Tridens » SOA

Employing JBoss SOA Platform to Integrate Oracle BRM with Third Party Systems

admin — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 08:49:03 +0000

To continue the story about the notification events integration of Oracle BRM, we will present the integration of Oracle BRM with the JBoss 5.0.2GA Enterprise SOA Platform, which is being used as middleware in a mid-sized mobile operator company. Prior to this notification events integration, we had also used JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform to integrate Oracle BRM with some other third party systems (ERP, CRM, WEB and WAP portal, USSD…,) so it was a logical step to implement this notification event integration in the same way.

As mentioned in the previous article, Oracle BRM is capable of publishing events in the database, through http requests or in some other way, by implementing custom connectors. After some investigation and prototyping, we decided that an http requests approach would be the most suitable in our case. We dismissed a database approach because of the very frequent requests to the DB (it was requested that some specific notification events be provided to third party systems in a matter of seconds.) So, we used the ESB functionality of JBoss and exposed the http interface through an http_gateway.
This configuration allows us to handle a huge number of notification events without any performance dropdowns on the Oracle BRM side. All notification events are stored in a queue through the http_gateway and then handled appropriately using a rule engine. With defining rules in the rule engine, events are properly categorized and sent to specified services for further processing and further third party notifying.

One quite complex task was configuring rules for proper event handling. Our approach was to uniquely create messages according to event types, system ids, and other specific parameters. In this way, we were able to define priorities and specific routes for the messages. Also, we had to use several channels for sending notification events to third party systems. As is the case in many other companies, this mobile operator utilizes some legacy systems which do not have interfaces used in most modern systems. Notification events for those legacy systems are routed to special services, which communicate with them in specified way. For other systems, (SMS Gateway, CRM, ERP, WEB and WAP portal…) we used standard communication methods, such as web services and http interfaces.

In the current configuration, we are able to handle several hundred events per second from Oracle BRM to JBoss middleware. However, because all unwanted events have already been removed by the Oracle BRM Payload Generator EM, up to now there have been no such high loads on the production systems. On the other hand, we have noticed performance issues when communicating with some of the third party systems. For example, ERP is very problematic during the processing of payments, and, during this time, there should be no interference from other systems. So, for handling such bottlenecks, we are also using queues for outbound messages. All messages for those systems are put in a queue and sent out at an appropriate rate (in some cases, only one message every 5 seconds).

Such a design allows us to add new notification events or to extend notification event service to another third party system with a very limited number of changes and without affecting currently running services. In most cases, it requires only changes in the configuration files. For example, sending an additional notification event would require a change in the Oracle BRM payloadconfig.xml file and adding a rule for routing this new message in the JBoss Rule engine.

With the successful implementation of this solution in a production environment, we have proved that the integration of Oracle BRM with third party systems is very efficient and reliable, using Oracle BRM EAI on the billing side and Red Hat JBoss Enterprise SOA Platform with ESB on the middleware side.

SOA Development for Mobile Devices

admin — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 13:58:27 +0000

Every day there are more and more very capable mobile devices on the market. Larger touch screens enable these mobile devices to be used for an ever-increasing number of complex tasks. So, the next time you or your employees are in the field, all your important business information will be only a touch away. And, if your business is already SOA enabled, this will be quite simple to accomplish. But there are a few steps that need to be followed first:

Decide which business processes must be available on mobile devices
Redefine needed business processes in such way that most tasks can be done in off-line mode
Decide which functionalities should be available on mobile devices
Design a GUI for mobile devices

To prepare business processes to work in a mobile environment, close cooperation between SOA experts/consultants and mobile device experts is needed. This is necessary in order to overcome all the limitations of both systems and to accomplish a successful integration. It is desirable that only needed functionalities be available on mobile devices and that the number of interactions to the main SOA system and the amount of data transferred be limited to a minimum. On the other hand, business process analysts should be very careful not to limit functionality too much; otherwise defined business processes would become useless.

The main objectives for mobile devices experts will be such tasks as deciding which mobile platforms should be supported, helping you redefine business processes, designing the GUI, etc. They should take into consideration the size of the mobile device display, the limited functionalities, as compared to computers, and, of course, the limitations associated with data transfer. In some remote locations, network signals could be very low, so data transfer would be very slow or impossible. Even when a network signal is strong, the data transfer speed on mobile devices can not be compared to that of a local area network. And this is the main reason why mobile applications should be designed for work in the off-line mode; only when data are needed to be transferred should the necessary connection to the SOA environment be established .

For the GUI ,two main approaches can be considered:

Web Interface
Custom application

For Web Interface, only appropriate web pages should be created. This is the simpler approach and less complex web pages are compatible with most browsers on mobile devices. So, while this method would work on a wide number of different mobile devices, functionality would be limited, rendering it acceptable for only very simple tasks.

