JBoss Operations Network, JBossON, JON, RHQ : Whats in a name...

Usually folks know less than they think they do. Occasionally, though, you know more than you may think. You may know quite a lot about something but can't participate due to a language barrier. This isn't always due to a geographical language issue, but in the tech-community it happens because tech-speak can be like listening to a foreign language. Tech-speak is abbreviated, It uses a lot of acronyms and is littered with enormous amounts of context and presumption. It's used to minimize conversation while maximizing content. Or, sometimes it's just used to impress, buzzwords thrown out like Hollywood name-drops. But, often enough two people seem to be understanding each other while I am thoroughly mystified. The same thing happens when I get hit with academic-speak. I usually need stuff spelled out for me, just just a little bit, and then perhaps I may be able to offer something valuable. Of course, a tech-savvy academic from another country is my worst nightmare. Reminds me of a guy named Boris, but wait, I digress...

All I want to do here is ensure that if you hear or see any of the following names, and you know about one of them, you actually know about all of them!

JBoss Operations Network is a management system aimed at managing deployments of JBoss Application Servers. It offers all kinds of great management features already described and demoed here. V2.0.0 is available now and V2.0.1 will be available probably by the time you read this entry. JBoss is a division of Red Hat.

JBossON is in fact, the longer acronym for JBoss Operations Network and is the management-preferred acronym for the product.

JON is a further distillation and used most often due to its brevity, and its real-name-ness. But, certainly, if you see this acronym you'd never guess what it refers to.

RHQ is an open-source project on which JON is built. It is a collaboration between Red Hat and Hyperic, hence the obvious RHQ acronym. What's not obvious is that 90+ percent of JON is in fact available as RHQ. Its also not obvious that RHQ has to do with JBoss management. You can learn about and participate in the RHQ community starting here.

If you knew all of this already, great, next time we'll get into some detailed tech-speak about how RHQ's alert sub-system can make life easier for the IT pro or for managing your own laptop.