Critical Enterprise Architecture netcast

The 7 cardinal SAP architecture Sins If the performance lack increase work processes SAP will always perform Archiving data will solve all data problems SAP will take care of data architecture itself SAP will auto optimised any queries SAP is always OS agnostic Reports are managed by the business only

SAP ECC or R/3 base architecture I will only discuss the basic principles of what SAP is calling their AS here that are common on all the releases and not go in the specifics SAP is work process and not n-tier centric. The importance of the Dispatcher. I will also discuss the internal emphasis on RFC in its various forms. What is a central instance, ICM,  what is a enqueue, how do Java and ABAP come into the frame and what is JCo Why is a real benefit in using the software balancing "Web Dispatcher" rather than a hardware balancer like for most other architectures

First I will discuss some questions how to choose a database as a EA What do you want to use it for? What kind of model are you after? What is the development language(s) that you are using? What are the non functional requirements? What kind of robustness is required? On what device will the database need to run? Does your company have a strategic relationship with a vendor What is your budget for license and support (TCO)? Is there a restriction on the associated hardware and what is the infrastructure budget? Does your company want to further develop the product into their own IP and/or resell the solution {copyleft issue}? Does the DB require any added features (e.g. security, log shifting, SQL resource optimisation)? Then I will discuss some DB that I have used myself to reflect the themes that we have just discussed. ADABAS Adaptive Server Enterprise Advantage Database Server Apache Derby DB2 Informix Ingres LucidDB MaxDB Microsoft Access Microsoft Visual Foxpro Microsoft SQL Server MonetDB MySQL (+Infobright) Oracle PostgreSQL SQL Anywhere SQLBase SQLite 1010 data IMS file based (VSAM ISAM)

Today I will continue discussing the following in regards to development languages Frameworks Security Interface compatibility Scalability Ease of use, ease to learn License Object-oriented vs. procedural During this list I will then also mention some of the languages that spring to mind and explain why most languages always stay in a niche.

There are certainly many of them and as enterprise architects we need to limit their use so what are the drivers to find the right one for your organisation:. There are many programming paradigm that can be done by the same programming language so I will concentrate here on aspects of separation rather than of programming features such as recursion versus iterative or 4GL versus 5GL There are a few categories where it will not be a either ... or, these are: Declarative (includes functional) Imperative Data-oriented Then there the questions to eliminate some such as: Existing resource pool Investment up to date Strategic decisions

What directories do you use (eDirectory (Novell), Red Hat Directory Server, Active Directory, Open Directory (Apple), Apache Directory Server, Oracle Internet Directory, CA Directory, Sun Java System Directory Server, IBM Tivoli Directory Server, Siemens DirX Directory Server, Critical Path Directory Server, OpenLDAP Isode Limited just to name a few) and are they all really X.500 compatible, since it was never fully implemented? And what about DNS and why are directories that important? What do you do towards BCP? Why only 2 DC's why not three and what is with the paper! And if two is it active – active, active – restore or active – passive and what does that mean? What about Firewalls, routers, NAT and proxies, are they really important for me as an enterprise architect

How do you plan to use a SAN, how do choose it? Or do you still use local disk? How does your network look in terms of topology, MPLS vs. frame relay, fibre vs. copper, What vendor, managed vs. unmanaged switches, virtual (802.1Q) segmentation, How does security come in play and what is a QoS?

This is not really as much on OS as nowadays we are working on visualised environments, so for the core Server and Client platform this more about the CPU choice. So there is a difference between client and servers. Our first question will be if the applications you want to run are more on the imperative or the declarative side, why I will explain. Then we will visit the scalability, interoperability and the security considerations. Do your company have a strategic preference and who does this influence your decision as an enterprise architect? On desktop this usually leans to Windows (or maybe OS X). But on servers it is open for a bit more. Why are the training issues on OS sometimes overrated. Do you use or want to use Virtualization and is it on Intel or Power ? On Intel is it VMWare, Xen, MS own or something else? But not enough on OS lets look in a first sweep what else are the EA trends in the entire platform area?

To end the short overview on integration today I will talk about JBI more in detail. For this short episode please find the attached picture for illustration.

Today we will discuss ,which one ESB is right for me? We will lock at the different options such as Support for Business Systems Scalability Security Support Adapter library Strategic direction of the company Rules based MS, Work flow and BPEL support Licences and Costs

Today I will talk about the 3 big trends of integration and then talk abot the main aspects of an ESB. [JBI] Adapter/Proxy {POJO, file, WS, http, smtp, hessian, Corba, snmp, smpp, db conection, proprietary protocols,...) Binding Transaction Management Transformation Routing, Aggregation Orchestration, Correlation, BPEL, Work flow, Scheduling Rule based management

Logical Architecture on Integration Now when we talk about integration there are certain products such TIBCO, Biztalk, SAP XI or PI or even MII, WebSphere Enterprise Service Bus and WebSphere Process Server , VITRIA, Open ESB, Weblogic, Servicemix, Oracle Enterprise Service Bus, Oracle Fusion, Sun Java Composite Application Platform Suite and many others that come to mind. Since I have worked with all of them I want to discuss where would you want to use which one and what are the generic questions you might to want to ask yourself before starting any integration. Is the desired Integration point to point, data distribution or a distributed n:m pattern? What are the security requirements? Are there different classifications? Are there different integration layers? What is the requirement regarding robustness? What are the other non functional requirements (e.g message throughput)? Does the business architecture require a centralised, decentralised or a hybrid solution? Are there all the locations that will need to be integrated on a reliable network WAN, MPLS, frame relay,..) Are there any work flows, scheduled tasks or any time critical or mission critical transactional processes involved? Does the integration require supporting any value added tasks such as business process integration, rule base system integration or other orchestration tasks? Is the integration a business process integration, a business data integration or a pure binary data integration? The three integration concept I will then talk about explicitly are: Point to Point Data distribution Enterprise service bus or message broker

In this episode I will lock at 3 business trends and see how they affect enterprise architecture.

In this episode we will now apply the advanced business architecture against the first L2 process we talked about in our series on standard business architecture.

The 5 deadly Sins of SOA In this episode I am introducing the 5 deadly Sins of SOA as they are: Start SOA with the technical layer Create all functionality new One Business service equal one technical service Ignore State BPEL and BPM-languages can solve all problems