Middleware

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Middleware
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Introduction

• Chevron Uses Middleware to link 3000 Desk Top
  Systems and World Wide Browsers to geographical,
  Seismic and historical drilling information
  stored in database across a diverse range of
  server Technologies.
• South-West Airlines, the fourth largest domestic
  carrier, uses a Middleware Flight Management
  system that guarantees delivery of Critical data
  to meet the airlines stringent requirements for
  efficiency.
• 50 of all IT Budgets go towards making
  applications talk to one another.

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Lets Learn a Little More about what Middleware
is --------------
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• Introduction
• - Deals about you what you will learn here.
• What is Middleware?
• -Covers the basic concepts of introduces you
  to the different types of Middleware
• Focus on Technology.
• - Explore the different types of Middleware
  Technologies Available
• Case Study
• - Some real world case studies of on the
  applications of different types of middleware

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• What is Middleware?
• - a software that is designed to help
  build large
• scale distributed systems.
• - a piece of software that sits between
  systems.
• Strictly speaking in Technical Terms
• Middleware is transport software that
  is used to move information from one program to
  one or more other programs, shielding the
  developer from dependencies on communication
  protocols, operating systems, and hardware
  platforms.
•  
• Middleware allows your previously
  isolated applications to talk to one another.
•  

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• Your Main Frame Legacy Inventory Management
  System can be integrated with your Accounting
  System .. which can be integrated with the sales
  support system which can be integrated with new
  applications as the business grows.
• This is depicted pictorially in the next slide.

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Inventory
Payroll
Accounting
E-Commerce
MIDDLE WARE
New Applications
Web Site
Sales
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How did Middleware evolve ???

• Merging of Companies and acquisition of another
  companies is common now-a-days. Then the systems
  have to integrate with other companies legacy
  systems.That is where middleware comes into
  help.
• Chronological Evolution
• Batch Processing
• Database Technology
• Email
• Home Grown Solutions

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Modern Middleware

• 1988 Remote Procedure Calls
• Peer to peer Networking
  
• 1994 - Mom Arrives
• 1998 - Real-time Enterprise
• - Publish/Subscribe
• - Push
• - Distributed
  Objects

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Periodic events

• 1988-With the advent of Remote Procedure calls
  and peer-to-peer Networking, the first
  commercially available Middleware has arrived.
• 1994-Robust, Message-Oriented Middleware became
  available. Early adapters use Message Queuing.
• 1998- Real-time Enterprise. New Technologies like
  Publish/Subscribe, Push, and Distributed Objects
  keep pace with needs of the ebusiness era.

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Today Middleware covers a number of products and
functions.These are the five categories which are
described below

• 1.      Home Grown(Middleware developed by
  in-house teams which focuses on companies
  specific needs)
• 2.      RPC/ORB(Middleware that focuses on
  synchronous distributed applications)
• 3.      Pub/Sub(Middleware that focuses on Real
  Time communications based on messaging)
• 4.      Message Queuing(Middleware that focuses
  on reliable communications based on messaging)
• 5.      TP Monitors(Middleware that focuses on
  coordination of processes and highly reliable
  transactions)

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Scalability, Performance, and Reliability are
three measurable qualities of middleware.
Measurable Qualities of Middleware
Legend 1 - Indicates less important. 4
Indicates most important. Homegrowns
strength depends on builders focus and
abilities.
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What is HomeGrown Technology

• - Homegrown middleware is a term used to describe
  custom distributed application solutions built
  from ground-up.
• - It is Developed Using a variety of programming
  tools and low level networking protocols. As
  these are customized solutions there components
  can be compromised of many different
  technologies.
•  
• - How a customized Homegrown solution works is
  completely up to the team that builds it. A team
  of system architects should have to investigate
  the needs and decide on several critical factors.
  Some of these are.
•  

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Critical Factors involved

• Manner of Communication(Synchronous, a
  synchronous).
• Network Protocols(UDP, TCP, IPX).
• Types of Tools to use.(C,C, Java)
• Types of information(messages, remote calls).
• Network or server performance issues(Bandwidth,
  max clients)
•  

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Wrap UP

• Homegrown usually takes a team of highly skilled
  technical personal familiar with networking and
  client server architectures.
• The cost of building a Homegrown solution are
  usually much higher than commercial products with
  longer project Timelines.
• Homegrown solutions are best used in situations
  where needs cannot be met by the current
  commercial software.
• The main advantage to use a Homegrown
  architecture is that it allows for complete
  customization of the system. Some issues like
  time, cost and maintenance exists.

