Relevance of Service Orientated Architecture to an Academic Infrastructure

© 2006 IBM Corporation

IBM Software Group

Relevance of Service Orientated Architecture to an Academic InfrastructureGareth Greenwood, e-learning Evangelist, IBM Software Group

TechWorks© 2006 IBM Corporation 2

● Representing every application or data resource as a service with a standardized interface

● Enabling them to exchange structured information (messages, documents, ‘business objects’)

● Mediating the message exchange through an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

● Providing connection to the ESB for legacy application environments

SOA Enables Flexibility of Both IT and BusinessThrough Flexible Connectivity of Business Services


… a service?

A repeatable business task – e.g., check

customer credit; open new account

… service orientation?

A way of integrating your business as linked

services

… service oriented architecture (SOA)?

An IT architectural style that supports

service orientation

… a composite application?

A set of related & integrated services that

support a business process built on an SOA

What is IBM’s Definition of SOA …..?


Introducing Composite Applications

Composite applications are:

● A way to aggregate business services and present them to the right users at the right time.

● A method to complete a task by utilizing standardized and reusable business processes

● A way to automate services by exposing human accessible processes in structured ways

● Built using IT services such as integration, personalization, security, collaboration and orchestrated workflow services

Service A (Credit Check)Portlet A

Service D (Place Order)

Service B (Account Balance)

Service C (Check Inventory)

Portlet B

Portlet C

Portlet D

Business Value

Reuse existing assets

Quickly deploy new business models and processes

ITW Conference 2005© 2006 IBM Corporation 5

An approach for building distributed systems that deliver application functionality as services to either end-user applications or other services

It defines : An architecture that leverages open standards to

represent software assets as services. Provides a standard way of representing and

interacting with software assets Individual software assets become building blocks that

can be reused in developing other applications Shifts focus to application assembly rather than

implementation details Used internally to create new applications out of

existing components Used externally to integrate with applications outside

of the enterprise

Services are the Building Blocks for Reuse!

A Service Oriented Architecture – IT View


The SOA Foundation Lifecycle


The SOA Foundation Lifecycle

Gather requirements

Model & SimulateDesign

Discover existing assets

Construct & TestCompose

Manage applications & services

Manage identity & compliance

Monitor business metrics

Financial transparencyBusiness/IT alignmentProcess control

Deploy and Integrate withPeopleProcessInformation


SOA Reference Architecture

Ap

ps

&

Info

As

sets

Business Innovation & Optimization Services

Dev

elo

pm

ent

Ser

vice

s

Interaction Services Process Services Information Services

Partner Services Business App Services Access Services

Integrated environment for design

and creation of solution

assets

Manage and secure services,

applications &

resources

Facilitates better decision-making with real-time business information

Enables collaboration between people,

processes & information

Orchestrate and automate business

processes

Manages diverse data and content in a

unified manner

Connect with trading partners

Build on a robust, scaleable, and secure services environment

Facilitates interactions with existing information and application assets

ESBFacilitates communication between services

IT S

ervi

ceM

anag

emen

t

Infrastructure Services

Optimizes throughput, availability and performance

Model

AssembleDeploy

Manage


So how does this relate to an Academic Establishment

● Today most academic establishments have the following characteristics: Most academic establishments have disparate IT applications and services.

Some central services, e.g. student registration, staff HR systems, central library systems.

Many local services that are faculty and department based, e.g. VLE type services, learning support services.

Hardware to support these disparate services is scattered across the organisation with no central control, management or load balancing.

No reuse of existing services within the establishment.

Limited if any interaction or connection between disparate services at any level:

Presentation level – no common access point to all services

Application level – each service is standalone

Data level – data stores are independent with no cross-connection

● Applying SOA would change these characteristics!


Applying SOA concepts in Academia

● SOA can be applied across the range of ICT systems and infrastructure in an academic institution.

● This presentation will now consider how four components of the SOA reference model apply to the academic world. Enterprise Service Bus

Interaction Services

Access Services

Information Services

● N.B. The principles of SOA can also readily apply to e-learning materials such as interactive Web Based Materials that are effectively applications.


Critical Components for Academic SOA - 1: ESB

● Provides the service orientated interconnection channel for services.

● Enables data owned by different services to be accessed, shared and correlated.

● Technically operates at a services orientated level using methods such as Webservices.

● Removes the need for individual point to point integration connections between applications using integration solutions that are custom at both the process and technology level.

ESB


Critical Components for Academic SOA - 2: Interaction Services

● Provides a common set of collaboration services that are accessible to all users and all services. Instant messaging and Awareness

Chat Boards (Sticky Chat)

E-mail

Discussion; threaded, structured, unstructured.

RSS feeds

Document store and sharing

Advanced search tools

Composite presentation services

● In an Academic environment this includes VLE services


Critical Components for Academic SOA - 3: Access Services

● Provides a common access point for all services: Single sign-on to all services.

Single security control mechanism for access to services

Single and common identification of each user

Common service for identification of user role, permissions and rights to all services

● In an Academic environment this can bring great benefits for the security of the institution, its IT services, its data, its students and its staff.


Critical Components for Academic SOA - 4: Information Services

● Provides a common access and management method for all data sources in the organisation, regardless of the structural nature of the data.

● Enables data owned by different departments to be accessed, shared and correlated by any authorised user.

● From an Academic perspective this allows for sharing of material such as student data, academic submissions, discussion input and teaching staff materials.


Questions?

THANK YOU

Relevance of Service Orientated Architecture to an Academic Infrastructure

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