Application Integration, Data Access, and Process Change

1. Application Integration, Data Access, and Process Change

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 can enable real-time processes, allow secure access to data elements, and support distributed development • The University’s rate of deployment will depend upon central technologies and access policies

3. Agenda • What is Service-Oriented Architecture? • What are Web Services? • How will these technologies mesh with NUIT’s architecture plans? • What steps should application developers and planners be taking today?

4. Agenda • What is Service-Oriented Architecture? • What are Web Services? • How will these technologies mesh with NUIT’s architecture plans? • What steps should application developers and planners be taking today?

5. 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

6. “SOA” circa 1970s • Subroutine/function libraries (IMSL) • OS services (I/O) Tightly-bound to object representation Embedded instances

7. Network SOA

8. Agenda • What is Service-Oriented Architecture? • What are Web Services? • How will these technologies mesh with NUIT’s architecture plans? • What steps should application developers and planners be taking today?

9. 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”)

10. 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

11. SOAP Messages XML document Construction & decoding within tools and run-time services Message may be encrypted via https and/or under WS-Security

12. SOAP Interceptors and Handlers After Burton Group

13. Web Service Can … • Be created through: • .NET (Visual Studio) • J2EE authoring environments (Eclipse) • C++ & Visual Basic 3rd party wrapers • PeopleSoft Component Interfaces • PeopleSoft Integration Points • Be invoked through: • Dynamic discovery (UDDI) • Compiled WSDL definition

14. Web Services Require… • New approaches to development • Services, not components • Flat documents, not structured data • Chunky, not chatty • New infrastructure • WSDL • UDDI • Enterprise Service Bus / Integration Broker

15. Interface Granularity After Burton Group

16. Web Services for SOA

17. Agenda • What is Service-Oriented Architecture? • What are Web Services? • How will these technologies mesh with NUIT’s architecture plans? • What steps should application developers and planners be taking today?

18. Business Drivers Security Mobility Self-service Real-time processes Data availability Rapid deployment Architecture Central identity and authentication Portal navigation Web-Service integration Standards-based environment Abstraction or virtualization Architectural Direction

19. System Architecture

20. Abstraction or Virtualization • Convert an application-specific service into a general infrastructure service • Storage management • Authentication • Authorization • Computing platform • Database

21. Direct-to-Application Access

22. Repository Virtualization

23. Database Virtualization

24. Web Services Access

25. Web Services Infrastructure

26. 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

28. Distributed Development Portal Database Web Services Infrastructure Web Service for data access Authored JSR 168 Portlet Authored Application

29. Agenda • What is Service-Oriented Architecture? • What are Web Services? • How will these technologies mesh with NUIT’s architecture plans? • What steps should application developers and planners be taking today?

30. What Steps Should Planners and Developers Take Today? • Stop buying or creating applications with “silo” approaches – use central services • Stop copying data around the network • Start serious discussions with your users about what data access services they need and can justify • Determine your vendor’s plans for Web Service integration – and influence those plans • Train your staff on SOA and Web Services • Talk with NUIT and your NU peers about authoring tools, test environments, and other infrastructure – don’t “go it alone”

31. 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)

32. Forecasts • New financial system will rely first upon Web Services for integration, but many batch interfaces will take years to change as software is replaced • Our community will push for real-time processes, and service units will need time to adjust

33. Questions? Q & A

34. 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 Professional Development Topics

35. Suggested Reading Haddad, Chris, “Web Services and Service Oriented Architecture: Collapsing Boundaries Between the J2EE and .NET Platforms”, Burton Group presentation, 18 Dec 2003. Katz, Richard, “What Does System Integration Really Mean for Higher Education?”, Educause Review, Sep/Oct 2003. Kobielus, James, “Orchestrating Web Services: Driving Distributed Process Execution Through Workflow Technology”, Burton Group, 18 Dec 2003. Manes, Anne Thomas, et al, “VantagePoint 2005-2006 SOA Reality Check”, Burton Group, 29 Jun 2005. Manes, Anne Thomas, Web Services – A Manager’s Guide, Addison-Wesley, 2003.

36. 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