Since the sunset of JBoss Operations Network customers have no option but to either script or Golden Image their EAP Lifecycle Management, with all issues that go with that. The official Red Hat guidenance, linked here: https://access.redhat.com/articles/3827121, refers to three possible options for the customer base to choose from:

1) go to OpenShift. That makes absolute sense, however, not all customers are ready for this as our own research shows: https://security.stackrox.com/rs/219-UEH-533/images/State_of_Container_and_Kubernetes_Report.pdf Page 10 & 11. Additionally, a lot of EAP is used to host ISV applications that in the majority either have not certified the customer current setup or not have been certified for OCP at all yet.

2) Alternatively, the page recommends the use of 3rd party software. Which is potentially good, if customers use Red Hat partners. However, it also opens up the door for competitors and there is a big gap between the desired integration and friction of most if not all 3rd parties and the reality.

3) The 1st recommendation in the knowledgebase however is to leverage Ansible (Automation Platform). This truly makes sense for all non-OCP use cases. It's it fits the Customer need, all Red Hat supported, it is build to do exactly LCM and equally important, it makes both the use case of AAP and EAP stronger inside the customer. So offering a certified collection to handle the LCM of EAP as a supported offering creates a win-win-win. 

In fact, based on customer demand, the collection has already been release to Ansible Galaxy and Ansible Hub: https://console.redhat.com/ansible/automation-hub/repo/published/redhat/jboss_eap. What remains to be done is certificiation for SLA support.