Modeling for Smart Ecosystem Architecture

In a new CBDI Journal report this month I have been looking at the modeling requirements to support our Smart Ecosystem Architecture (SEA) concept.

It is evident there are two major architectural patterns in play – service oriented and event driven. But in addition we need to recognize a new dynamic which we might characterize as “post enterprise” including cloud computing, Web 2.0 and so called smart IT that encourages ecosystem collaborations over internal enterprise processes.

There is a lot of superficial (marketing) noise suggesting a close relationship between Event Driven Architecture (EDA) and SOA, Actually the two domains are in practice islands of automation. SOA is much more widely used, whereas EDA is still largely restricted to narrow focus, point solutions. This is changing, but slowly as there are considerable complexities to deal with in an integrated world. Not least event data availability, architecture contention and difficulties in testing. Of course the solution to broader utilization is integrated modeling approaches.

Similarly cloud, Web 2.0 and smart IT are separate domains and narrowly focused and capturing the requirements for either still tends to exist in two separate domains. However, to recognize the real opportunities in the smart ecosystem requires us to take a more coordinated view of modeling that spans all of these considerations.

CBDI has a vast amount of business modeling guidance and advice; much of it has pioneered thinking around modeling services, events, capabilities, meta data, dynamic business intelligence and ecosystems. See for example the CBDI report series on Business Modeling for SOA that begins specifically with the event-response concept at a high level as part of business modeling , and the report Event Driven Service Architecture that examines the convergence of EDA and SOA.

In this new report Modeling for Smart Ecosystem Architecture I advise on how to integrate these different perspectives across the broader set of architectural views. We also explore the dual requirements to consider both events and services, and also consider some of the meta model impacts.

On that last point it is interesting to note the lack of any 'standard' meta model for EDA, and hence similarly the EDA/SOA relationship. Whilst OMG have been working on a RFP for an ‘Event Model and Profile’ (EMP), this has yet to be issued.
Today, the requirements are quite likely to be captured directly into a format prescribed by proprietary event management products used for the EDA implementation.

We are currently evaluating how we add the necessary concepts to support EDA and SOA convergence in the SAE Meta Model and our associated UML profile, and discussing how we may contribute to emerging standards activity in the same way as we have done with SoaML.

The Shape of Business - Drivers for Smart Ecosystems

A report this week from the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) entitled The Shape of Business – The Next 10 Years provides some useful insight into emerging business drivers that reinforce our concepts of smart ecosystems.

Taking at some of the key headlines in the report, you can see the increasing need for organisations to develop ecosystems, and adding smart behaviour.

Movement to a more collaborative business model. The recession has made businesses much more aware of the complexities and interdependencies in their operations, their financing, supply chains and customers, but they are still not able to fully assess or capture these in their business planning. To gain greater control of these uncertainties, businesses will seek to ‘simplify’ their operations and will enter into more partnerships and joint ventures. In particular, this will be important for businesses moving to a ‘core plus periphery’ model

= a need to develop ecosystems
= the need for a smarter supply chain, hence smart ecosystem. Though supply chain optimization is hardly new, the emphasis on this is clearly going to grow. There are also additional ways of thinking about the supply chain – e.g. as a source of finance, not just ‘goods’. i.e. don’t invest in stock, and certainly don’t lend money to buy stock, but rely more on the support of participants in the supply chain and on its optimisation to lower inventory and provide 'just in time' fulfilment.

Rationalization to the Core. The recession accelerated the need to address inefficiencies and non-core activities across the enterprise. It has also provided the stimulus for companies to re-think themselves and re-evaluate their future.

= a need for greater collaboration across an ecosystem consisting of an internal core and an external periphery (what Moore might term context)

Technology will enable new ways of working. Businesses will increase their use of social networking techniques to solve problems – many more companies will use Facebook, Twitter and other web 2.0 developments

= making sense out of what is going on in complex social networks is going to require a lot of ‘smart’. It isn’t going to save money if it requires an army of people to monitor and participate in social networks

There were also some interesting comments that identify the need for agility.

For example, there is a current trend of “localism” in some organisations or industry sectors, relocating certain supply chain activities back to the UK. What is evident is that the decisions about what should be done locally or globally, or what should be in-house or outsourced, will be fluid. It is not a one-off decision but one of constant re-evaluation in the face of prevailing conditions. Equally, large organisations may find that the decision varies across different product lines, with ‘no one size fits all’ solution. As such, organisations will need to be very agile if they are to quickly capitalise on changes in those conditions.

Or course it is very difficult to predict what will happen across the next 10 years. How many predicted the current situation a decade ago?

And there is of course the need to survive 2012 first!

SOA Manifesto – Good, but too late?

This week, a small group of SOA cognoscenti met and published a SOA Manifesto. Thought it is eloquently put, it is difficult to see what has been said in the SOA Manifesto that hasn’t been said before.

The reality is that SOA isn’t new anymore. That some claim it is in fact dead or passé is testimony to no matter how much advocates of SOA protest, we have failed to fully get the message across, at least to the business that is footing the bill. I am not sure how the SOA Manifesto changes that. Those that are already pre-disposed towards SOA will become signatories ( I already have); those who are not will ignore it. Little will have changed.

