Overview:Application Integration, Data

Access, and Process Change

November 16, 2005

Tom Board, NUIT

2

Thesis

• Service-Oriented Architecture will become an assumed infrastructure

• Web Services will be the near-term technology of choice for SOA deployment

• With planning, SOA will enable real-time processes, allow secure access to data elements, and support distributed development

• Success will depend upon skill with the technologies and central adoption of SOA

3

Agenda

• What are the Problems?

• Industry Trends in Application Integration

• What is NUIT Planning?

• How Should Application Administrators and Planners Prepare?

• Wrap-up

4

Agenda

• What are the Problems?

• Industry Trends in Application Integration

• What is NUIT Planning?

• How Should Application Administrators and Planners Prepare?

• Wrap-up

5

Problems

• Sluggish inter-office business processes

• Current costs to integrate applications and maintain linkages over software changes

• Meeting community expectations for processes– Paper to electronic– Daily to real-time

6

Today’s Point-to-Point Approach

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Point-to-Point is Not Easy

• Definitions of data items must be reconciled between systems

• Methods of moving data must be agreed• Data interchange representations must be

agreed• Software to move internal representations

to/from interchange form must be written, tested and maintained

• Security/encryption must be agreed• Linkage is often unique and not reused

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Implications

• Scale Problem– Cost to establish linkages – custom coding– Cost to maintain custom linkages– Linkages are brittle due to object dependency– Testing all links when software is changed

• Data Definition Problem– ANY linkage requires common definitions– Push for real-time processes requires

definitions across multiple linkages

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Agenda

• What are the Problems?

• Industry Trends in Application Integration

• What is NUIT Planning?

• How Should Application Administrators and Planners Prepare?

• Wrap-up

10

Industry Finally “Gets It”

Vendors are moving to:• Eliminate custom linkages through reusable

service interfaces• Eliminate object representation dependencies

through standard data types• Design for heterogeneous, network-based

application environment• Settle upon and deploy standards!

Are we approaching a “fax” breakthrough?

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Service-Oriented Architecture

• Distributed functionality exposed as shared, reusable services

• Goal is to streamline deployment, reduce duplication of functions, and allow execution of business processes across diverse application platforms in a network

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Network SOA

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C o m m u n ic a tio n I n f r as tr u c tu r e

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C e n tra l B u s in e s s Fu n ct io n s

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Why is SOA a Solution?

Point-to-Point SOA• Definitions of data items must be

reconciled between systems• Problem remains: data item definitions

must be reconciled between systems

• Method of moving data must be agreed • Standard set – http/https

• Data interchange representation must be agreed

• Standard set – XML/SOAP

• Software to move internal representations to/from interchange form must be written, tested and maintained

• Tools within vendor products are transparent (e.g. .NET-to-SOAP, J2EE-to-SOAP, C++-to-SOAP, etc.)

• Security/encryption must be agreed • Standard set – WS-Security

• Linkage is often unique and not reused • Services are designed for reuse

14 Service Example

H ir ing E ve nt

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Web Services for Implementing a Service-Oriented Architecture

• Document-oriented messaging scheme using http/https transport and security

• Documents are self-describing XML streams combining payload and control information

• Separates external interface (behaviors, logic) from internal objects, structures, and implementation (“Loose coupling”)

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A Web Service …

• Has a URL

• Is described through a Web Service Definition Language (WDSL) “contract” for the benefit of potential consumers

• Uses SOAP messages over http/https

• Can be secured based upon polices in the WSDL description or external frameworks

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Web Service Can …

• Be created through:– .NET (Visual Studio)– J2EE authoring environments (Eclipse)– C++ & Visual Basic 3rd party wrappers– PeopleSoft Component Interfaces– PeopleSoft Integration Points

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Web Services Require…

• New approaches to development– Services, not components– Flat documents, not structured data

• New infrastructure– WSDL – service “contracts”– UDDI – service governance and polices– Enterprise Service Bus – legacy interfaces and

publish/subscribe platform

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Web Services for SOA

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Agenda

• What are the Problems?

• Industry Trends in Application Integration

• What is NUIT Planning?

• How Should Application Administrators and Planners Prepare?

