SOA Pilot Project@ BC Ferries

BC OAUG22 May 2008

Speakers:Chetan Sondagar – BC Ferries – Manager, Business & Safety Applications

Mark Allen – Impac Services – Senior Principal Consultant

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The Promise!

Loose Coupling

Web Service

REST

Service Consumer

Service ProviderService Registry

SOAP

UDDIWSDL

XML

SOA Governance

BPEL

Aggregation

Orchestration

WS-*

ESB

BAM

ReusabilityGranularity

Modularity

Composability

Interoperability

Encapsulation

Discoverability

EAI QoS

Design Patterns

Event-driven

SOMASODA

Transformation

XSL

Adapters

Service SLA

Sensors

…and more!

SOA This and SOA That…In this day and age, the CIOs are seeking innovative ways to add value to the business.

SOA promises to service providers to provide service consumers with event-driven SOAP based on WSDL, XML standards in an encapsulated and modular style.

The reusable, loosely-coupled granular web services and adapters that are discoverable and compossable can be easily orchestrated and transformed using BPEL. Sensors embedded in BPEL processes provide BAM!

The aggregation and interoperability of services using standard design patterns will allow CIOs to govern SOA and increase service SLA.

The REST can have SODA!

!

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Agenda

Pilot Overview– Project Objectives– Approach and Deliverables

Pilot Solution Overview– Existing Process Flow– SOA Architecture Overview– New Process Flow

Findings– Key Learning Points– Key Benefits of SOA to BC Ferries– Implementation Strategy– Conclusion– Q&A

Speakers Contact

Pilot Overview

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Project Objectives

To understand the risks, complexities and opportunities associated with adopting an Oracle-based service oriented architecture within the BC Ferries IT environment

To establish a reusable sandbox system to allow the development, testing and certification of new and existing software applications within a new pilot BC Ferries SOA environment

To define architectural standards and protocols around the use of SOA to guide future initiatives

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Project Approach & Deliverables

• Set up sandbox environment with Maximo v4.1, Oracle Vision r12 applications and Oracle middleware

• Replicated existing Maximo Integration Gateway (MIG) process flow in SOA Suite

• Evaluated toolset from a practical adoption standpoint

• Developed internal team understanding through hands on training and development of processes

• Prepared a standards and protocol documentation (IT standards template) that will guide future integration projects

• Prepared a draft strategy for SOA implementation

Pilot Solution Overview

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Existing Process Flow in MIG

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Existing Process Pain Points

• MIG maintenance high– Business rules embedded in code– Header and Line transactions handled separately– Complex transactions require high degree of integrity

verification– Deep knowledge of MIG required – scarce skills– Difficult to adapt to business process changes

• Maximo and Oracle applications are tightly coupled– Downtime severely impacts BC Ferries operations and back

office business users• Does not support disconnected requirements

– Database and Application maintenance and upgrades require extensive effort from technical and business teams

• Maintenance and development efforts significantly high• Testing requirement for user community significantly high• Value-add to business difficult to provide without significant investment

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SOA Architecture

• Oracle SOA Suite– BPEL– BAM– ESB

• Multiple Oracle Homes– For future horizontal scalability

• High availability– Oracle Grid for Application Servers– Uses existing Oracle Database HA environment

• Integrated Platform– All managed through Enterprise Manager and Grid Control– Fits into existing Oracle Database infrastructure

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SOA Architecture Overview

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New Process Flow using SOA Suite

Findings

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Key Learning Points

• SOA suite does elegant job of supporting integration– PO lines and headers handled together as 1 record– Ability to drill down on record level detail– Web Services provide a ‘self documenting’ integration linkages

between applications to support change control– Common XML data format improves data sharing across

applications

• Business rules very useful for validation– Allows validation in applications where the application design

does not allow. Edits can be done in middleware– Business rules engine very flexible. Can incorporate workflow

elements beyond the design limitations of the originating application

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Key Learning Points (../Cont)

• JMS messaging functionality handles disconnected requirement– Queuing allows transmission and validation by design– Allows 1 to many relationship between services and apps– Current solution is based on table updates without

transactional integrity (lines and headers). JMS addresses this issue

– Supported by BAM for audits and monitoring

• Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) provides granular transaction management– Improved auditing to support Internal Controls Compliance

requirements– Ability to monitor transaction level sub processes improves

problem resolution, service level management. (Checklists, selective monitoring)

– Reporting dashboard enables predictive monitoring

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Key Benefits of SOA to BC Ferries

• Decoupled Maximo and Oracle applications– Upgrades of applications independently phased

• More Agile Business Processes– Reduces the gap between business process model, development and

implementation– Ability to gradually phase out legacy interfaces whilst minimizing

disruption to business

• Easier development, deployment and maintenance of integration solutions– Business rules and transformations abstracted from code

• Improved visibility of transactions for better audit– Rules based engine provides monitoring and control of transactions– Status of in-flight business processes automated

• Established governance and standards for integrating applications

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SOA Implementation Strategy - Approach

• Create new SOA Suite implementation project in advance of other major capital initiatives– Implement SOA infrastructure in production– Oracle Applications r12 upgrade– Maximo upgrade

• Continue to build and train core SOA team

• Current Project teams to start leveraging SOA build blocks, where possible

• Project teams test and hand over integration specs to core SOA team for QA – conformance to integration standards and protocols

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Conclusion

Software functions as an integrated package

Works with existing IT investments

Demonstrated ease of use, maintainability, efficiency

Team strongly endorses the toolset

Standards and sandbox environment that have ongoing value

SOA Pilot a success

Q&A

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Speakers Contact

Chetan SondagarManager, Business & Safety ApplicationsInformation TechnologyBritish Columbia Ferry Services Inc.Office: (250) 978-1549Cell: (250) 514-9264Fax: (250) 978-1544chetan.sondagar@bcferries.comwww.bcferries.com

Mark AllenSenior Principal ConsultantImpac ServicesOffice: (604) 616-8273mallen@impacservices.comwww.impacservices.com