The document discusses service oriented architecture (SOA) and its benefits for delivering business capabilities quickly and lowering costs. It outlines a three step roadmap to SOA: 1) exposing enterprise data as services, 2) creating portal applications using these services, and 3) orchestrating services into business processes. The document also describes the company's experience implementing SOA in two generations, initially focusing on infrastructure and then composite applications built from shared services.
3. WHAT IF WE COULD...? A CIO’S
QUESTIONS TO HER ARCHITECTURE TEAM
Deliver business capability in weeks, not months, nor years?
Systematically re-use existing components rather than build?
Integrate seamlessly, organically?
Dramatically lower our end-to-end cost of ownership?
Limit funds at risk to micro-investments rather than massive
investments?
Focus on building business processes rather than applications?
Develop in a massively parallel way where we need speed?
4. WE CAN … THREE MAJOR TRENDS ARE
TRANSFOMING ENTERPRISE COMPUTING
Service Oriented
Architectures
Global Sourcing
Low Cost
High Performance
Platforms
1
2
3
Interoperability enabling
new, much faster and
efficient ways to deliver IT
Linux-Intel dramatically
reducing TCO of IT
Large global supply of
skills dramatically
increasing affordability of
labor
Speed
Efficiency
Differentiation
5. SOA: A PARADIGM SHIFT
Distributed Component
Architecture
Service Oriented
Architecture
Functionality Oriented Process Oriented
Designed to Last Designed to Change
Long Development
Cycle
Interactive and Iterative
Development
Cost Centered Business Centered
Application Block Services Orchestration
Tightly Coupled Agile and Adaptive
Homogeneous Technology Heterogeneous Technology
Object Oriented Message Oriented
Known Implementation Abstraction
7. A ROADMAP TO SOA
Traditional
Development
and
Integration
Data
Exposing
Services
Services-
based
Portals
Services-
based
Processes
1
2
3SOA Value
Add
Time
Share
information
with multiple
consumers
Consolidate
services into
composite
applications
providing 360
views
Orchestrate
services into
business
processes
•Speed
•Efficiency
•Custom fit
Agile IT-
Business
8. SOA STEP #1 CONSISTS OF EXPOSING
ENTERPRISE INFORMATION TO INTERNAL OR
EXTERNAL “CLIENT” APPLICATIONS
Client Server
ERP
Legacy
Netcentric
Get_Shipment_
Status Service
Customer A
Procurement
Customer B
Procurement
Sales Portal
Customer
Service
Firewall
Data Exposing Services
Example: Product Shipping Status
External Service Consumers Internal Service Consumers
A single, universal method
for making information
available to multiple
consuming applications
independent of their
platform
1
9. STEP #2 CONSISTS OF CREATING PORTAL
APPLICATIONS THAT CREATE “360 DEGREE”
VIEWS OF THEIR USERS’ WORK ENVIRONMENT
ERP
360 Sales Portal
Services-based Portals
Example: A Sales Portal
Call Center
Get_Support_Call_
History
Sales Force
Automation
Get_Order_Status
Get_Customer
_News
Firewall
Track_Quota
Marketing
Automation
Get_Leads
Consolidation of services into
a “composite application” or
portal creating 360 views of
a user’s world
2
Client Server
Legacy
Netcentric
10. THE SALES BEAcon, A SALES PORTAL
INTEGRATING INFORMATION USING A
COMMON PARADIGM: SERVICES
Alert
Service
Employee Task Service
Revenue
Service
Real time, services-
based integration of:
• CRM
• Financials
• Order Management
• Knowledge/Document
management
• Collaboration tools
• Productivity tools
• External information
Stock quote Service
Account
Service
Quota
Service
11. Get_Contract_
Burn_Rate
STEP #3 IS ORCHESTRATING SERVICES INTO
BUSINESS PROCESSES
Shipping -
ERP
Services-Based Processes
Example: A Solution Milestone Invoicing Process
Professional
Services
Automation
Get_Milestone
_Status
Customer
