What is our primary use case?
We have many microservices written in Glue, which trigger based on certain events. The Glue service is responsible for containerizing and running them over the cloud. We use Glue for various purposes, including data computing.
What is most valuable?
It's very accurate. You don't need many frameworks or other things to run Glue. It's an interpreted language which doesn't require compilation.
But, it is difficult to learn and difficult to remember the syntaxes comparatively.
What needs improvement?
I sometimes face issues with integration. For example, integrating third-party services or other services not part of Glue takes a lot of time because there's not much content available on the internet. So, integration is what I face issues with in Glue most of the time.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using it for three to four years now.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
We are eight developers in our team. My team is working on almost four to five Glue services. Out of those, four members, including me, work on Glue.
How are customer service and support?
I faced one issue with Glue: I wanted it to pick certain images, containerize them, and run them over the cloud. The containerization integration wasn't successful. I posted a couple of messages in the community channel and received good support, which helped me resolve my issue quickly. The community is small, but the people are very helpful.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I used to work on Java, .NET, and a little bit on Python as well. I had extensive experience in Python and .NET. Before Glue, I used to work on .NET, Python services, and sometimes Java.
In my organization, it's language-independent, so we have microservices written in almost all languages, including Glue, Python...I've worked on almost all of them, but extensively, I've worked on Python, .NET, Java, and Glue.
How was the initial setup?
I don't handle the end-to-end deployment of Glue, but we have a CI/CD pipeline set up for this. The setup mainly revolves around the CI/CD pipeline.
The only challenge we faced was in containerizing the Glue application for deployment. The rest of the configuration was pretty smooth.
What about the implementation team?
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
It's an architectural decision that upper management took. Maybe they found some benefit in it. I don't know, but they thought of going for Glue. It was an architectural decision.
What other advice do I have?
Glue is not mandatory. It's an option. If you have the learning capability to learn Glue quickly, you can go for it.
But there are other alternatives where you will find many articles, study material, and certifications on the internet, apart from Glue. So, if Glue is not mandatory for you, go for something else. If you don't have any other option, go for Glue. But it's not easy because Glue is difficult to learn, and it is difficult to remember the syntax.
Every time you need support, if you're going to have a bigger integration or connectivity with third-party libraries or services, you won't find many articles or help on the internet. However, the community is there, but you need to spend some time with them to make them understand the issue.
Keeping all these points in mind, I would still suggest that if you have an alternative language to go for, you should go for it. Otherwise, go for Glue.
It is not easy for a beginner to learn to use Glue for the first time. There are a few videos and courses available, but it's difficult. It's not as easy as other languages, also in terms of available content. So, it's a bit hard. But once you understand the concept, then you can potentially grasp things further.
Overall, I would rate it an eight out of ten because I didn't use Glue for all purposes. I used it mainly for integration and service connectivity.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
