The Eight Pillars of an Enterprise Application Architecture Martin Fincham General Manager – EMEA LANSA m [email_address]

Martin Fincham

General Manager – EMEA

LANSA

m [email_address]

It was Simple with System i One server One operating system One programming language One database One user interface style One synchronous interactive session

One server

One operating system

One programming language

One database

One user interface style

One synchronous interactive session

So What Changed? New systems are more complex End-users have new expectations Western labour costs are high Technology directions are fluid Tight coupling is strangling agility Maintenance is crushing innovation The Internet presents new security challenges

New systems are more complex

End-users have new expectations

Western labour costs are high

Technology directions are fluid

Tight coupling is strangling agility

Maintenance is crushing innovation

The Internet presents new security challenges

Demanding more from IT “ The innovative use of IT got us ahead of the competition … but today we are stagnating and our systems are holding us back.” People, process, platform are the fundamental elements of a modern application architecture

We need a Different Approach Technology agnostic Centralised meta data Single skill set and tooling Standards-based interoperability Expose functions as services We need someone to give us a complete and proven architecture out-of-the-box again !

Technology agnostic

Centralised meta data

Single skill set and tooling

Standards-based interoperability

Expose functions as services

What is an Architecture? A software architecture defines how the components of an application are organised A ‘blueprint’ defining how applications will service both current and future needs Defining how components will be built and implemented Defining how parts of an application relate and inter-communicate A plan of how an organisation meets their IT objectives Examples LANSA, Microsoft .NET, J2EE, CORBA, COM, …

A software architecture defines how the components of an application are organised

A ‘blueprint’ defining how applications will service both current and future needs

Defining how components will be built and implemented

Defining how parts of an application relate and inter-communicate

A plan of how an organisation meets their IT objectives

Examples

LANSA, Microsoft .NET, J2EE, CORBA, COM, …

The Eight Pillars of a Sound Architecture Is based on a framework Provides an application repository Provides automation & developer guidance Is based on a service oriented architecture Supports multiple platforms Supports multiple application interfaces Integrates legacy applications Manages application evolution Source: Paul Conte white paper “ The Eight Pillars of an Enterprise Application Architecture ” published October 2008

Is based on a framework

Provides an application repository

Provides automation & developer guidance

Is based on a service oriented architecture

Supports multiple platforms

Supports multiple application interfaces

Integrates legacy applications

Manages application evolution

From System i to SOA (or whatever you want to call it) 5250 Green Screen Procedural Code Embedded Functions (RPG / COBOL) DB2 Database (integral validation) AS/400, iSeries, System i Components Business Objects Callable Services Any SQL Database (external validation) Windows GUI Rich Web Client Mobile / PDA System i, Microsoft .NET, Linux, Unix Data Services Layer Meta Data Repository Application Server Visual Framework Web Services Interface Today Future

Platform vs. Product