Portal
Get_Shipment_
Status
Get_Customer
_Validation
Billing
Contract
Management
Get_Terms
Create_
Invoice
Create Invoice
Validate
Status with
Customer
Map Against
Contract Terms
Get
Services
Burn Rate
Verify
Project
Milestone
Status
Verify Product
Shipment
Status
Service
Orchestration
Business
Process
3
Client Server
Legacy
Netcentric
12. EXAMPLE: AN HR PROCESS – THE
EMPLOYEE ON-BOARDING PROCESS
Services
orchestration into a
single workflow
across:
• Peoplesoft
• Exchange
• LDAP
• HR Portal
Easy to reconfigure
via Workshop
interface
13. THE NEED FOR “A” IN SOA
App 1
Portal 1
App 2 …
Service 1
… App P
Portal 2 … … Portal i
Service 2 Service 3 Service 4 Service n
Enterprise-wide Shared Services or Standards
Messaging – Service Directory and Brokering – QoS Management -
Application and Database Connectivity – Security – Data Matching –
Semantic Model – Profile Management - Single Sign On, etc.
Opportunities for Architectural Standards and Shared
Services
15. OUR ARCHITECTURE:
EVOLUTION OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS
Traditional
Packaged
Integration
1st
Generation SOA:
Infrastructure- Centric
Architecture
Traditional
Packaged
Applications
Traditional
Packaged
Applications
Infrastructure
Services
Custom Portal
Applications
Traditional
Packaged
Applications
Infrastructure
Services and
Integration Hub
2nd
Generation SOA
Composite,
Services-Based
Applications
“The Basics”
Extend and
Differentiate Efficiently
Integrate, Re-Use, and
Develop Ultra-Rapidly
A B C
1996-1999 2001-2003 End Of 2003+
Custom Portal
Applications
17. ERP SFA
Call
Center
…
We start with vanilla implementations of
industry standard core applications.
•Industry standard core applications -
robust core business logic and data
structure
•Vanilla implementations
•Easier and cheaper to maintain
•Easier and cheaper to upgrade or
replace
•Footprint limited to best-of-breed
•One standard implementation
worldwide
Core Application Foundation: Simplicity and EfficiencyCore Application Foundation: Simplicity and Efficiency1
Core Application Foundation
1
Packaged ApplicationsPackaged Applications
18. ERP SFA
Call
Center
…
Enterprise Infrastructure Services
We integrate and extend our applications with layers
of Enterprise Infrastructure Services.
•Enterprise Infrastructure Services Integrate
and Extend architecture:
•Portal Services -presentation and user
interface services
•Shared Business Services -interfaces to
the applications: requests for data, or
business logic functionality
•Messaging & Brokering Services -core
integration services: messaging, transport,
workflow, brokering, etc.
•Shared Application Services - horizontal
services and foundational components
such as Logging,
•Efficient: re-use of common services, few
point-to-point integrations
•Powerful: business logic and data exposed
and shared across enterprise
Enterprise Infrastructure Services FoundationEnterprise Infrastructure Services Foundation2
Infrastructure Services Foundation
2
1
Packaged ApplicationsPackaged Applications
WebLogic PlatformWebLogic Platform
19. And build custom portal applications tailored
to our business needs.
•Flexible: portal-based custom
applications tailored to our
business needs - Secure customer
applications that include business
logic and provides interface with
Enterprise Services, Applications and
Data
•Efficient: built on top of the
Infrastructure Services (50%+ time
and cost savings from re-use of
common services)
•Powerful: portlets integrate data and
business logic from across enterprise
Custom Portal Applications for Unique CapabilitiesCustom Portal Applications for Unique Capabilities3
Custom Portal Applications
ERP SFA
Call
Center
…
Enterprise Infrastructure Services
Custom
Portal
Applications
Custom
Portal
Applications
….
