TPF User’s Group 1999 Fall Conference
CORBA, Middleware and Interoperability What does it mean for TPF?
Kieron Branagan,
Director - Product Management,
IONA Technologies Inc.
Email: kieron.branagan@iona.com
Agenda
• Business Drivers and Interoperability
• Beans means Heinz
– Interoperability means Middleware
• What is CORBA?
– Framework approach to Middleware
• CORBA Airline Deployments
• Case Studies
– Boeing, Delta Airlines, AA.com
• CORBA and TPF
Top 10 Reasons that drive the
requirement for Interoperability
Weighted
rank
1. External Web access to "internal" applications
50
2. Shorter "cycle times" and the need to improve service
42
3. Corporate initiatives such as "supply-chain integration"
40
4. Specific end-user requests
35
5. Mergers and acquisitions
32
6. Links to customers and suppliers for e-commerce
32
7. Consolidation of systems into centralized management
31
8. Pressure on IT costs
31
9. Growth in the "reuse" of existing applications
31
10. Major implementation of SAP or similar enterprise package
25
Source: Soundview Technology Group, 1999
Interoperability means Middleware
GartnerGroup formally defines Middleware as:
runtime system software that directly enables
application level interactions among programs
in a distributed computing environment
Many approaches to basic Middleware
Communication Middleware
Data Management Middleware
Platform Middleware
When There Is No Middleware
DBMS
Operating
system Application
Network
software
Source: GartnerGroup, 1999
DBMS
Operating
Application system
Network
software
Communication Middleware
DBMS
Operating Application
system
Communication
middleware
Network
software
Source: GartnerGroup, 1999
DBMS
Application Operating
system
Communication
middleware
Network
software
Data Management Middleware
Application
DBMS
SQL (API)
DBMS
Operating middleware
system
Network
software
Source: GartnerGroup, 1999
DBMS
middleware Operating
system
Network
software
Platform Middleware
DBMS
DBMS
Application
Operating
system
Application
Application
Platform
middleware
Network
software
Source: GartnerGroup, 1999
Platform
middleware
Network
software
Operating
system
What is CORBA?
The Key Driver - Change
• Everything is changing….
– Markets
– Business Models
– Technology
• CIO Mission
– Align Information Systems to Business Goals
– Increasingly difficult, as rate of change increases
It’s Easy, Right?
COM
CORBA
Java
XML
JDBC
DNA
MTS
SSL
JTS
ASPs
HTTP
App Servers
IIOP
HTML
EJB
All this new technology creates
Technology Boundaries
• How will the new
technology work with
what I have?
• How will what’s new
today work with what’s
new tomorrow, next
year, next decade?
Boundaries such as...
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Language
Operating System
Network
Messaging Systems
Legacy Systems
Component Models
Organizational
Framework approach to
Making Software Work Together
• The high rate of development of new
technologies
 we need a greater emphasis on a consistent
architecture or framework
– into which you can plug new technologies as you adopt
them
– and which can work with current and legacy systems
• This framework must be a Standard
– it can persist as Technologies, Businesses,
Applications change
The Standard Exists - CORBA !
• Provides
– an architecture for building distributed systems
– a standard for middleware
– a framework for application integration
• Key Elements
– Object and Component model
– Standardised Interfaces (IDL)
– Standardised protocols (IIOP)
– Services and Facilities
Who controls CORBA?
• CORBA is a standard
controlled by the Object
Management Group
(OMG)
• OMG Formed 1989 (10th
Anniversary)
• Now 850+ members
• www.omg.org
Common Object Request Brokering Architecture
CORBA - Interface Definition Language
VB
Implementation is
Hidden behind interface
C++
Java
C
Ada
Service or Contractoriented View
CORBA - Integration and Distribution
Java
VB
CORBA Software Bus
IDL Interface
Definition
Language
VC++
Cobol
Smalltalk
IIOP Internet
InterOrb
Protocol
CORBA - Provides Services
Standard
IDL for
Services
Java
VB
Naming
Events
Transactions
Security
Trader
CORBA Software Bus
Notification
Persistence
VC++
Cobol
Smalltalk
Object Management Architecture
Non-standardized
app-specific
Application Interfaces
Vertical
frameworks
Horizontal
frameworks
Domain Interfaces
Common Facilities
CORBA Software Bus
CORBA Services
CORBA - Recast as Layers
Applications
Domain Interfaces
Business Object
Billing System
Finance, Telco, Healthcare, Transport
Customer, Company, Invoice
Facilities
System Management
Services
Naming, Events, Transaction, Security
Core ORB
Orbix, OrbixWeb, OrbixMVS
CORBA - Addressing the Boundaries
• Languages
– IDL maps to many languages : C++, C, Ada,
Smalltalk, Java, COBOL, Pl/I
• Networks
– Designed to make it easier to build distributed
systems - key protocol is IIOP
• Operating Systems
– Available on most Unixes, most Microsofts,
OS/390 and now TPF!
