4 ms·

I think that MuleSoft is a really great business, although I wouldn't use it personally just due to not being in the right industry. For back-office environmen

by sb8244 9y ago

I think that MuleSoft is a really great business, although I wouldn't use it personally just due to not being in the right industry. For back-office environment with tons of point 2 point integrations, it just seems to make sense. Business model is good. Once you're in, going out is really tough. This is exactly like the SFDC app cloud.

tootie 9y ago
I'm in the right business and I still don't understand why I'd ever need this kind of software.
- rhacker 9y ago
  I think its one of those things where it could be optional but when you're using it it's like hey it's nice that we have that ability here... that said it's gone a bit beyond it's architectural hey-day now that we have containers and infrastructure as code in general, but it will have it's customer base for years to come.
- niftich 9y ago
  Well, the promise is a kind of drag-and-drop [1], mix-and-match [2], transform these data fields this way, make a decision off of these other data fields, and ship it there kind of integration. Extra points for having a Store for others' components [3], and optionally doing it in the Cloud [4]. Their site has been tailored to convert executive-types on every buzzword, from Microservices [5] to DevOps [6] to Mobile [7]. Whether this works out is entirely dependent on your org: it still requires competent people wiring up things -- much to management's chagrin -- but it can save a fair bit of time. Tradeoffs all around. Mule basically started off with an ESB [8] that's a glorified reactor queue and a bunch of canned components of varying qualities that either implement an EIP primitive [9], or some domain-specific templated executor (make SQL calls, make API calls, etc). Now there's a whole ecosystem around it: a marketplace of components, an API proxy, management and monitoring layers, and fancy GUIs. The tools are (mostly) solid -- no more and no less than any other big-name commercial tool, but I'd venture to guess a lot of businesses buy this thinking it's going to be The Silver Bullet they're looking for, and it predictably rarely works that way. [1] https://www.mulesoft.com/platform/studio https://www.mulesoft.com/platform/studio [2] https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/dataweave-integration https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/dataweave-int... [3] https://www.mulesoft.com/exchange/ https://www.mulesoft.com/exchange/ [4] https://www.mulesoft.com/platform/saas/cloudhub-ipaas-cloud-based-integration https://www.mulesoft.com/platform/saas/cloudhub-ipaas-cloud-... [5] https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/microservices https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/microserv... [6] https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/devops https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/devops [7] https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/mobility https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/mobility [8] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13672234#13673158 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13672234#13673158 [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Integration_Patterns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Integration_Pattern...
  - useryournoggin 9y ago
    it's hard to understand how this actually gets used for those of us not in enterprise IT. would be great to see an example of a real project using Mule (or similar products).
- treis 9y ago
  I'm in the right business too, and one of the things I've realized is that it's not about building software developers need. It's about building software that people authorized to spend a lot of money think the enterprise needs. It's dazzling to listen the Mulesoft folks talk about experience APIs and system APIs while dragging and dropping stuff. I can see why people would go for it.
  - valuearb 9y ago
    At my previous job I had to write code to consume mulesoft APIs. Was miserable project, Mulesoft is literally hot garbage.
    - nvarsj 9y ago
      Same - I had the unfortune to do a brief contract on a mulesoft mandated project. It was unpleasant to say the least. The UI was also nearly useless, you had to drop to code to do anything meaningful. But the company paid a lot for it, so we had to use it.
    - Maven911 9y ago
      Can you explain? It's being pushed heavily as an api spec, api catalog and middleware, and it's notclear to me why we really need it.
      - treis 9y ago
        A huge part of the benefit of software like Mulesoft's is being a common standard. If your the type of company that will have 50 developers working on your ESB and services that's big. So is the expectation that in 30 years you can hire a new batch of developers that will quickly grok your ESB because Mulesoft will still be a thing. Mulesoft does have a lot of cool functionality, but my impression is that unless you are the type of organization with dozens of systems, decades long timespan, and dozens of developers that Mulesoft isn't worth the money.
        tootie 9y ago
- noomerikal 9y ago
  Modernization efforts for Fortune 500 enterprises with 1000+s of legacy applications still exist.
- junto 9y ago
  We use Mulesoft a fair bit as a proxy to our various microservices. IT can do the rate limiting and redirection as a front, whilst keeping our microservices hidden behind the DMZ. We also use it to transform data from different services when we do integrations, especially old school SOAP ones that we don't want to support directly anymore, and have been replaced by simpler to manage and develop REST APIs. Mulesoft is pretty good for that kind of thing.