Packaged ApplicationsPackaged Applications
WebLogic PlatformWebLogic Platform
WebLogic PortalWebLogic Portal
2
1
3
21. Portal Architecture Approach
Content
Management
Domain
Database
SiebelServices
DTOs
Presentation
Business Delegate
DTOs DTOs
Recommended Approach to Architecture
Based on Service Oriented Architecture which Promotes re-use at all levels
Provides capability to deliver in weeks not months (once we have a stable framework)
Leverage each product for what it is good at, example: WLP for Presentation based on
Entitlements
Allows business to combine services to deliver new capabilities
Domain Access Layer provides abstracts the data source and the relationship, there by
minimizing the impact of changes to the source systems
De-coupling Presentation from the business logic makes it reliable and scalable
Horizontal services and
foundational components
Presentation and user
interface services
Shared Application Services
Service
Locator
Notification Search
Framework
Exception
Handling
Application
Configuration
MonitoringLogging
Services
Access Control
Portal Services
Personali-
sation
Login,
Registration
Entitlements
PresentationSSO
Search
Brokering
Content
Brokering
…
…
22. OUR SECOND GENERATION SOA: SERVICES TO
INTEGRATE THE ENTERPRISE AND BUILD
COMPOSITE APPLICATIONS
Employee
Manager
Portal
eSupport
“Traditional” Portal Applications
Enterprise Infrastructure Services
Shared Application Services
Messaging & Brokering Services
Portal Services
Shared Business Services
Composite
Applications
Services Portal Sales Portal
Open_Case
Get_History
Get_Customer
Create_Quote
Get_Contract
Get_Customer
Enterprise DataEnterprise ApplicationsEnterprise Services
Search,
Content
Mgmt, etc.
ERP, CRM, etc.
Customers
Products, etc.
Composite Applications Assembled from
Business Services Components and
Portlets that Expose Enterprise Data
and Functionality
23. Header
Standard message format required to
implement the Service & Message Broker
Standard message format required
for handling multiple protocols
Shelter end applications from
having to know routing information
Required to route message through
the Service & Message Broker
Message Header Attributes:
Message Id: Unique identifies for the
message instance
Request type: the time of request or
reply the message contains
Source Identifier of source system, for
reply routing
Destination: Identification or
destination system
Status: Error message
Payload attributes:
XML formatted request / reply
message
Payload
XML Format Request
or Reply
Destination
Request type
Source
Status
Message ID
24. Service & Message Broker architecture
approach
Messaging & Brokering Services
Service
Repository
Asynchronous
Messaging
Asynchronous
Workflow
Service Finder
& Broker
Shared Business Services
…
Vertical/business services:
Web Services interfaces to the
applications: requests for data,
or process
Core integration services:
messaging, transport, workflow,
brokering, etc.
……
……
……
…
Portal
App
Portal
App
Portal
App
Portal
App
Portal
App
Portal
App
Packaged
App
Packaged
App
Packaged
App
Packaged
App
Service & Message
Broker
Service & Message
Broker
Transform TransformProcess
Optional
OptionalAll incoming &
outgoing message
to the process are
in canonical format
All incoming and outgoing messages to the process shall
be in standard format
Messages shall not be transformed if they are already in the
standard format
The Service and Message broker should be able to handle
any protocol or message format
Service can be executed locally or remotely
25. Message and Service Broker converts the messages to a
standard format (if required) and routes them to the
appropriate destination
(WebLogic Integrator)
(WebLogic Integrator)
Message
Standardization
Web Services
Service
Repository
Request Service
Service N
Service 2
Service 1
…
Message
Channel
Client
App
Client
App
Client
App
Client
App
Client
App
Client
App
Client
App
Client
App
Publish
Messages
JMS
Queue
Output
File
JMS
Workflow
File
Workflow
App View
Workflow
event
Client
App
Client
App
JMS
Queue
Web Service invocation
Message Broker Service Broker
Non-standard messages are converted to standard message format before invoking the
service broker
The service broker can receive requests from any channel (synchronous & asynchronous)
The services can be invokes either on the Service & Message Broker or remotely
26. Input
Channel
S
Invoke
Sync
Service
(send w/ reply)
Format
Response
Get Support Cases
by Account
Get Customer
Address
Publish Message
Service
All Messages
Determine
Service
Service Repository
Object Attribute Action Service
Customer Address Get GetAddiress
Customer SupportCase Action GetSupportCases
Customer Contact Add AddContact
Header should be
fully formed at this
time, question still
open whether
adapters can
handle formatting
Translate
Payload
Source Service
Transform.
