As the internet evolves and technologies and trends emerge, so do the ways people and organizations connect. Not only is digitalization transforming and automating processes, but social changes and events are also making an impact that shapes how we interact.
Not so long ago, email and SMS messages started to replace phone conversations, and soon after, instant messaging platforms gained popularity over the tools that came before it. Today, there is a big landscape of messaging platforms, and often people feel divided on which one to use to communicate with friends and family.
In the professional field, organizations usually mandate one common communication platform, but often more than one survives, fragmenting work discussions between them.
Figure 1 illustrates an employee using multiple communication systems to liaise with different groups and partners, inside or outside the organization.
Figure 1: An employee uses different collaboration tools to communicate with peers.
The problem that arises in this scenario is that it causes communication degradation between team members and departments, inefficient interactions, and misunderstandings, resulting in a loss of productivity and ultimately costing the organization time and money.
The solution pattern introduced in this article proposes an implementation to build a platform that addresses the problem by unifying all systems as one and plugging in additional services to enrich the platform further.
The unified platform illustrated in Figure 2 integrates all platforms to operate as one and would provide new collaboration possibilities and capabilities, such as helping comply with government regulations on data privacy and security.
Figure 2: A unified communication hub allows employees to communicate seamlessly.
The problem of communication fragmentation is not unique to the use case described above. It’s also found in many relatable use cases, such as sales agents contacting customers and content creators on various social media platforms, to name a couple. The Solution Pattern dives into more detail by choosing a customer support scenario where clients contact support to get assistance or enquire about products. The platform exposes multiple access points for customers to connect, and also integrates multiple communication platforms from where support agents can assist.
Capabilities on top of Red Hat OpenShift, such as asynchronous messaging with Red Hat AMQ, streams for Apache Kafka, distributed in-memory caching with Red Hat Data Grid, integration flows with Apache Camel, and object storage with Red Hat OpenShift Data Foundation are successfully combined in the ecosystem, ensuring separation of concerns is maintained, and providing healthy solution longevity.
Video demo
You can watch the demonstration in the embedded video below:
More solution patterns and resources
The solution is well documented in the solution patterns portal. You can find more detailed information about the use case and its architecture, including guided instructions on provisioning and running it yourself.
You can explore more solution patterns that show how the different Red Hat technologies can be elegantly used together to solve business needs.
Keep learning by following the resources listed below:
- Find detailed information about this article’s demo in the solution pattern portal.
- Don't miss this AI-based solution pattern, previously published in Red Hat Developer.
- Explore other available solution patterns.
- Read the Apache Camel page on Red Hat Developer to learn more about the capabilities of Apache Camel.
- Read about Red Hat AMQ, a lightweight, high-performance, robust messaging platform.
- Learn how to run Apache Kafka on Kubernetes.
- Discover Red Hat Data Grid features.