CORBA - Addressing the Boundaries
• Component Models
– Provides a language neutral Component Model
– Supports interoperability with COM+, with EJB
• Organisational Boundaries
– IDL provides the right level of abstraction for
publishing “Open” APIs
– Domain Interfaces are providing common
domain APIs for Finance, Healthcare, Telco,
Transport, Manufacturing.,...
So much for the theory!
Lets talk CORBA Airline
Deployments!
CORBA Airline Deployments
Lufthansa
All trademarks are property of their owners
Case Study - Boeing
Boeing - DCAC/MRM Success Factors
• Flexibility
- Accommodate future changes from both external
and internal sources
• Scalability
- Accommodate current and future growth in users,
transactions and data
• Reliability
- Provide consistent, dependable delivery of services
• Performance
- Must be the best possible product (consistent with
the above objectives)
Use COTS
COTS
COTS
COTS
The Integrator View
Integration of Middle Tiers
COTS
COTS
COTS
Existing
Productio
nSystems
Integration of Middle Tiers
Select the Best Parts of the Best Commercial Software
COTS COTS
COTS
COTS COTS
Middleware
Services
Existing
Productio
COTS n
Systems
Integration of Middle Tiers
Integrate the Best Parts of the Best Commercial Software
COTS COTS
COTS
COTS COTS
Existing
Production
COTS Systems
MOM
CORBA
Services
Boeing - Industry Standard Integration
Yesterday
Tomorrow
Baan
Spares
BASS
Inventory
CAPP
Metaphase
Configurator
MRA
PS
OL
OSCE
MAIDS
OLS
MSUP
BLS
PCA
MAST
IBAS
SOLS
PICS
Legacy
Services
System Mgmt
SMART
Legacy
Security
Printing
Loosely Coupled Computing
Mainline Computing Systems Environment, Minimal Dependencies,
(Point-to-Point)
TBS1 Approach
Boeing - Industry Standard Integration
• Boeing is a manufacturing company - very
aware of the savings associated with standards
• Boeing experience with open IT infrastructure
standards is very positive e.g. world class
intranet
• Multiple products to chose from, multiple
vendors less risk
• Interoperability of products simplifies IT
universe
Boeing DCAC/MRM
Deployment Phase 3
• 50,000 users
• 19 Parts Plants
• 29 data servers - Sequent NUMA-Q
• 86 central HP servers (K570)
• 77 campus HP servers (K460)
• 20 remote sites
Case Study - Delta Airlines
Source: Delta Technology presentation at IONA’s Airline & Travel Industry Seminar, Dallas, Sep 1998
Delta Airlines - ABS Framework
• Major business process re-engineering project
• 4 technology partners (IONA, IBM, HP, Oracle)
• IONA to provide critical infrastructure - naming,
events, transactions, security and management
• Building service based framework to support
business object services - all defined using IDL
• Deploying software to 173 airports (2-3 years)
• Currently ‘Gate & Boarding’ business functions
at Jacksonville Airport, Florida and ATL, SLC,
BOS, DFW...
Delta Airlines - Middleware Services
Time
PDS
Logging
Events Service
IIOP
HP ServiceGuard
Tivoli Adapter
TPF
MQ Control
Naming Service
IIOP
MQ Series
MQ S erie s
IIOP
Sockets
ALC -EC A
MQ S erie s
Client
VECTR
ALC -EC A
Monitoring
Event Loop
Dynamic Any
LNames
Source: Delta Technology presentation at IONA’s Airline & Travel Industry Seminar, Dallas, Sep 1998
Delta Airlines - Business Domain Services
Pricing
Market Analysis
Flight Schedule
Reservation
Ticketing
Boarding
Execution
Crew
Scheduling
Flight
Information
Gate
Scheduling
Planning
IIOP
Sockets
ALC -EC A
MQ S erie s
Maintenance
Inventory
Aircraft
Scheduling
Client
Source: Delta Technology presentation at IONA’s Airline & Travel Industry Seminar, Dallas, Sep 1998
Delta Airlines ABS
Time
PDS
Logging
Events Service
IIOP
Pricing
Market Analysis
Flight Schedule
HP ServiceGuard
Tivoli Adapter
Naming Service
IIOP
MQ Series
MQ S erie s
Reservation
Ticketing
Boarding
Planning
Execution
Crew
Scheduling
Flight
Information
Gate
Scheduling
TPF
MQ Control
IIOP
Sockets
ALC -EC A
MQ S erie s
Client
VECTR
ALC -EC A
Maintenance
Inventory
Aircraft
Scheduling
Monitoring
Event Loop
Dynamic Any
LNames
Source: Delta Technology presentation at IONA’s Airline & Travel Industry Seminar, Dallas, Sep 1998
Case Study - AA.com
Source: Sight and Sound Software
Travel is an E-commerce Driver
• 5,000 travel-related sites in 1997
• Largest E-commerce segment today
– $2B(USD) in 1998
– Forecasts
$4B in 1999 to $11.7B in 2002 (Jupiter
Communications)
35% of all online sales in 2002 (Data
Monitor)
12% of all travel commerce online by 2003
(Forrester Research)
3 Generations of Travel on the Web
1. Static Information “brochureware”
2. Simple booking for the masses
3. Large-scale one-to-one travel distribution
• AA.com is a third generation site
AA.com Business Goals
• Become the primary travel site for AA’s 32
million AAdvantage program members
• Prepare for dramatic growth in bookings
• Set up an effective distribution channel for
excess inventory
• Implement one-to-one marketing
techniques to build share of customer and
loyalty
Building Personalized Content
• BroadVision’s Dynamic Command Center
(DCC) provides a GUI interface
• Marketing strategists develop programs
• Business rules match customers to content
and products
• New content goes on the site daily!