object
KE GetSupportCases
eSupport GetSupportCases SupportCaseXML
External AddContact AddFlatCustomer
Translation X-Ref
If no transformation is
needed, leave blank
AddFlatCustomer
SupportCaseXML
Start from
Channel
Message
Start from
Direct
Invocation
XML file
XML file
Sync
Call?
Sync?
Sync
Async
Invoke
Service
(send)
Publish
Response
Message to
Input Channel
Sync
Response?
Yes
Yes
No
No
Service Broker component
Ability to handle anywhere from 40% to 70% of all messages routed through the I-Hub
Configurable service broker eliminates the need to implement one Workflow per business process
(traditional approach)
Enables administrators to dynamically add / modify shared business services
Implemented as a single JPD on WLI
27. Client Library enables services to be
dynamically deployed / configured
Client
Application
Service
Locator
Locator Repository
Service
GetAddiress
GetSupportCases
AddContact
Target
EJB Service
WSService
Service Broker
Service
Interface
EJB Service
Proxy
Web Service
Proxy
Integration Hub
Proxy
Client Environment Integration Hub
Service Provider
Environment
EJB
Service
Web
Service
Web
Service
Service
Broker
The Service Locator Client library allows for services to be deployed locally or remotely transparently
to the client application
Service locator allows for same service invocation whether services are local and invoked directly, or
invoked through the Service Broker
Services can be redeployed at will without affecting the client application nor its interfaces
28. Authentication AuthorityAuthentication Authority
Integration HUBIntegration HUB
Web Services
Security Model
SiebelSiebelPSFTPSFT
PartnerNetPartnerNet
eSupporteSupport
OtherOther
ClarifyClarify
Internet
eLicenseeLicense
Dev2DevDev2Dev
internal users
user store
Firewall Firewall
perimeter
1. client makes a login
request
2. App forwards
authorization
request
3. return a token
after
authentication
4. save token as
cookie
6. Web service call
with user
authentication
token
7. Authorize
web service
call vs.
token plus
user roles
direct call
blocked:
no or invalid
token
The objective is to
leverage this security
model for the entire
Enterprise – including
Network Services
perimeterperimeterperimeterperimeter
Request Service
Web Services
Authenticate User
5. client makes a service
request
Get Support Cases by Account
29. How it works: business applications interact through
Enterprise Infrastructure Services layers.
Shared Application Services
Customer
Repository
Unique ID
Generator
Data Services Exception
Handling
Application
Configuration
MonitoringLogging
Services
Web Services
Security
Messaging & Brokering Services
Service
Repository
Asynchronous
Messaging
Asynchronous
Workflow
Service Finder
& Broker
Vertical/business services:
Web Services interfaces to the
applications: requests for data,
or process
Core integration services:
messaging, transport, workflow,
brokering, etc.
Horizontal services and
foundational components
Portal Services
Personali-
zation
Presentation Authenti-
cation
Universal
User
Profile
Content
Brokering
…Single sign-onEntitlement
Shared Business Services
Get_
Licenses
Create_
Order
Update
_Lead
Create_
Contact
…
Get_
Customer
Get_Purchase
_History
Get_
Case_History
Presentation and user
interface services
30. The architecture leverages the BEA
platform and Web Services extensively.
