Fuss About Fusion

8/7/2019 Fuss About Fusion

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WWHATHAT''SS THETHE FFUSSUSS ABOUTABOUT FFUSIONUSION? SOA? SOA ANDAND OORACLERACLE

John Jay King, King Training Resources

WHAT IS SOA (SERVICE ORIENTED ARCHITECTURE)?

SOA represents business functions as shared, reusable services. SOA designs provide theflexibility to treat parts of business processes, and the IT infrastructure that supports them, assecure, standardized components (services) that can be reused and combined to addresschanging business priorities. SOA brings a new way to look at applications; SOA separatesmessages from processing, SOA services provide consistent results via predefined messagesthat might be delivered by any number of environments and mechanisms.

SOA IS NOT JUST TECHNOLOGY !

SOA provides the policies, practices, and frameworks used to ensure real synchronizationbetween the business and IT to provide the right services. SOA allows users of services toleverage their functionality independently from the IT infrastructure technology in use. SOArequires a different mindset for IT professionals: reuse, modularity and architectural principlesare central to SOA design. For successful SOA an IT organization and processes must align withSOA principles, sharing resources and breaking down isolated “silos” of information.

APPLICATION INTEGRATION EVOLVES

IT has been creating complex computer application systems for many years. SOA provides thenext logical step in the integration of systems. The flexibility and adaptability of SOA providesthe ability to create first-quality solutions quickly. By design SOA solutions are reusable,reducing ongoing costs and making IT more agile when changes occur to the business

environment.

INTEGRATION: T HEN AND NOW

Early systems were application-specific offering point-to-point integration. ApplicationIntegration (EAI) solutions provide a hub-and-spoke ability to interact between systems. The SOAmodel integrates applications using standards-based technology.

INTEGRATION HISTORY – HUB- AND-SPOKE

Hub-and-spoke (Integration Brokers) standardized interactions reduced the number of interfacesbringing some reuse and savings.

SOA AND

THE

“ENTERPRISE

SERVICE

BUS

” The advent of web services technology provides a less expensive and standards based approachto solve integration issues. An Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) provides self-directing interfaces.

BENEFITS OF STANDARDS-B ASED SOA

The standards-based nature of SOA reduces platform and tool vendor “lock-in.” Consistency inmethods and technology reduces the overall skill set required for development.

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SOA PRINCIPLES

A key strength of Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) is its simplicity. A few basic principlesguide SOA: standard set of enterprise service definitions described in a registry (like a library),central management of service definitions, and loose coupling. Central management of service

definitions ensures that: duplicate services are not created, developers follow organizationstandards, and that developers can find (and use) services created (or purchased) by others.Loose coupling is a long-standing IT term meaning that the internals of an application orbusiness service must be able to be changed without impacting client applications. Specifically,a service consumer should not be required to know any more about a service than what iscontained in the published contract. Loose coupling means that the message(s) used to interactwith the service are 100% involved with the business function being performed without regard tohow the function is being performed.

W ELL-DEFINED CONTRACTS OF INTERACTION

In order to interact successfully with a service, you must know at least two things: what youexpect to get from the service and what information you have to provide the service so that it

can get the job done. A well-defined “contract” from the service provider spells out the businessand technology requirements for using the service (the “interface”) and how to invoke theservice. A service contract reflects specific business knowledge and is the basis for sharing andreusing services. Maintenance of service “contracts” becomes critical over time. Contracts arestored in a service registry.

WHAT ENABLES SOA?

SOA is enabled by the availability of: services, service providers, service consumers, serviceregistries, and messaging.

SERVICE PROVIDERS

Service Providers provide a service that performs some business function at the request of theService Consumer. Service Providers: create or purchase the service, expose the service,describe the service using a contract, post the contract and any pertinent meta-data (forinstance, documentation) on a registry available to the service consumer (service providersmight also communicate the contract directly to the service consumer (probably the exception,not the rule).

SERVICE CONSUMERS

Service Consumer developers do not have to design, build, or test services; they just use themto accomplish business functions. Service Consumers might be other services, components, orprograms. Services are meant for use between two pieces of software. It is not “normal” forservices to interact directly with humans, though web pages might provide service interaction to

users. Service Consumers receive Contracts for Interaction from the Service Provider. BecauseServices are designed to be reusable, any Service Consumer properly accessing a service willget predictable results.

SERVICE REGISTRIES

Service Registries provide a mechanism for storing, managing, and accessing service contracts.Various mechanisms have been developed for Service Registries over time. It is probably best tostick with an open standards solution using UDDI (Universal Description Discovery andIntegration). A registry serves as a directory of sorts containing: names and description of

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services, service “Contracts” describing service parameters, results, and access methods, anddocumentation (meta-data) for the services

Services on their own are not much use. There must be an infrastructure supporting messagingso that services may be contacted, passed the appropriate information, and allowed to respond

to the service consumer. Messaging is also important when a registry is involved as amechanism to move requests for information about services to the registry, and return contractsdescribing services from the registry. Many successful messaging technologies are in placetoday that can support SOA. In keeping with the principle of using Open Standards, SOA is mostoften implemented using SOAP (a W3C standard).