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Let' us evaluate ourselves what we understood
about Home Grown Solutions???????
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• Home Grown Middleware is a term used to describe
• Commercial Software
• Email Systems
• Custom Distributed application Soutions
• 2)A Home Grown Solution is best used when
• a standard communication infrastructure is needed
• A low cost solution is needed.
• The needs for a middleware solution cannot be met
  by a commercial software.
• 3)The main advantage of Home Grown Solution is
• Simplicity
• It allows for complete customization of system
• It is faster than other methods.
• 4) The costs of building a Homegrown middleware
  solution are generally ___________ than
  commercial products.
• a)Much Higher than b)About same as c)Much Lower
  than

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RPC/ORB

• Middleware that focuses on synchronized
  distributed applications

• Distributed applications allow a program on one
  machine to leverage processign power, memory, or
  storage on another machine.
• The basic difference between a RPC and ORB is
  that RPC uses standard programming procedure
  methods and ORB uses object oriented
  methodologies.
• With RPC/ORB a Client application can
  transparently invoke a service on a server which
  can be on same machine or across a network.
•  

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The RPC/ORB mechanism

• Intercepts the call.
• Finds requested procedure/Object.
• Passes parameters.
• Invokes its methods.
• Returns results to the clients

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• RPC/ORB is best used in situations when
  applications use a request/reply model of
  communicating.
•  
• Some of the example of this are
• A Help desk support application.
• A web application that front ends a legacy
  application.
•  
• The fundamental ORB technologies supported now
  today are CORBA (www.omg.org), DCOM
  (www.microsoft.com)and RMI(www.java.sun.com).

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ProsPower of Distributed Computing.Reduces
application maintenance by centralizing key
functions.Takes advantage of Object oriented
features.Can web enable legacy applications. 
Pros and Cons of RPC/ORB

• Cons
• Scaling applications to a large user base is
  problematic.
• Complexity in architecture requires sophisticated
  developers.
• Interoperability between platforms is a big
  issue.
• Difficult to debug and administer.

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Publish/Subscribe

• Works by passing information in a message from
  one program to one or more other programs
  asynchronously.
• This is like sending an email opposed to making a
  phone call.
• The basic components that make a PUB/SUB system
  are messages, a publishing service, and
  subscribers.

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What is a Publishing Service The publishing
service is where messages are sent and routed to
subscribing applications. A Publishing service
is similar to a radio broadcast, where messages
will be published or broadcast to all
applications that have registered(subscribed) for
certain types of messages(called subjects)
PUB/SUB is best used in situations with
applications that send time sensitive
information, speak to multiple applications at
once, and/or exist in a very volatile network
environment.
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Communication in Pub/Sub

• A message is a piece of information that is sent
  between two or more applications .The publishing
  service acts as a message distribution center
  that receives and sends messages to registered
  subscribers.
• Applications using PUB/SUB communicate
  asynchronously. In asynchronous communications, a
  sending application sends a message to a
  receiving application without waiting for a
  reply.
• The key advantage to asynchronous communications
  is that sending applications can continue on with
  other tasks once the message has been sent.
• What makes the asynchronous communications work
  in a PUB/SUB system is the publishing service.

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How messages are sent in a Pub/Sub

• The publishing service is where messages are
  sent and routed to subscribing applications.
• A publishing service is similar to a radio
  broadcast, where messages will be published or
  broadcast to all applications that have
  registered(subscribed) for certain types of
  messages(called subjects).
• Messages are sent to a centralized publisher
  instead of each individual subscriber, the
  subscription list can be modified on the fly,
  providing a highly flexible communication system
  that can run across different networks and
  systems.
• This one-to-one many-to-many broadcasting
  makes PUB/SUB a high performance scalable
  architecture.
• PUB/SUB systems can also transform messages(
  act as an interpreter) enabling applications
  never designed to work together to communicate.
•  

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Some examples of applications using PUB/SUB
are

• Real time quoting service that must provide stock
  information to many applications at once.
• Meteorological services that must transfer
  information to different weather systems all over
  the world.
• Centralized network alerting systems that must
  communicate with distributed nodes that change
  significantly over time.

