Table of Contents:

Distributed Application Development
Enterprise Application Integration
Legacy Migration

Distributed Application Development

WebXChg23 hosts several web-based commodity exchanges. Each exchange is a separate deployment of the same base application, customized with its own user interface, and in some cases extended data structures and custom report processing. (For more background on this specific domain, see Building a New Online Exchange).

sample WebXChg23 exchange configuration:

WebXChg23 uses BEA WebLogic®, Oracle® database, and SonicMQ®. They rely on an external secure payment processing service, and an external currency feed tracked via dedicated server for uptime and management purposes. Transaction processing statistics and exchange rates are sent to the report server, which aggregates and distributes this information to the web servers. Each web server runs its own application-tuned data cache as part of the UI implementation.

Advantages of SAND/sandboss:

1. Automated dependency-tracking build supports multiple deployments, and derivative applications off a common base.
2. Default sandboss environment provides independent application logic development/testing.
3. Secure, high speed implementation with minimal developer effort.
4. Separated application development and supporting technology development.
5. Guaranteed consistent use of supporting technology.
6. Unified, consistent view of the running deployment from all organizational roles.

Disadvantages of traditional development:

1. UI, messaging, and persistency are treated as separate data models to be integrated manually, rather than off a common base.
2. Development, deployment, and runtime management are not coordinated in terms of managing business processes.
3. Which business processes rely on what business data is not well defined.
4. The application is defined by the implementation, documentation is fragmented.
5. System complexity tends to increase over time, modification becomes increasingly risky and expensive.

Enterprise Application Integration

UneComm has several eCommerce websites which were originally built and owned by different companies using different technologies. To provide global enterprise visibility and enable growth, UneComm leverages standardized base data structures for users, orders, and saleable items, processed through standardized application modules.

UneComm unified processing structure:

For legacy sites where the data needs to be transformed, adaptor code handles the translation to/from the standardized processing. With newer sites, the data representations extend the base structures and can be processed directly. UneComm plans to gradually convert all sites to this model for ease of maintenance. Where two sites share actual inventory items, they also share order processing to ensure stock availability. Legacy sites built with script or other less compatible technologies access standardized processing via web services.

Advantages of SAND/sandboss:

1. Easy extension to support other enterprise software across all sites.
2. Changes to standardized data structures automatically propagate into integrated sites on build.
3. Separated application development and supporting technology development.
4. Independent environment for development/testing of standardized order processing data structures and processing.
5. Application developers only need to know the Java™ language, not advanced APIs.
6. Unified control/monitoring infrastructure across all sites.

Disadvantages of traditional development:

1. Business data structures are factored separately from business logic, fragmenting control.
2. Factoring of standardized order processing into a re-usable modularized form is difficult due to API dependencies. Deployment projects cannot directly use/extend standardized core objects unless they share the same supporting technology.
3. Application developers need to understand the supporting technology used by the standardized core in order to call it. The standardized core cannot easily support multiple invocation stacks without increasing maintenance complexity.

Legacy Migration

StorePackShip is porting their inventory management system from COBOL to J2EE™. To ensure the new system remains flexible, they are capturing their data structure and processing module definitions declaratively using Structs And Nodes Development (SAND), and generating all their J2EE™ code.

StorePackShip legacy migration process:

StorePackShip uses IBM® WebSphere®, DB2®, MQSeries® and Tivoli® JMX. Offline development and testing uses the JBoss™ application server.

Advantages of SAND/sandboss:

1. Adaptable J2EE™ implementation with core application code encapsulated and insulated from changes.
2. Guaranteed consistent implementation.
3. Adaptable core application definition independent of supporting technology platform.
4. Lightweight, zero-cost offline development environment.
5. Current application developers can be retrained in the time it takes to learn the Java™ programming language.
6. System visibility and access from all organizational roles.

Disadvantages of traditional development:

1. Business objects are coded manually leading to potential inconsistencies and large testing overhead.
2. Core business logic and data is inextricably tied to the supporting technology platform, which is itself changing.
3. Changes to supporting technology require changes to business logic implementation.
4. Difficult to maintain separate development and production environments. The production environment must essentially be replicated for development, increasing cost.
5. Existing application developers require extensive training to become effective in the new technology.

Java and J2EE are trademarks of Sun Microsystems, Inc.
Oracle is a registered trademark of Oracle Corporation.
BEA and WebLogic are registered trademarks of BEA Systems, Inc.
SonicMQ is a registered trademark of Sonic Software Corporation.
IBM, WebSphere, DB2, MQSeries and Tivoli are registered trademarks of IBM Corporation
JBoss is a trademark of Mark Fleury under operation by The JBoss Group, LLC.
Other company, product and service names may be trademarks or service marks of others.

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