For complex tasks, implementing the custom application in order to exploit the rich functionality of the Android platform and the very popular IPhone and IPad devices is recommended. This will bring to mobile devices the full functionality of your SOA environment with a very rich GUI. Using this approach, your employees will be far more efficient in the field.

With this relatively simple change in your SOA environment, and with custom applications for mobile devices, your employees would get real-time access to vital business information, even while they are in the field. In today’s highly competitive business environment, such an advantage can mean the difference between success and failure.

SOA Development for Small Companies

admin — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 10:24:43 +0000

Most small companies are not interested in SOA. The main reason for this is that upper management is frightened of what they think will be the huge expenses connected with the development of SOA. But, as ever, technology has been changing. Now, in fact, SOA can be very beneficial for even small business since SOA development and integration now can be implemented at a much lower cost than before.

But to gain SOA benefits, several procedures must be followed. Before starting an SOA project, which business process will be implemented should first be defined. For the first project, the process chosen should be something simple and not business critical. In that way, positive results will quickly be apparent, and in case of failure, none of the business critical processes will be affected.

Before each SOA project is started, a good road map with defined milestones needs to be created. The milestones should be relatively close together so development progress can be actively controlled. Because a good road map cannot be drawn without at least a basic design of the new SOA system, it is recommended that expert SOA consultants are included at this stage. This will be very beneficial in the latter stages of the project because those milestones will already be well-defined, and the SOA development team will be able to deliver on time.

Of course, in SOA projects for small companies, system architecture is also crucial for the successful implementation of SOA. However, costs can be much lower than for huge SOA projects. A small company’s business organization is much simpler, so such implementation can start with integration of only a small part of business processes, a lot of work can be done by an internal IT team, if available, and progress can proceed in small steps. But still, the main roles (i.e. business analyst and SOA architect) should be filled by specialists from SOA development companies. For those key tasks, experience is very important, and many SOA consulting and development companies can offer that.

The next step is the development of the SOA services needed for integrating business processes. To lower costs, many free tools can be used: servers, IDEs, ESBs, and BPEL processing tools. Development with these free tools can be as rapid and successful as with other, payable solutions. But the key element is a well-integrated team. The best results can be achieved with a team associated with the inside developer working with an outside SOA developer expert from an SOA consulting company.

Developing SOA projects and integrating a company’s business systems in that way will produce very rapid and beneficial results for whole company; however, the costs will remain quite low and will be returned in a very short time.

Using SOA to Improve Your Business Value

admin — Tue, 09 Mar 2010 09:48:51 +0000

The main function of SOA is to move company ITs from an outdated system architecture, based on autonomous applications tightly coupled together by custom integration processes, to a modern type of architecture, developed on independent services, which are loosely coupled, using standards-based messaging. SOA improves IT infrastructure by making it less expensive but much more efficient, flexible and easier to expand and reuse. In SOA environments, companies can overcome the main gap in legacy systems between their business requirements and the capabilities of their IT systems.

However, SOA development is still considered an IT issue. One of the reasons is that IT managers are not successfully explaining SOA’s business benefits to upper management. Also, upper management is not really interested in processes for better IT utilization or in recognizing SOA’s potential.

To get support from upper management for the successful development of SOA, it is important to build a roadmap that illustrates an understanding of not only the technologies but also the business value , impact, technology capabilities, interactions between systems, robustness, lower development costs, and security factors. A number of business related issues are important for SOA strategy and technologies:

Agility in changing systems to follow new and changing business processes.
Solving problems of badly integrated systems, which requires a lot of development, time, and money to integrate.
Problems of data and business logic spreading, which can cause unexpected difficulties
High maintenance costs.
User dissatisfaction with the current system.
Possibility for step-by-step systems upgrading.

These are only some arguments that can be used by IT managers for presenting SOA advantages to management. Moreover, SOA consulting and development companies, whose analysts and architects are able to explain the advantages of SOA to an organization could also be very helpful. They can also assist your company in the development of SOA principles and best practices that guide planning, development, integration, and management of application infrastructures. In addition, they can be useful when preparing a business case that demonstrates the value of SOA to upper management.

It is crucial that SOA consultants and businesses work together in conducting an analysis. The most important factors for SOA strategy are the business analyst and the SOA architect; the former is responsible for representing the business requirements, while the latter is responsible for ensuring compliance with the IT strategy.

An analysis provided by a business analyst and an SOA architect can be used to justify investment in SOA. A clear and comprehensive analysis prepared through an open and constructive dialog, is the perfect way to demonstrate the value of SOA and IT synergy to upper management.

In this way, IT and SOA become a fundamental part of the business strategy and can provide significant improvements for your company.