by sb8244 9y ago

tootie 9y ago

I'm in the right business and I still don't understand why I'd ever need this kind of software.

rhacker 9y ago
I think its one of those things where it could be optional but when you're using it it's like hey it's nice that we have that ability here... that said it's gone a bit beyond it's architectural hey-day now that we have containers and infrastructure as code in general, but it will have it's customer base for years to come.
niftich 9y ago
Well, the promise is a kind of drag-and-drop [1], mix-and-match [2], transform these data fields this way, make a decision off of these other data fields, and ship it there kind of integration. Extra points for having a Store for others' components [3], and optionally doing it in the Cloud [4]. Their site has been tailored to convert executive-types on every buzzword, from Microservices [5] to DevOps [6] to Mobile [7]. Whether this works out is entirely dependent on your org: it still requires competent people wiring up things -- much to management's chagrin -- but it can save a fair bit of time. Tradeoffs all around. Mule basically started off with an ESB [8] that's a glorified reactor queue and a bunch of canned components of varying qualities that either implement an EIP primitive [9], or some domain-specific templated executor (make SQL calls, make API calls, etc). Now there's a whole ecosystem around it: a marketplace of components, an API proxy, management and monitoring layers, and fancy GUIs. The tools are (mostly) solid -- no more and no less than any other big-name commercial tool, but I'd venture to guess a lot of businesses buy this thinking it's going to be The Silver Bullet they're looking for, and it predictably rarely works that way. [1] https://www.mulesoft.com/platform/studio https://www.mulesoft.com/platform/studio [2] https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/dataweave-integration https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/dataweave-int... [3] https://www.mulesoft.com/exchange/ https://www.mulesoft.com/exchange/ [4] https://www.mulesoft.com/platform/saas/cloudhub-ipaas-cloud-based-integration https://www.mulesoft.com/platform/saas/cloudhub-ipaas-cloud-... [5] https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/microservices https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/microserv... [6] https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/devops https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/devops [7] https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/mobility https://www.mulesoft.com/integration-solutions/api/mobility [8] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13672234#13673158 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13672234#13673158 [9] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Integration_Patterns https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enterprise_Integration_Pattern...
- useryournoggin 9y ago
  it's hard to understand how this actually gets used for those of us not in enterprise IT. would be great to see an example of a real project using Mule (or similar products).
treis 9y ago
I'm in the right business too, and one of the things I've realized is that it's not about building software developers need. It's about building software that people authorized to spend a lot of money think the enterprise needs. It's dazzling to listen the Mulesoft folks talk about experience APIs and system APIs while dragging and dropping stuff. I can see why people would go for it.
- valuearb 9y ago
  At my previous job I had to write code to consume mulesoft APIs. Was miserable project, Mulesoft is literally hot garbage.
  - nvarsj 9y ago
    Same - I had the unfortune to do a brief contract on a mulesoft mandated project. It was unpleasant to say the least. The UI was also nearly useless, you had to drop to code to do anything meaningful. But the company paid a lot for it, so we had to use it.
  - Maven911 9y ago
    Can you explain? It's being pushed heavily as an api spec, api catalog and middleware, and it's notclear to me why we really need it.
    - treis 9y ago
      A huge part of the benefit of software like Mulesoft's is being a common standard. If your the type of company that will have 50 developers working on your ESB and services that's big. So is the expectation that in 30 years you can hire a new batch of developers that will quickly grok your ESB because Mulesoft will still be a thing. Mulesoft does have a lot of cool functionality, but my impression is that unless you are the type of organization with dozens of systems, decades long timespan, and dozens of developers that Mulesoft isn't worth the money.
      - tootie 9y ago
noomerikal 9y ago
Modernization efforts for Fortune 500 enterprises with 1000+s of legacy applications still exist.
junto 9y ago
We use Mulesoft a fair bit as a proxy to our various microservices. IT can do the rate limiting and redirection as a front, whilst keeping our microservices hidden behind the DMZ. We also use it to transform data from different services when we do integrations, especially old school SOAP ones that we don't want to support directly anymore, and have been replaced by simpler to manage and develop REST APIs. Mulesoft is pretty good for that kind of thing.