HOW THE PLAYERS RELATE

1. The Contract describing the service, its inputs and outputs, location, and method of invocation is placed in the

Registry by the Service Provider.

2. The Service Consumer locates a Service using the specifications found in the service’s

contract from a Registry.3. Service Consumers use Services provided by a Service Provider to perform all or part of some

business function.

WHAT ARE WEB SERVICES?

Web Services are services representing all or part of a business process and are designed to beinvoked via a network; typically invoked using SOAP over HTTP, the same standard that enablesthe Web. Web Services are self-contained and self-describing. Web Services can be used by anyService Consumer residing on any platform with web connectivity.

STANDARDS AND W EB SERVICES

Web Services are language and technology agnostic. A Service Consumer written in any

language may use Web Services no matter what language the Service Provider used to create it.Web Services are built using well-known and vendor-independent standards and protocolsincluding: HTTP, XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI. Web Services are not the only way to implementSOA; however, most successful SOA implementations use Web Services due to the ubiquitousnature of HTTP, XML, and other standards-based implementations.

IS EVERYTHING ON THE W EB A W EB SERVICE?

No! The World Wide Web provides a convenient standards-based mechanism for people andorganizations to share information via networks. Many Web pages provide “services” to the userthat are supported by a variety of software, most of this functionality is not currently createdwith Web Services. Web Services are built upon the same basic standards that support all webpages; in addition, Web Services are based upon SOA-oriented standards like SOAP, WSDL,

UDDI, and others.

SOA IS STANDARDS-BASED

The Web (WWW) works because of widely adopted standards. Service Oriented Architecture(SOA) is language and platform independent, following standards makes integration easier. MostEnterprise Service Bus (ESB) products convert non-standard data and messaging to standardizedmessages reusable throughout the bus. Standards central to SOA with Web Services include:SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI.

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SOAP used to be an acronym (that was inaccurate!); today it is simply “SOAP”. SOAP is an XMLapplication used for messaging or other services; since XML is environment and languageindependent SOAP messages may be used anywhere.

Service “contracts” are usually WSDL documents representing the contract. Web Services

Description Language (WSDL) is an XML language describing how programs interact with WebServices. For each service, the WSDL contract specifies: address of the Web Service, availableoperations, format of operation arguments, and exceptions that may be thrown.

Universal Description Discovery and Integration (UDDI) provides a registry of web services sothat others may find and use them. UDDI is one way to implement a Service Registry for SOA.Originally, the creators of Web Services intended for application developers and ServiceConsumers to search the internet for services that might be applicable and then use them.Security and other concerns have brought UDDI registries inside the firewall in mostinstallations.

ORACLE FUSION ARCHITECTURE

So how does Oracle's Fusion fit in? Oracle is using the title "Fusion" to unify its SOA-directedofferings and highlight the integration features incorporated in their products. The two majorlegs of the Oracle Fusion Architecture identified so far are Oracle Fusion Middleware and OracleFusion Applications. Oracle outlines five core principles to Fusion: Model Driven, Service andEvent-Enabled, Information-Centric, Grid-ready, and Standards-Based.

• Model Driven Following business processes

• Service and Event-Enabled Loosely-coupled, modular, flexible

• Information-Centric Providing complete, actionable information

• Grid-ready Scalable via low-cost hardware

• Standards-based Based upon open standards allowing easy interaction with other

productsORACLE FUSION MIDDLEWARE

Built upon the foundation laid by Oracle Application Server 10G, Oracle Fusion Middleware buildson the solid J2EE and open-source architecture of Oracle Application Server improvingintegration between applications. The SOA emphasis on business processes in Oracle FusionMiddleware leads to better coordination between Information Technology groups and Businessunits. Oracle Fusion Middleware comes complete with over 250 adapters to existing applicationsystems including (but not limited to): Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, and JD Edwards.Oracle Fusion Middleware includes: BAM (Business Activity Monitoring) providing real-timeaccess to business performance information, BPEL (Business Process Execution Language) formanaging and orchestrating business rules, Web Services Manager for security (Oracle

Directory, Active Directory, LDAP), ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) to provide routing andmessaging, and the Application Server (Oracle Application Server or any J2EE Application Serversuch as BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, or others).

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While Oracle Fusion Applications rely heavily on Oracle Fusion Middleware components, theopposite is not true. An organization may use Oracle Fusion Middleware and its wide array of tools even if Oracle Fusion Applications are not installed. Oracle Fusion Middleware's reliance onindustry standards (like SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI) and SOA makes it an excellent choice no matter

how applications are supported in an organization. Oracle Fusion will also include the toolsnecessary to create and use Web Services in Oracle Fusion like Oracle’s ApplicationDevelopment Framework (ADF), Oracle JDeveloper, Oracle BPEL Process Manager, and OracleWorkflow.

