XTech 2008 - BBC Tech Refresh and Identity - Brendan Quinn And Ben Smith

Here's one we made earlier
Building a new infrastructure for bbc.co.uk... ... and rolling out a new Identity platform on it
Brendan Quinn Ben Smith
8 May 2008

Overview
Why are we doing this?
Problems we’re solving
With the platform
With the identity system
Architectural/design principles
Vision for Identity
Overview of the stack
And how it applies to Identity
Development / deployment process

Overview
With the platform
Vision for Identity
And how it applies to identity

We’ve come a long way…

Problem #1: Growth without revenue...

Future Media & Technology BBC iPlayer

/programmes Future Media & Technology

Future Media & Technology BBC Homepage

Overview
With the platform
Vision for Identity

BBC Identity circa. 2000
Disparate authentication systems
Inconsistent user experience
Differing levels of security
DPA compliance

“ Single Sign-On” (SSO) ‏

“ Single Sign-On” (SSO) ‏
Closed-source
C interface with Perl bindings
mod_perl web-application
One-size-fits-all architecture

Evolution
Gradual evolution of the web
Antiquated web platform
Inflexible / proprietary architecture
SSO was unable to adapt

Overview
With the platform
Vision for Identity

Architectural principles
Each project must have a clear customer and deliver a real benefit. ideally to an end-user...
Don't Repeat Yourself (DRY) (or other people for that matter!) Life is too short to spend your time re-inventing things...
Be as simple as possible (YAGNI: “you ain’t gonna need it”) Just do what we need to do now...
Be as open as possible Assume that all services can be accessed from outside the BBC, by default...

Architectural principles (cont) ‏
Start simple, then iterate Build the smallest thing you could possibly need, deploy it, then build applications on top of it. Think building blocks, not monoliths. Don’t try to do everything straight away, but do something quickly...
Don't optimise prematurely… The service might not grow the way we think it will...
… but build to scale think stateless, think content delivery networks, think database resilience (Are these two points contradictory? We say no… in our environment at least… because it’s not premature!)‏

Architectural principles (cont) ‏
Test often So you know when you need to optimise So you can maintain your code So you can maintain your platform
Evolve Teams, systems, support structures The platform These principles..!
Let it die (aka “Fall forward fast”) Be prepared to turn your system off... or change it unrecognisably

BBC Tech Refresh Architectural principles
Each project must have a clear customer and deliver a real benefit
Don't repeat yourself
Be as simple as possible
Be as open as possible
Start simple, then iterate
Don't optimise prematurely…
… but build to scale
Test often
Evolve
Let it die

What benefits will it bring ?
Flexible
Capability to build richer functionality
Clean separation of application logic from presentation logic improves scale and ease
Make it easier to build applications
Standardised
Systems are easier to understand
We can (and do) use third party software off-the-shelf
We can draw on industry best practice
Working towards a shared technology stack across the BBC
Manageable
Easier operational support
Flexibility to scale & respond to traffic
Improved testing and release processes
Better visibility for security & performance

Overview
With the platform
Vision for Identity

“Identity”
“ the anticipated revolution of identity veriﬁcation on the internet using emerging user-centric technologies”

BBC Pentagram of Data Users?

Identity Links the BBC to its Audience

BBC Pentagram of Data BBC Identity

Linking Content and Users
Brendan comments on the PM Blog
Ben knows Brendan
Ben finds out about BBC Blogs

Linking Content and Users
Brendan listens to Portishead
Ben knows Brendan
Ben finds out about Portishead on /music

Linking Users via the Internet ...

BBC Pentagram of Data BBC Identity

BBC Application Developers
Personal and public profiles
Personalisation
Customisation
Attention tracking
Recommendations
Notifications
Social Networks

Overview
With the platform
Vision for Identity

So what is it then ? Page Assembly Layer Caching Layer Data Services Layer Database Layer Traffic Management Layer

Technology stack Services can be exposed via Backstage or to indies Dynamic “page assembly” in PHP Handle the simple stuff separately for performance (CSS, JS, images) ‏ Identity and GeoIP built in, available everywhere

Overview
With the platform
Vision for Identity

Paying off the Technical Overdraft

Ideals
Toolbox of Identity services
Layered Identity
Need-to-know
No wheel re-invention

Architecture
Service Oriented
Open-source throughout:
MySQL Repository
OpenSSO Identity Management Core
Java REST Services (Spring MVC) ‏
PHP presentation layer (Zend Framework) ‏

Security
Under 16s ~70% of registered user-base
Can't ignore them
Work hard to maintain trust in the BBC
Payment Card Industry standard
Treat personal data like credit-card information

Performance
Enormous estimated growth of user-base
Identity ubiquitously available across bbc.co.uk
Authorisation of every request to bbc.co.uk
Horizontal scalability within each layer
Intelligent load-balancing
Caching and session-management

Overview
With the platform
Vision for Identity

Processes
Development environments
Local sandbox
Internet access
Available to indies
Release processes
Packages (RPMs) ‏
Integration testing
Staging and QA
Operational support
Monitoring (systems and apps) ‏
Capacity planning
Live & test environments
Consistent with dev
Managed upgrades
Partitioned

Roadmap – how we get there
Build a scale model
Wrap processes around it
Review traffic
Prototype Beta
Build a small but complete version of platform
Launch some applications
Get feedback
Live Blueprint
Build resilience
Add more applications
Get more feedback
Working platform Live platform

Still to come
Content management integration
“ inversion of control” ideas
Simple data services
No coding needed
Messaging and notifications
MQ, XMPP…?
See you next year…?

Questions? [email_address] [email_address]

Photo acknowledgements
http://www.flickr.com/photos/stabilo-boss/93136022/
http://www.nostalgiacentral.com/tv/kids/bluepeter.htm

http://www.bbc.co.uk	463
http://phpimpact.wordpress.com	26
http://www.slideshare.net	6
http://broadcastandmedianews.blogspot.com	2
http://192.168.10.100	2
http://static.slideshare.net	1
http://s3.amazonaws.com	1
http://www.bbchelp.co.uk	1
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