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Companies Promoting Middleware

• Business Integration Group(www.biggroup.org)
• Open Group(www.opengroup.org)
• Vendors Support
• IBM(www.ibm.com)
• Talarian(www.talarian.com)
• Tibco(www.tibco.com)
• Vitria(www.vitria.com)

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Message Queuing

• The two basic components of a MQ system are
  Message and Queue.
• A message is a piece of information that is sent
  between two or more applications. The Queue is a
  container that can hold and distribute these
  messages.

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Communication in Message Queuing

• Applications using Message Queuing communicate
  asynchronously .
• The key advantage in Asynchronous communications
  is that sending applications can continue on with
  other tasks once the message has been sent.What
  makes Asynchronous communications work in a MQ
  system is a Queue.
• The Message Queue is where messages are sent and
  held until they are picked up by a receiving
  application.
• A Message Queue is similar to a Post Office Box,
  where messages will wait until asked for.
• As Messages are not lost it is highly reliable.
• Applications that communicate via a MQ are called
  Loosely Coupled applications because they
  never speak directly to each other .Each can
  continue to function when the other is busy or
  Even Off-Line.
• The Queue will manage messages so that they are
  not lost, or not delivered out of sequence or
  duplicated until the application is ready to
  retrieve them.

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Some examples of these types of applications are

• Sales automation applications that must
  communicate with a disconnected mobile sales
  force.
• Back end transaction applications where
  connection or service disruptions must not result
  in transaction loss.
• New Web order entry applications that must
  communicate with one or more legacy systems to
  process an order.

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Pros and Cons of Message Queuing

• Pros
• When we need highly reliable communications
  across unreliable networks.
• Need asynchronous communications for mobile
  workforces.
• Need emerging and legacy applications to speak to
  one another.
• Cons
• Initial setup and administration can be very
  complex.
• Asynchronous communications between applications
  can be slow if Queue is overloaded.
• Many to Many Communications can be difficult to
  implement.

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TP Monitors (Transaction Processing Monitors)

• They are not used for a program-to-program
  communication.Rather they provide a complete
  environment for transaction applications that
  access relational databases.
• They tend to be mission-critical applications
  that require a rapid response 100 of the time
  and tight controls over the security and
  integrity of database.
• TP Monitors should be considered when
  transactions need to be coordinated and
  synchronized over multiple databases.
• TP Monitors tend to be heavyweight and expensive,
  and they require a great deal of expertise to
  implement properly.

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Well let us again go through what we learnt
about the previous technologies in Middleware
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Quiz on RPC/ORB

• 1)RPC and ORB are technologies used for
• a)Managing operating systems
• b)Building distributed applications
• c)Stand alone applications
• 2)RPC/ORB is best used in situations when
  applications use the_______ model of
  communicating.
• a)Request/Reply b) Message c)Callback/Event
• 3)Three major ORB technologies now being
  supported are
• a)CORBA,DCOM and RMI b)CORBA, SQL and HTTP
• c)ICP,SQL and DCOM.
• 4)Some advantages of using an RPC/ORB
  architecture are
• a)Simple to use, Distributed computing power,and
  Reduced application maintenance.
• b)Interoperability guaranteed, Code reuse,
  Distributed computing power
• c)Code reuse, Distributed computing power,and
  Reduced application maintenance.

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PUB/SUB

• 1)PUB/SUB is a technology used for
• a)Voice Communications
• b)Building distributed applications
• c)Magazine processing
• 2) PUB/SUB is best used in ____ model of
  communicating
• a)Request/Reply b) Asynchronous c)Send/Resend
• 3)The three components that make up a PUB/SUB
  system are
• a)Queues, Publications service and ISPs.
• b)Messages, Publications service and subscribers
• c)PDAs Publications service and subscribers
• 4) Some advantages using PUB/SUB are
• a)Scalability, Real-Time, Asynchronous
  communications.
• b)Standards based, Asynchronous communications
  and easy to use.
• c)Simple to use, Scalability, and Real-Time
  communications.

