We’re excited to announce the release and general availability of Usage Engine Private Edition 4.1! 

The key focus areas in this release are optimizing productivity and efficiency, enhancing quality and reliability, and improving security and compliance, including new features and enhancements related to usability, integration, and interoperability.  

Three of the key features are: 

Avro Encode/Decode with Schema Registry 

This is an enhancement to our existing capabilities. Building upon the previous setup, which involved passing schema registries into Ultra, this enhancement introduces a more streamlined approach.

Users now have the flexibility to reference external schema registries within a single workflow, such as distinct ones for the Decoder, Encoder, and APL functions. This enhancement not only facilitates efficient data serialization using the Avro format but also ensures schema consistency across distributed systems, see Avro Support(4.1).

SAP HANA Support for Data Veracity

We now support SAP HANA as a Backend Data Store for the Data Veracity function in Usage Engine, allowing customers to enhance data accuracy and reliability for informed decision-making and compliance. This integration enables efficient management of erroneous data within database tables, facilitating prompt identification and resolution of inconsistencies.  

Mutual TLS support for Kafka Agents

Mutual Transport Level Security( mTLS) is now supported for Kafka agents in Usage Engine. This feature implements robust encryption and authentication mechanisms, ensuring secure communication channels within the Kafka ecosystem. With mTLS, both Kafka agents and the Kafka infrastructure authenticate each other using digital certificates, guaranteeing data integrity and confidentiality.

We encourage you to explore all the detailed features and enhancements below to gain a comprehensive understanding of the capabilities in this release of usage Engine.

New Features

Authentication and Access

• Access Controller - Access Group Name

• Support for 2-way Authentication for Web Services Agents and Profiles

New Connectors

• Netia FTP Agent

• Telco agents for FTAM and FTP

Integration

• Avro Encoding and Decoding

• BER Indefinite Lenght Encoding

MariaDB Support

• MariaDB in Database Profile

• Reference Data Management Supports MariaDB

APL

• Database Table to Support tableGetMetaInfo Function

Usability

• Log Files UI

Enhancements

SAP HANA

• Duplicate UDR Supports SAP HANA and PostgreSQL Database

• Data Veracity Supports SAP HANA Database

5G

• 5G Profile Supports Multiple Primary NRF Address in HTTP/2 Server Agent

• 5G Profile Allows Retry for Failed Connections to Multiple NRF Address in HTTP/2 Server Agent

Extended Functionality

• Dynamic Fields in Aggregation Profile

• Kafka Agents Support mTLS

• User Security Improvements

• Support for OpenShift 4.15

All of these are explained in more detail in Usage Engine 4.1 Release .

The release can be accessed: Release Information .

Overall user documentation is available at: Usage Engine Documentation 4.1.

Enjoy! 🌟