…
Shared Application Services
WLS
Data
Services
WLS
Logging
WLS WLI
Exception
Handling
WLS
Application
Configuration
Web
Services
Security
WLS WLI Other
Monitoring
WLS Other
Unique
Customer
ID
Generator
WLS Other
Customer
Repository
UDDI
WLS Other WLI WLI
Service
Repository Service
Finder &
Broker
Asynchronous
Workflow
WLIWLSJMS
Asynchronous
Messaging
Messaging & Brokering Services
…
Web Services
Workshop
WLI
Get_Case_History
Get_Purchase _History
Get_Licenses
Liquid DataWLS
Shared Business Services
WLP
Personali-
zation
WLP
Presentation
WLS
Authentication
WLS
Entitlement
WLP
Universal User
Profile
WLP
Content
Brokering
WLP WLS
Single sign-on
Portal Services
31. Date Name Product Issue Level
03/15 P. James WLI 1
03/15 M. Wright WLP 2
03/15 J. Yu WLS 1
03/15 T. Chen Workshop 3
03/15 A. Petit WLI 1
Sales Portal - Example
Account AT&T Wireless Seattle
Customer News
Words you cannot search for and which
cannot improve your search include: ….
Order History
Date Name Product Issue Level
03/15 P. James WLI 1
03/15 M. Wright WLP 2
03/15 J. Yu WLS 1
03/15 T. Chen Workshop 3
03/15 A. Petit WLI 1
Licenses Installed Base
Support Case History
Overall Statisfaction: 4.5
Loyalty Index: 3.1
Project Name Product Status
Supply Chain Portal WLI In Progress
Enterprise Billing WLP In Progress
Settlement Automation WLS Complete
Customer Care Portal Workshop Complete
Professional Services Projects
Service Experience
MyQuotes
Leads
Contracts
Product License # Contacts IP Addresses
WLI 12345 P. James IP addresses
WLP 67890 J. Chen IP addresses
Workshop 12345 M. McCain IP addresses
WLS 67890 A. Haggarti IP addresses
Intelligence
Campaigns
Shared Application Services
Customer
Repository
Unique ID
Generator
Data Services Exception
Handling
Application
Configuration
MonitoringLogging
Services
Web Services
Security
Messaging & Brokering Services
Service
Repository
Asynchronous
Messaging
Asynchronous
Workflow
Service Finder
& Broker
Portal Services
Personali-
zation
Presentation Authenti-
cation
Universal
User
Profile
Content
Brokering
…Single sign-onEntitlement
Shared Business Services
Get_
Licenses
Create_
Order
Update
_Lead
Create_
Contact
…
Get_
Customer
Get_Purchase
_History
Get_
Case_History
It allows us to build powerful new
business applications.
Superior Customer Insight
Better Coordination and Sharing
Among Selling Team
Integration of Selling (what we
promise) with Delivery (what the
customer experiences)
32. Shared Application Services
Customer
Repository
Unique ID
Generator
Data Services Exception
Handling
Application
Configuration
MonitoringLogging
Services
Web Services
Security
Messaging & Brokering Services
Service
Repository
Asynchronous
Messaging
Asynchronous
Workflow
Service Finder
& Broker
Portal Services
Personali-
zation
Presentation Authenti-
cation
Universal
User
Profile
Content
Brokering
…Single sign-onEntitlement
Shared Business Services
Get_
Licenses
Create_
Order
Update
_Lead
Create_
Contact
…
Get_
Customer
Get_Purchase
_History
Get_
Case_History
Date Name Product Issue Level
03/15 P. James WLI 1
03/15 M. Wright WLP 2
03/15 J. Yu WLS 1
03/15 T. Chen Workshop 3
03/15 A. Petit WLI 1
Customer Portal - Example
Company AT&T Wireless Seattle
Order History
Date Name Product Issue Level
03/15 P. James WLI 1
03/15 M. Wright WLP 2
03/15 J. Yu WLS 1
03/15 T. Chen Workshop 3
03/15 A. Petit WLI 1
MyLicenses
Support Case History
Project Name Product Status
Supply Chain Portal WLI In Progress
Enterprise Billing WLP In Progress
Settlement Automation WLS Complete
Customer Care Portal Workshop Complete
Professional Services Projects
Service Experience
Product License # Contacts IP Addresses
WLI 12345 P. James IP addresses
WLP 67890 J. Chen IP addresses
Workshop 12345 M. McCain IP addresses
WLS 67890 A. Haggarti IP addresses
MyContacts
MyConfigs
Support Tools
Events
The new architecture and many of the same
services can enable customer facing
applications.