ORACLE FUSION APPLICATIONS

Fusion Applications are the next generation of Oracle's Applications products. Rather than"stitching together" the disparate technologies, Fusion will use a service-oriented architecture tomake the functionality of the various tools available. Rather than customizing applications,business process modeling may be used to orchestrate existing functions to handle issues notaddressed by current applications. This builds upon a foundation of work begin at PeopleSoft. AsOracle move the Applications products forward they want to take advantage of the best features

of each environment making future products better. Fusion is really a destination point.Oracle is relying on SOA to develop the next generation of Oracle applications because itprovides a standard method of integrating and evolving business application functionality fromthe Oracle E-Business Suite, PeopleSoft, JD Edwards, and other Oracle application products. Theindustry-standard nature of SOA will allow third-parties to extend Oracle Fusion Applicationsadding new functionality or customized services. Oracle chose the "Fusion" name to highlightthis synergy of components developed by Oracle and others.

Fusion Middleware is the key to Oracle’s Fusion Applications. Many of Fusion Middleware's keycomponents are the result of Fusion Application requirements. However, Fusion Middleware canbe used without Fusion Applications.

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FUTURE DIRECTIONS

This year (2006), Oracle intends to release the next versions of its various applications products:Oracle E-Business Suite 12, PeopleSoft Enterprise 9, and JD Edwards 8.12. In addition, Oracle willprobably leverage the CRM technology obtained by purchasing Siebel as a cornerstone for Oracle

Fusion Applications. Each of the new products will provide some Fusion capabilities. Oracle E-Business Suite will be delivered on the latest Fusion Middleware release and some applicationswill begin migrating to the Fusion tools. Also scheduled for later this year is Oracle's servicerepository allowing access to services currently available.

WHAT IS AN ESB (ENTERPRISE SERVICE BUS)?

Ask ten people, get ten answers. Some say that an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is simplymessaging applied to a service-oriented architecture. Some say it is Web Service management.Here are some traits most commonly associated with ESBs:

• Routing Routing anywhere on the ESB

• Transformation Data transformed/translated anywhere on the ESB

• Security Unified security and access model

• Management Centralized local and remote ESB management

• Availability Software to ensure availability and reliability

• Others Service Location, Process Execution/Monitoring,Monitoring,

Policy Management, and Subscription Management

Prime characteristics of an ESB include pervasiveness, emphasis on standards, security andreliability, availability to multiple types of clients, ability to consume a service using standardmessaging even though the provider uses something else, and transformation of data from whatit currently is to what we need. Other important characteristics include extensibility even to non-standard products, asynchronous event processing, security and reliability, abstraction of theworkings behind the contracts, and even though services might be autonomous and on differentsystems they are federated into a cohesive set of services for us to use.

Oracle's ESB includes: enterprise messaging (OEMS), multiple transports, monitoring console,request/response and EDA, native XML and Web Services, metadata Repository, UDDIRepository, externalized process flows, real-time activity monitoring, and an integrated design.

The Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) is meant to be the backbone of SOA. An ESB is a standards-based integration platform combining messaging, web services, data transformation, anddynamic routing. ESB is a new approach to integration, improving on the Hub-and-SpokeIntegration Broker concept because of its standards-based orientation. The ESB provides a“transparent pipeline” for SOA through which messages and events flow via multi-protocol

message bus routing dynamically across the available network. Applications and Event-DrivenService components expose course grained loosely coupled interfaces to the ESB making themreusable more-broadly to the enterprise. Like a passenger bus, an ESB collects a rider (ServiceConsumer request) and takes it to a destination (Service Provider) without telling the driver(ESB) how to get there. The Service Consumer and the Service Provider only need to know howto talk to the ESB (usually using standards-based tools). Thus, the ESB is an improvedintegration broker.

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CONCLUSION

Oracle's Fusion Architecture is a strong step into the future for Oracle and Oracle's customers.Advances in Oracle Fusion Middleware will enable implementation of Service OrientedArchitecture (SOA) using industry-standard tools and methods even for shops that do not use

Oracle's application products. Oracle Fusion Applications will allow the graceful "blending" of Oracle's various ERP and CRM products into a whole that is better than the sum of its parts.Oracle Fusion Applications will be extensible using industry-standard tools eliminating much of the costly "customization" so common in earlier installations.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

John King is a Partner in King Training Resources, a firm providing instructor-led training since1988 across the United States and Internationally. John specializes in application developmentsoftware on a variety of platforms including Web, UNIX, Linux, IBM mainframe, and personal

computers. John has worked with Oracle products and the database since Version 4 and hasbeen providing training to Oracle application developers since Oracle Version 5. John developsand presents customized courses in a variety of topics including SOA, Web Services, Oracle,DB2, UDB, Java, XML, C#, and various programming languages. He has presented papers atmany industry events including: IOUG-A Live!, UKOUG Conferences, EOUG Conferences, AUSOUGConferences, RMOUG Training Days, OOUG, TOUG, MAOP-AOTC, NYOUG, and the ODTUGconference.

John Jay King

King Training Resources

6341 South Williams Street

Littleton, CO 80121-2627

U.S.A.

Phone: 1.303.798.5727 1.800.252.0652 (within the U.S.)

Fax: 1.303.730.8542

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.kingtraining.com

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Fuss About Fusion