks due to head-of-line blocking. It details how a single high-volume or slow consumer can fill an XMITQ, causing ripple-effect delays across unrelated applications. Finally, it outlines design strategies for segregating channels and XMITQs based on functional criteria to ensure throughput isolation and maintain system stability.

IBM MQ
5 min
Matthias Blomme
Integration Specialist & IBM Champion
April 9, 2026

Containerizing IBM ACE: A Blog Series - Container Startup Optimization

This article explores techniques to optimize container startup performance for IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE) integration servers. It compares three distinct container setup strategies—a cold-start base image, a prebaked warm-start image, and an init container approach—to minimize heavy resource usage and boot times during runtime.

IBM ACE
6 min
Matthias Blomme
Integration Specialist & IBM Champion
April 8, 2026

Creating a generic log node using context trees

This article demonstrates how to build a dynamic, reusable logging subflow in IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE) using ESQL context trees and CONTEXTREFERENCE. It explains how navigating the context tree enables automatic extraction of runtime metadata—such as node names, execution paths, and payloads—without manually wiring data across flow nodes.

IBM ACE
6 min
Francis Cocx
Integration Consultant
March 17, 2026

Building a Generic Connector Between IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE) and Azure Service Bus

This technical article details how to build a custom, generic integration connector between IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE) and Azure Service Bus using JavaCompute nodes and the official Azure Service Bus Java SDK [1]. It walks through overcoming legacy JMS client instabilities, handling idle connection drops, and bypassing limitations of out-of-the-box connectors to dynamic payload and property handling across multiple queues

IBM ACE
8 min
Matthias Blomme
Integration Specialist & IBM Champion
March 16, 2026

Containerizing IBM ACE: A Blog Series - Scoping your runtimes

This article explores strategic criteria for bundling and isolating IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE) applications within container runtimes. Written by Matthias Blomme and Kim Meynendonckx, it provides practical guidelines on how to group integration flows based on team ownership, deployment cadences, security boundaries, resource consumption, and failure domains to avoid common architectural pitfalls in containerized environments.

IBM ACE
6 min
Matthias Blomme
Integration Specialist & IBM Champion
March 15, 2026

Containerizing IBM ACE: A Blog Series - Things to Consider in Containers

This article outlines essential architectural considerations when containerizing IBM App Connect Enterprise (ACE). It addresses challenges with state persistence, networking, autoscaling costs, resource management, and configuration injection, providing a practical "heads-up" guide for developers moving traditional ACE workloads to Kubernetes or other container platforms.

IBM ACE
5 min