360 degree view of my
relationship with BEA
Improved coordination with BEA
and my team members
Reduced productivity losses
Name J. Cheng
Position Sr. Director, eBusiness
33. Enterprise Services Hub
OUR LATEST ARCHITECTURE VISION
IN ITS SIMPLEST FORM
Portlet Libraries
Universal Portals
Portlet Service Portlet
Application
Engines (ERP,
CRM, SCM…)
Data Sources
(Customers,
Products,…)
Enterprise
Applications and
Data integrated via
Enterprise Services
Hub
Functionality and
Data exposed via
Services and
Portlets – cataloged
in libraries
Applications
assembled in
remote portals –
“the user is the
owner”- multi-
channel delivery
Service Portlet Service
Services Libraries
34. THE RESULTING PORTALS AGGREGATE PORTLETS
HOSTED BY SOURCES AND IS FULLY
CONFIGURABLE
Registry
of existing
portlets
(local &
remote)
New functions and
content can be added
on the fly simply by
adding the remote
portlet web service
definition to the
catalog – The
resulting portals can
be continuously
expanded without
affecting current
functions
Welcome, Rhonda Hocker
Wednesday, February 4 2004
Google Search
BEA Weblogic review Go
Results
- LinuxPlanet reviews: BEA Weblogic for Linux…
- BEA Weblogic review forum
- More >>
x
BEA Email x
From Subject Received
Philippe.B…. WLI Strategy 02/04/2004
Dale Slaug... Re: SOA Architecture 02/03/2004
Yogish Pai SOA Architecture 02/03.2004
More >>
Yahoo Mail x
Sender Subject Date Size
jk100@... Friday trip Sun 2/1 2K
lara.en… Request Sun 2/1 1K
Remind… Birthday Reminder Fri 1/30 3K
More >>
Draft - Folders - Trash
BEA Address Book x
Ashburn Go
Tom Ashburn 408-570-8628 Email - IM
Placement of portlets in the
portal will be dynamic and
also configurable by user
Available Portlets can reside
either in internal servers or
external providers – all
communication to remote
portlets through Web
Services
Major Opportunities
Customer Name Value
Albertson’s 8.1 WLI / WLP $7.5M
AT&T Portal 8.1 … $2M
Verizon W.. Platform / Ent.. $15M
More >>
x
My Travel
Conf # Descrfption Start Date
0192985 SFO-BOS-SFO Feb 14
0194677 SFO-LHR-SFO Feb 22
Make a reservation >>
x
BEA News (Factiva) x
- Prudential Selects BEA Systems …
- E*Trade Japan builds Linux-based …
- Norvergcence Standardizes on BEA...