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Message Queues and TP Monitors

• The components that make up a MQ system are
• Queues and broad band access
• ISPs and Clients. C) Messages and
  Queues
• 2) Some advantages to using a MQ architecture
  are
• Reliability, Application Integration and Async
  Communications.
• Simple to use, Application Integration and and
  ALL MQ is a standard
• Async Communications, Reliability and Simple to
  use.
• 3) A TP Monitor is technology used for
• Message Queuing. B)Message Broadcasting
• Building OLTP applications.
• A TP Monitor is best used when ________ is
  needed.
• A general communication infrastructure is needed
• Transaction Coordinator c)Asynchronous Messaging

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Case Study
 
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• A Large bank for eg. will have mainframe based
  core accounting systems, Foreign exchange(FX) and
  treasury packages , interface to payment networks
  and clearing systems, branch systems, call
  centers and customer centers such as web
  banking.Typically these will include mainframe
  legacy systems, two-tier client server
  applications, and a variety of off the shelf
  packages.
•  
•  
• Complexities
• Systems incompatible
• Data Formats differ
• Connectivity issues complex.
•  
• What a middleware does here??
• Simplifies access to multiple databases.
• Integrate existing systems.
• Integrates any platforms- Windows ,UNIX, etc.

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Integrated payments using a Middleware Hub

• The Middleware rationalizes access to the
  services as shown in the figure.This provides for
  each application to have only one interface to
  the middleware Hub.
• The middleware uses the existing interfaces of
  the systems because of its communications
  connectivity, interface dialogue, and data
  presentation required.These allows reuse of
  existing interfaces.
• To make new services available, only the the
  interface to the middleware needs to be
  considered. New services can be connected to the
  hub and integrated as required to other systems.
• Using the hub as the system integrator, all
  services can be provided to all corporate clients.

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• Case Schedule, pick-up and deliver packages.
  Locate shipments at any point along their journey
• About the Company  
• A subsidiary of CNF Transportation Inc., Emery
  Worldwide is a 2.3 billion diversified company
  with seven decades of experience in the
  transportation industry.
• The company provides a variety of services, from
  global freight transportation to customs
  brokerage to worldwide logistics management

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Technicalities in Detail

• The information system that enables Emery to
  schedule, pick-up and deliver packages, called
  EMCON 2000, comprises detailed customer data and
  more than ten front-end applications.
• Emery relies on EMCON 2000 to enable its customer
  service staff to locate shipments at any point
  along their journey. The system also supports the
  handheld computers used by Emery's delivery
  personnel to confirm deliveries and is even
  accessible to Emery's customers over the
  Internet.

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Software Used

• Emery relies on IBM MQSeries message queuing
  middleware to ensure that its worldwide
  operations run smoothly.
• SoftwareIBM MQSeries for OS/390 Version
  2.1 IBM MQSeries for Solaris(tm) Version
  5.0 IBM MQSeries for Windows NT Version
  5.0 IBM DB2 for OS/390

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• Data for EMCOM 2000 is stored on a single IBM
  S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server running IBM DB2
  for OS/390 Version 5.0.
• The individual applications of EMCON 2000 run on
  two middle-tier servers running Sun Solaris
  Operating Environment.
• MQSeries for OS/390 and MQSeries for Solaris are
  used to feed data from the back-end database to
  the applications on the middle-tier servers and
  update the database with new information.

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• Emery had run the applications on a variety of
  systems, including IBM AIX and Microsoft
  Windows NT servers.
• The cross-platform flexibility of MQSeries
  allowed Emery to leverage its investment in
  technology when it ported the applications to
  Solaris Operating Environment. Embedding MQSeries
  APIs within the application development tools
  used to build EMCON 2000,
• Emery was able to regenerate new code for its
  target platform instantly from its existing
  MQSeries code for the Windows NT and AIX
  platforms. "We were able to port our system to
  MQSeries for Solaris without rewriting any code,
  saving us multiple man-years in development
  costs,"

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References

• http//www-4.ibm.com/software/ts/ mqseries/
• http//www.tibco.com/products/tours/index.html
• http//talarian.com/industry/middleware/whitepaper
  .pdf.
• http//www.openvms.compaq.com/openvms/whitepapers/
  middleware/isgmidware.html

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Application Areas For Middleware

• EBusiness
• EPortals
• EAI(Enterprise Application Integration)
• EDI(Enterprise Data Interchange)