wesley mc gregor an ontological approach

22-10-2008

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Founding Sponsors

This Presentation Courtesy of the

International SOA Symposium

October 7-8, 2008 Amsterdam Arena

www.soasymposium.com

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Enterprise Unity:An Ontological Approach to

Connecting SOAs

SOA Symposium, Amsterdam, Netherlands

Wesley McGregor, Senior Advisor, CGI Inc.

October 7, 2008

© CGI GROUP INC. All rights reserved

22-10-2008

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The Theory

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The Theory

Perfect Market 0 Negotiation

Perfect SOA 0 Discontinuity

Perfect Engine 0 Friction

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5

The Problem

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The Public Sector: Disparate Communities

InteractionsInteractions

InteractionsService Service Service

Community of Interest

HEALTH

Service Service Service Service


POLICING

Service Service Service


OVERSIGHT



IMMIGRATION

Key Challenges:

Trust (Internal & External)

JurisdictionalCommunities of Interest are usually

circumscribed by government departments.

Disparate: fundamentally unique

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The Simple Company: Distinct Communities

Interactions

Communities of Interest are usually

circumscribed by functional departments.

Product

Development



Manufacturing



Sales &

Marketing



Executive



Distinct: different in nature or quality

Key Challenges:

Market Responsiveness

Financial

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The Complex Conglomerate: Disjoint Communities

Communities of Interest are usually

circumscribed by individual companies.

Interactions

Manufacturing


Service ServiceService

Sales &

Marketing



Executive



Product

Development


Service ServiceServiceInteractions

Manufacturing



Sales &

Marketing



Executive



Product

Development



Manufacturing



Sales &

Marketing



Executive



Product

Development



Manufacturing



Sales &

Marketing



Executive



Product

Development



Manufacturing



Sales &

Marketing



Executive



Product

Development



Manufacturing



Sales &

Marketing



Executive



Product

Development



Manufacturing



Sales &

Marketing



Executive



Product

Development



Manufacturing



Sales &

Marketing



Executive



Product

Development



Super Executive



Disjoint: separate or disconnected

Key Challenges:

Management & Control

Cultural

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End Result: Localization

Using ESBs

that provide…

Registry/Repository

Transformation

Routing

Reliable Messaging

Standardized Interfaces

Orchestration Engine

Connectors & Adapters

Interactions

Manufacturing

Community of

Interest


Sales &

Marketing

Community of

Interest


Executive

Community of

Interest


Product

Development

Community of

Interest


Interactions

Manufacturing

Community of

Interest


Sales &

Marketing

Community of

Interest


Executive

Community of

Interest


Product

Development

Community of

Interest


Interactions

Manufacturing

Community of

Interest


Sales &

Marketing

Community of

Interest


Executive

Community of

Interest


Product

Development

Community of

Interest


Interactions

Manufacturing

Community of

Interest


Sales &

Marketing

Community of

Interest


Executive

Community of

Interest


Product

Development

Community of

Interest


Interactions

Manufacturing

Community of

Interest


Sales &

Marketing

Community of

Interest


Executive

Community of

Interest


Product

Development

Community of

Interest


enterprises

end up with

Localized syntax

Localized nomenclature

Localized semantics

Vendor influences

Interoperability challenges

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The Solution

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Ontology: Definition

“An ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization.

The term is borrowed from philosophy, where an ontology is a systematic account of

Existence. For knowledge-based systems, what “exists” is exactly that which can be

represented. When the knowledge of a domain is represented in a declarative formalism,

the set of objects that can be represented is called a universe of discourse. This set of

objects, and the describable relationships among them, are reflected in the representational

vocabulary with which a knowledge-based program represents knowledge. Thus, we can

describe the ontology of a program by defining a set of representational terms. In such an

ontology, definitions associate the names of entities in the universe of discourse (e.g.,

classes, relations, functions, or other objects) with human-readable text describing what the

names are meant to denote, and formal axioms that constrain the interpretation and well-

formed use of these terms”

Source: “A translation approach to portable ontology specifications”, Tom Gruber,

Knowledge Acquisition 5, (1993) pp. 199-220

This definition, although debatable, is satisfactory for the purposes of our discussion.