- More >>
Configure Portal
Configure Portal
V
V
Employee Self Service
My Benefits
My Information
My Payroll
My Travel
My Purchasing
Electronic W2
Sales Support
Major Opportunities
Customer Contacts
Productivity
BEA Address Book
BEA Email
BEA Calendar
External Sources
BEA news (Factiva)
Industry news
Stock Quotes
Google Search
Yahoo Mail
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
x
35. THIS NEW ARCHITECTURE RADICALLY
REDUCES TIME TO BUSINESS VALUE
12 - 16 months +
3 - 4 months
Weeks*
First Generation
SOA with 12x4
Delivery Model
Typical ERP –
Major Packaged
Application
Integration
Second
Generation SOA
Our 2004 Delivery Model
Ultra-rapid delivery with highly parallel
development (each service component
has contained scope)
Highly flexible with lower risk
Time to Business Value Delivered
* 3 weeks from requirements to deployment of Web Services
(once infrastructure is built) Multiple services can be built in parallel;
3- 4 weeks for assembly of new applications based on pre-built services
36. We started migrating from Unix to Linux in
2002. Linux-Intel is now our deployment and
development standard
Portal
Apps
Composite
Apps
Shared Application Services
Messaging & Brokering Services
Portal Services
Shared Business Services
Enterprise
Services
Enterprise
Applications
(ERP, CRM,
etc.)
Enterprise
Data
Enterprise Infrastructure Services
Deployment Standards
On a case-by-case basis
Proxy Tier
Application
Tier
Integration
Services
Security
Services
37. Linux is ideally suited for SOAs.
Portal
Apps
Composite
Apps
Shared Application Services
Messaging & Brokering Services
Portal Services
Shared Business Services
Enterprise Infrastructure
Services
High Processing Power for the
Dollar
Ideal for transaction intensive
components (portals, messaging
and brokering services)
Openness
Allows OS tuning for single purpose
components where performance is key
(messaging and brokering,
authentication, security services, etc.)
Small Footprint
Ideal for creation of single purpose
(“plug and play”) appliances (grid
computing)
The answer… we can deliver on these goals and we will.
There are three major trends in Enterprise computing that will help us do this.
The first, and the one I will talk about the most today, is Services Oriented Architectures or SOAs. They are defining the new blue print for how IT capabilities will be built for our businesses. It is a vastly more efficient and effective blueprint… based on the assembly of re-usable and interoperable parts. Interoperability is the big word here… it is the key to this the new IT. This new blueprint will make delivering IT tremendously faster and efficient.
The second trend affects largely the TCO of IT. The growth of low cost, high performance platforms, will continue to make computing ever more affordable … We are here at Linux World because so many of you see the value of these platforms – the TCO advantages of Linux-Intel are already well publicized and well accepted. Add to that ever more affordable, interoperable, and more powerful hardware and the trend is very clear … we will do more with less
The third trend, affects the largest component of the cost of IT. Global sourcing is making and will continue to make a dramatic impact on the availability and cost of labor. This trend to, will continue to make IT more affordable.
When you combine them, you combine a new blueprint for IT, with vastly more affordable inputs (labor, or HW/SW): the results will be dramatic: we will build IT capabilities much faster and much more efficiently. And for those seeking differentiation, differentiation will finally be achievable.
This has been a point of contention for many recently in the IT and business communities: there has been a lot of discussion lately about IT and competitive advantage. In order to bring competitive advantage, IT must allow you to do something better than your competitors - and to sustain this advantage. That is very hard to do when everyone implements the same standard “big footprint package applications”: because no matter what amount of expensive integration you try to add to these packages, at the end of the day, your application and therefore your business processes, look very much like that of your competitor … and the best you can do is keep up with the Jones. Service Oriented Architectures, for those who learn to master them, will allow companies to assemble fairly unique architectures targeting very specific business benefits in ways that will not be readily imitated by their competitors … because they will not come out of a box, and because they will be born out of the creativity and talent of your people both on the IT and business side. So, here is the promise these fundamental trends are bringing us: a lot more speed, a lot more efficiency, and a lot more differentiation.