Personalization Example
BroadVision’s Dynamic Command Center
Personalization Example
AA.com : The Tools
• Overall Architecture: CORBA (Orbix™)
• Web Server: NetScape Enterprise Server
• Personalization Framework: BroadVision
One-to-One
• Booking Engine: BookSmart (Sight & Sound)
• Database: Oracle
• CRS: Sabre
• Platform: Sun Enterprise 4000/Solaris
AA.com : The Deployment
Windows
Unix
Mac
Sun Enterprise 4000
Sun Enterprise 4000
w/ 14 CPUs @ 250 MHz w/ 6 CPUs @ 250 MHz
Running Netscape
Running Oracle
Enterprise Web Server,
Customer Database
BroadVision’s One-To-One
Sun Enterprise 4000
w/ 4 CPUs @ 250 MHz
Running BookSmart
CORBA servers
SABRE Mainframes
AA.com : Booking Engine Goals
• Create a platform that can be extended
incrementally in the future
• Rapid implementation
• Encapsulate business rules in a single layer
• Cleanly integrate BroadVision
personalization
• A highly scalable solution:
2000+ concurrent users
AA.com : Architecture
AA.com : Status
• Site launched June 22, 1998
• The Internet’s largest fully personalized
e-commerce site
• Results have greatly exceeded expectations:
– Bookings soaring to $500M in 1999
– Look/book ratio now better than AA’s call center
– 8.4 million marketing messages displayed daily
– AA.com has 12.5% share of the total OLT market
AA.com : Results
• More than 2.6 million members with PINs
assigned
• 200,000 new PINs each month
• 2.1M subscribers to NetsAAver e-mail
• Overall traffic increased
– 1.7M site visits each week
– over 1.5M unique visitors in January ‘99
AA.com : Recognition
• Best on the Internet (BOTI award for legacy
integration) — Internet Week
• #1 Airline Site - Wall Street Journal
• Top 100 Commerce Sites - PC Magazine
• Most Popular Airline Site - Media Metrix
• Top 100 Site - Information Week
CORBA and TPF
IBM IIOP Connect - History
• IBM states that CORBA is strategic for TPF
• CORBA further enhances TPF’s capabilities
within distributed client-server environments
• IBM & IONA reached agreement in Q4’1998 to
enable port of Orbix IIOP Engine to TPF
• General Availability announcement being
made at Cancun during conference - GA is
December 10th 1999
What is IBM IIOP Connect?
• IIOP Engine (Internet InterOrb Protocol)
running on TPF
• High performance communications facility
for distributed environments
• Delivered as a DLL with C/C++ interfaces
for 45 API calls
• Provide customers with ability to expose
TPF server functionality using standard
interfaces (CORBA IDL)
How can this enhance TPF?
• TPF has the ability to interoperate with
CORBA standard platforms directly:
– Orbix, Websphere (Component Broker), Java
JDK, BEA, Inprise etc
– OS/390, Solaris, Windows, AIX, HP-UX etc
– C, C++, Java, EJB, COBOL, PL1 etc
– COTS (Commerical Off The Shelf)
– CORBA client side tools are standard
Potential TPF Scenario
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TPFUG Chicago IIOP Demo
• IIOP demo developed by IBM for Spring TPF
Users Group meeting in Chicago 1999
• TPF Server
– Using IBM IIOP Connect
– Written in C++
• Windows NT Client out of the box capabilities
– Using Orbix C++ Object Request Broker
– Using JDK Java ORB
• Source code available from IBM!
TPFUG Chicago IIOP Demo
TPF
NT
Client Program
Server Program
Object Request
Broker
IIOP
IIOP
TCP/IP Network
Challenges
• Getting an ORB onto TPF?
– Gated on selecting right service and performance
attributes for implementation on TPF
– IIOP is socket greedy! And TPF supports very
large client networks
– Determine Unix process & threading models
required to support ORB in TPF
– Which CORBA Services and where (inboard or
outboard)?
Summary
• CORBA provides Integrated IT Infrastructure
– Application Integration (IDL)
– Distribution (IIOP)
• CORBA is a standard
– Promoted by industry consortium (OMG)
– Adds value to existing investment & provides
future proofing
– Widely deployed in Airline & Travel Industry
• CORBA and TPF - Perfect Fusion!
Questions