Reducing Complexity With SOA

8/3/2019 Reducing Complexity With SOA

1/15

Breaking SOA Bottlenecks

Reducing Complexity with SOA

Tom Krotchko, Director Web

Architecture, Amtrak

May 16, 2007



2/15


Only Obvious in Hindsight

Complexity increased at Amtrak

Technology Changes Business Changes

Increasing complexity ignored until itcaused pain


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The Symptoms Of Complexity

Increasing Costs and Effort

Customer Behavior & Expectations

Changes in Business Expectation

Obsolescence of Core Technologies


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What We Found

XMLover IP

3270 via DLC

Arrow

Arrow Function Arrow Function Arrow FunctionArrow Function Arrow Function

AAPI

XAAPI

HLLAPI / Attachmate

HAS

TPF SNA

Speech Etravel

RMI

XML via http

HLLAPI/COMMS

Java Servlet

Engine

SNA Server Client

EmbeddedEmbedded

QuikTrak RailRes

BookIt!

tickets.Amtrak.com

SNA Server

STARS

3270

via IP

3270

via IPX

3270 via DLC

Embedded

3270

via IP

Embedded


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Rube Goldberg: Alive and Well


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How did we get into this mess?

There was simply too much stuff!

Without a roadmap of our own, we endedup supporting whatever a vendor insisted

we had to have Business logic was recreated over and

over


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Head Towards the Light

h

WWW/Sock et Server

Amt rak St ruc t u red Da ta

Cl ien t In ter fac e

Gatew ay to o the r w eb

con ten t

High level

abs t rac t ion o f

Ar row func t ion

Business

Log ic

Security


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Integration

Standard Interface

Centralized Security Consolidation of Business Logic

Common Interface to Legacy Systems


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Lead to SOA

XML Appl iance

(secur i ty & rou t ing)

XAAPI

(Screen To Struc tured)

Arrow

(reservat ions & sa les)

webMethods

In tegra t ion

Server

Amtrak .com

Self-Service

Kiosk

B2B

Partners

Government

Par tnerships

Ju l ie

(voice)

Cal l Cent er

S ta t ion

Sales

Sta t ionSignage

In Use Ac t i ve

Pro jec ts

New


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But Why?

A messaging layer was part of our

roadmap Previous experiences with simple

message layers showed us theadvantages of standardization

Web services had finally achieved acritical mass


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An API to the Business

Think of the SOA as an API to describe

your business Schema development is harder than most

people think Work with existing standards whenever

possible

A good-enough industry standard API isbetter than a perfect proprietary API


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Did we reduce complexity?

We didnt remove complexity, we moved it

where it is easier to manage Tactical complexity was easier to fix

Systemic complexity is taking a long timeto fix, but has enterprise benefits

Development is faster, cheaper, andreusable


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Dont Add Complexity

Interfaces are strategic

Services by themselves add complexity Governance helps manage complexity, not

reduce it Design your services the way you design a

database Consistency is your friend


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Partnership With the Business

Educate the business about your strategic

technology direction Position the technology as a way to enable

business process improvements Resist technical architectures from the

business

The SOA should mirror the business, notthe technical implementation


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A Journey of a Thousand Miles

The first steps with an SOA will begin with

a technical implementation SOA will be disruptive to both the business

and technology The test of your plan will occur when the

business moves in a direction you didntanticipate

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Reducing Complexity With SOA