Let’s get a little deeper into what this means for the IT and business practitioners who are building IT everyday. It is a true paradigm shift. The more powerful paradigm shift that we are seeing in my organization is the shift in focus from “Functionality and Application” to “Process and Business”. My architects are now specifying the designs for services with names such as “Get_Customer”, or “Open_Order” or “Get_Service_History”, and together with their business partners, they whiteboard entire business processes by assembling these services. That is very different from the “old” way. So, I predict that one of the “unexpected” effects of SOAs will help change the relationship between IT and the business bringing them closer to each other and helping them.
There is more to this paradigm shift: development cycles will shrink, or rather, we will go to “High Frequency deployments” of smaller chunks of capability instead of the large, lengthy development (I bet many in this room have seen multi-year cycles, with teams of hundreds of people … anybody says ERP?). This means less investment at risk and business value realized a lot earlier (as you go).
But let’s take a look at an example.
Here is an example of an application that we are building at BEA. It is called the SalesBEAcon. It is a sales portal bringing chockfull of relevant information for our salespeople, to become the sales person’s primary destination.
This application is not really an application in the traditional sense, rather, it is an assembly of multiple web services that each bring important information to the sales person, by exposing information or business logic from multiple internal and external systems. It is extremely rich in information, far more than any single application could be, because precisely, it integrates so many sources. It is also very focused and brings only relevant information to the user.
What is very important here, is that these services are re-usable by other applications and many are: for example: a Web Service that brings back information on the status of a Customer Support ticket, will be leveraged by this Sales Portal, but also by another application we will build for our Customer Support personnel.
This reusability and interoperability is truly the key.
Here is an example from BEA IT – from our Employee and Manager Self Service solution.
This slide shows the workflow of a process we use when a new hire comes on board. It controls the creation of multiple HR and IT accounts across with notifications and approvals by the managers. The process again cuts across multiple apps like PeopleSoft, Exchange, our HR Portal, LDAP… It is easy to configure and reconfigure – what you are seeing here is the HR Manager view of this process.
Let’s talk about what we have done and are doing within BEA.
From a business case stand point, there are two major benefits:
We build applications faster and more cheaply because so much of our components are now reusable. Last year, we estimated we saved over $5M in development costs for custom applications thanks to the Infrastructure
But the key benefit is that we can build applications that are more powerful for our business: this architecture allows us to bring data in real time to the decision makers in our company. If you are a sales person, you will be able to see a realm of relevant information about your customers that used to be buried in functional silos. That will allow our sales personnel to make better decisions, capitalize on more sales opportunities and build longer more productive relationships with their customers.
Within BEA’s IT organization Linux/Intel has become our standard. It is now the standard for all deployments within our SOAs, whether our portal apps our composite apps, or our Infrastructure Services that are the foundation of the architecture.
The integration hub being implemented by BEA, as well as the associated authentication and authorization services have been deployed on the Linux platform; and we intend to expand this deployment as other areas get built up.
As far as the back-end applications are concerned, those will be migrated to Linux/Intel over time, and on a case-by-case basis – the benefit of being on an SOA is that the fact that these applications are hosted in a variety of software and hardware environments does not affect our capacity to interact with them, since all interactions are abstracted at the SOA level.
We all know and will continue to hear about the great performance/price advantages of Linux-Intel. Those are universal and they certainly apply here as well. For example, some of the components of our architecture are very transaction intensive: this is a real time architecture, and components like our portal apps or our messaging / brokering services must transform and route information in real time. This makes Linux-Intel ideal because we get a lot more processing power for the dollar.
But Linux-Intel is also “architecturally well suited” for SOAs. One key characteristic of SOAs is that are built from many components/services performing very specific services. That is very different from a large package application performing a multiplicity of tasks. To optimize the performance of these “single purpose” SOA services we can tune Linux for the specific demands of the service (e.g., processing, data access, etc.). The openness of Linux is a unique advantage – try doing this with a “all purpose” proprietary OS –
You can go so far as creating appliances – for example you can deploy your “security services” on a server with a tuned Linux OS … and plug it into the infrastructure… a little bit of grid computing here.