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Layered Ontological Overlay

Interactions

Manufacturing

Community of

Interest


Sales &

Marketing

Community of

Interest


Executive

Community of

Interest


Product

Development

Community of

Interest


Interactions

Manufacturing

Community of

Interest


Sales &

Marketing

Community of

Interest


Executive

Community of

Interest


Product

Development

Community of

Interest


Interactions

Manufacturing

Community of

Interest


Sales &

Marketing

Community of

Interest


Executive

Community of

Interest


Product

Development

Community of

Interest


Interactions

Manufacturing

Community of

Interest


Sales &

Marketing

Community of

Interest


Executive

Community of

Interest


Product

Development

Community of

Interest


Interactions

Manufacturing

Community of

Interest


Sales &

Marketing

Community of

Interest


Executive

Community of

Interest


Product

Development

Community of

Interest


Local

Ontology

Local

Ontology

Local

Ontology

Local

Ontology

Local

Ontology

Shared Ontology Shared Ontology

Common Ontology

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Ontological Framework

“Chaos” “Consistent Structure” “Order”

Model of Common

Services

Depts

Modeling

Group

Exec

Projects

Standards

Bodies

Vendor

Formal

Common Service

Description

Key Stakeholders

& Influencers

Enterprise Vision

Other

Areas.Mediation

Services

Analysis Phase Synthesis Phase Design& Build Phase

Governance

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Analysis: Service Concept Exposition

“Chaos”

Depts

Information

ModelsExec

Projects

Standards

Body

Vendor

Ambiguous Service Descriptions

Other

Areas

Business

Logic

Service

Descriptions

Process

Models

Reference

Models

Service

Architectures

Dependencies

Dept-specific

Project-specific

Guided by

Enterprise-wide

Se

rvic

e C

on

ce

pt

Ex

trac

tio

n

Consider others

Problem Space

Project

Standard

Exec

Vendor

Dept

Service X

Service Y

Service Z

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Synthesis: Consistent Service Representation

“Consistent Structure”

Model of Common Services

Syn

the

sis

of

Se

rvic

e C

on

ce

pts

Machine-understandable

Representation of

Service Components

Classification of

Common Service

Components

Project

Standar

d

Exec Dept

Service X

Service Y

Service ZSemantically Consistent

Description of Service Types

and Components

Formal Description

of Common

Services

Vendor

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Design & Build: Service Interoperability

“Order”

Consistent

Semantics

Platform-specific Implementations

Successful

Exchange of

Information

Consistent Data

Interpretation

Service

Interoperability

Automated Mediation

Capability

Service X

Client Z

Service Y

Client Y

Client X

A community can

effectively interpret

information and interact

successfully in a

completely automated way

with another community or

environment

Service

Descriptions

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Issues

Issues

1. Ownership of the design-time interpretation capability can

be problematic. • Knowledge is power

• Monarchy or democracy

2. Where does the run-time translation execution lie?• Centralized, distributed, shared,…

3. How are conflicts resolved?• Jurisdictional, human behavioural,…

4. Can inconsistencies be resolved in an automated way?• Rules - both static and dynamically generated,…

5. Technical interoperability.• E.g.. is XML (RDF, OWL,…) enough?

6. Semantic interoperability with outside partners.• How much human modeling effort is required to bring a new

community onboard?

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Implications

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Complexity Reduction: Amdahl‟s Law

Amdahl's law, (Gene Amdahl, 1967)

Named after computer architect Gene Amdahl,

is used to find the maximum expected

improvement to an overall system when only

part of the system is improved. It is often used

in parallel computing to predict the theoretical

maximum speedup using multiple processors.

Source: www.wikipedia.com

If S is the fraction of a calculation that is serial and (1-S) the fraction that can be

parallelized, then the greatest speedup that can be achieved using P processors is:

which has a limiting value of 1/S for an infinite number of processors.

Source: www.phy.duke.edu

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(S + (1-S) / P)

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Extensions to Amdahl‟s Law

Can we update Amdahl’s law to include complex

service orchestrations?

(From a linear to a multi-dimensional perspective)

Can we then calculate the reduction in complexity

of a system using a framework of consistent

service descriptions?(What efficiencies do we gain)

Finally, based on the reduction of a system’s

complexity, can we calculate the reduction of

discontinuity of an entire environment?(What controls are now implicit)

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Final Thoughts

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Mapping to Maslow‟s Hierarchy of NeedsT

ime

Yesterday

TomorrowNeeds Notional Service Types

Physiological Survival Infrastructure food, drink, air

Safety Growth Enterprise security, physiological safety

Belongingness & Love Community Community of Interest affiliation, acceptance, affection

Esteem Distinction Differentiation competence, approval, recognition

Aesthetic & Cognitive Wisdom Knowledge

knowledge, understanding, &

goodness, justice, beauty, order Reasoning

Self Actualization Abstraction Adaptive,

& Autonomic, &

Continuity Self-Perpetuating

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The Future

As we move from Enterprise SOA to an SOA

Marketplace, the commoditization of services

will force the creation of a

generalized ontological overlay

SOA Continuum

Enterprise SOA SOA Marketplace

Dynamic arbitrage between service supply and demand

Organizational efficiencies leading to improved performance Source: William A. Murray

- Organizational - - Whole-of-Environment -

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„Till we meet again…

Thank You!

Wesley McGregor

[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]