I am reminded of the current political situation here in the UK, where the current labour government could put anything they wish in their manifesto for the coming general election but they are so unpopular it wouldn’t make much difference. Even if they promised to abolish taxes, they still wouldn’t convert those who have already made up their mind how they are going to vote. (and when did any political party actually deliver on their manifesto?)

The world has moved on. SOA should be considered business as usual. Yes, organizations still need to improve the way they approach SOA . Yes, people still need to adopt and apply the principles and be provided with better guidance. But if you want to get the majority’s attention, then you need a manifesto that excites them about the coming decade, not one that tells them what they should have been doing better in the last.

As I highlighted in my blog on Architecture for the Smarter Planet, SOA is one piece of an architectural puzzle that is going to challenge enterprises and individuals over the next decade. Although I believe the future is intrinsically service-based, I know we are not going to convince organizations to invest by telling them all they need is SOA. Rather, SOA has to be put in context, and positioned as one part of something much bigger.

Something like the Smart Ecosystem seems a much more holistic topic for a manifesto that addresses the needs of the next decade. The challenge for businesses will be how they become successful participants in ecosystems they do not control. SOA plays an important part in that, and can be a key enabler in a genuine business vision.

But just saying that SOA should be “business driven” doesn’t make it so.

Architecture for the Smarter Planet

You are probably aware by now that IBM’s current ‘theme’ is the Smarter Planet.Their basic message is that organizations (both businesses and governments) should take advantage the fact that we live in a world that is,

• Instrumented – 30 billion RFID tags in supply chains
• Interconnected –Trillions of connected devices, and two billion people on the web
• Intelligent – 15 petabytes of new information created everyday

And to do something ‘smart’ with these resources.

This seems in part a reinvention of the ‘Pervasive Computing’ vision. I authored a lengthy report on this some time ago in 2002. I still don’t think we are fully there yet, but you can sense that we are another step closer to it becoming reality, and IBM provide some good real world examples via the link above.

Architecture Scope

Attending the IBM Rational Software Conference recently at which the smarter planet was the theme of the keynote, it prompted me to think about what sort of business and IT architecture was needed.

One thing that is clear is that architects need to think very carefully about scope in this scenario. You cannot take a narrow inward looking project or even enterprise-wide view when the smartness you seek comes from the interconnectivity and behavior of the ecosystem. My colleague David Sprott has coined the term Smart Ecosystem Architecture (SEA) in reference to this.

I believe the key thing here in relation to SEA vs EA (Enterprise Architecture) is for organizations to understand

• what activities are going to be performed by the ecosystem (or the other participants in it), and what activities they need to perform themselves.
• and consequently, what they have to do – e.g. in terms of service provision – to participate in the ecosystem, and hence what capabilities and resources they need to provide their services, and handle the events that require their response

It also seems critical to me to that it is necessary to understand which capabilities are core vs context, but from an ecosystem perspective. (I need to ponder on that further…)

Architecture Patterns

That addresses scope, but what about the architectural patterns that applies?
I am tempted to say it’s all about Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) – in that federated, interconnected ecosystems are inherently service-based. But smart behavior is in a large part about sensing events and responding to them, so we need to add Event Driven Architecture (EDA) into the mix.

Before long I recognized we need several other architectural patterns in support of the Smarter Planet. I started off trying to draw a layered architecture to support of this, but that seemed inappropriate, so for now I will try to sum it up in a simple textual list.
OK, so the architecture for the Smarter Planet involves

• trillions of connected objects and billions of people accessing petabytes of information via millions of solutions, based on an agile,
• Web 2.0 Architecture – enabling billions of people to mash up rapid, user and community driven solutions, in turn assembled from millions of services, and generating trillions of events,
• requiring Event Driven Architecture (EDA) to determine the autonomic response required to sensors and changes in state,
• that are also placed into context by Business Process Architecture (BPA/BPM) and Information Architecture (IA)
• supported by services in a Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) that provides a formal basis for the decoupling of Provider and Consumers resource,
• as well as a Web Oriented, or Resource Oriented Architecture (WOA/ROA) as exchanging information between those trillions of devices in an efficient manner will likely be done in a more lightweight manner than full blown Web Service-based SOA
• with the implementations defined in a Component Based Software Architecture (CBSA) - with the focus on right-grained software enabling federated software delivery, that is running anywhere, anytime on a
• Cloud Based Architecture (CBA) that details the virtualized, federated infrastructure providing scalability, reliability. Which brings us back to SOA, as cloud computing is inherently service-based.

Anything I missed? My point is that architecting for the Smarter Planet is not about choosing one architectural pattern in preference to another – SOA or EDA or WOA or Web 2.0. One of those can't possibly address all the requirements. But rather how to use SOA+EDA+WOA+Web 2.0+xyz together, and understanding how they relate, not compete.

Enterprise Architects will argue these are all just components of EA, and to some extent that is correct. However, the scope now needs to be broadened to SEA.

What we need to avoid is any sense that things just got more complicated thanks to the Smarter Planet. With the application of sound architecture, it ought to get a whole lot simpler.

Some of CBDI Forum's Architecture mashups,

• Extending SOA with Web 2.0 (free access on registration)
• Web 2.0 and Enterprise Architecture (subscription required)
• Event Driven Service Architecture (subscription required)