• Wrap-up

21

Architectural Direction

• Business Drivers– Security– Mobility– Self-service– Real-time processes– Data availability– Rapid deployment

• Architecture– Central identity and

authentication– Portal navigation– Web-Service

integration– Distributed

development– Abstraction or

virtualization

22 System Architecture

SystemsManagement

Identity Security

Core Enterprise SystemsCore Enterprise Systems

Specialized Enterprise ApplicationsSpecialized Enterprise Applications

School/Department/Division ApplicationsSchool/Department/Division Applications

User Devices

Network

Processing Capacity

Data Management

Integration

Platforms

Business

Framew

ork

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23 Web Services Infrastructure

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24 Timeline*

* This timeline is for illustrative purposes only and should not be used in planning – please consult with an experienced professional. The views expressed are those of the author and not those of NUIT. No warranty expressed or implied. YMMV. All bets are off.

2006 2007Task Jan-Mar Apr-Jun Jul-Sep Oct-Dec Jan-Mar Apr-Jun Jul-Sep

Ph ase 1

S ign contrac tsH R IS 8 .9 Im plem enta tion

Im plem ent W A MD eploy W A M

E xperim enta tion w ith p-to-pD eploy W S D L and U D D I

E xp lore S OA m gm t optionsD eploy S OA m gm t

C reate IdM W eb S ervicesC utover to IdM

S E S 8.9 Im plem enta tionFinancial S ystem Implemnta tion

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Abstraction or Virtualization

• Convert an application-specific service into a general infrastructure service

R o le- Bas ed Bu s in es s R u les

E n ter p r is e S er v ic e Bu s

Un if ied I d en tity M an ag em en tan d Au th en tic a tio n

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—Storage management—Authentication—Authorization—Computing platform—Database

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Abstraction of Business Processes

• The next step after SOA is composite applications and process orchestration– Once individual business functions are

exposed as Web Services, then new “meta-process” coding can be built “above” them

– Combined with workflows, this can substantially automate many functions

– This will be addressed by Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) tools

27 Meta-Processes

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Invoca tion

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Distributed Development

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B ookmarks

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N U B ookmarks

Add Or ganize

Portal

Web Service for

data access

Authored

JSR 168

Or WSRP

Portlet

Web Services

Infrastructure

Authored

Application

Database

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Agenda

• What are the Problems?

• Industry Trends in Application Integration

• What is NUIT Planning?

• How Should Application Administrators and Planners Prepare?

• Wrap-up

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What Steps Should Planners and Developers Take Today?

1. Stop buying or creating applications with “silo” approaches – use central services

2. Stop copying data around the network3. Work to reach community consensus on data

definitions so that integration is possible4. Start serious discussions with your users about

what data access services they need and can justify

5. Determine your vendor’s plans for Web Service integration – and influence those plans

6. Train your staff on SOA and Web Services

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Stop Copying Data Around the Network

• Problem: send e-mail from within an application to a set of users– Bad: Get all NetIDs and e-mail addresses from SES,

HRIS, SNAP, etc. an include in local database– Poor: Get e-mail addresses for current users every

day and include in local database– Correct: Get user’s e-mail address from directory

service when needed, even in large numbers– Future? Invoke a Web Service to send e-mail

messages based upon standard identity (NetID)

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Agenda

• What are the Problems?

• Industry Trends in Application Integration

• What is NUIT Planning?

• How Should Application Administrators and Planners Prepare?

• Wrap-up

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Wrap Up

• SOA and Web Services are the accepted future (example: Oracle Fusion Middleware)

• Real-time processes will improve all systems – assume it in all new designs

• Data definitions are vital for future integration – we must solve this aspect before it prevents desirable improvements

• Users and stewards together should begin designing the future now

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Professional Development Topics

• SOA & Web Services• XML, SOAP & WSDL• OASIS and WS-*

standards• Enterprise Service

Bus (ESB)• Universal Description,

Discovery, and Integration (UDDI)

• Authoring tools for Web Services

• Microsoft .NET versus J2EE solutions

• Business Process Execution Language (BPEL)

• SOA governance

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Local Documents

“University System Architecture for Integrated Enterprise Systems” http://www.it.northwestern.edu/bin/docs/UniversitySystemsArchitecture.pdf

“System Management for the e-University” http://www.it.northwestern.edu/bin/docs/systemmgmtforeuniversity.pdf

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Questions?

QA&