Orchestration (computers)
Encyclopedia
Orchestration describes the automated arrangement, coordination, and management of complex computer systems, middleware
, and services.
It is often discussed as having an inherent intelligence or even implicitly autonomic
control, but those are largely aspirations or analogies rather than technical descriptions. In reality, orchestration is largely the effect of automation
or systems deploying elements of control theory
.
This usage of orchestration is often discussed in the context of Service Oriented Architecture, virtualization, provisioning
, Converged Infrastructure
and dynamic datacenter topics. Orchestration in this sense is about aligning the business request with the applications, data and infrastructure. It defines the policies and service levels through automated workflows, provisioning, and change management. This creates an application-aligned infrastructure that can be scaled up or down based on the needs of each application. Orchestration also provides centralized management of the resource pool, including billing, metering, and chargeback for consumption. For example, orchestration reduces the time and effort for deploying multiple instances of a single application. And as the requirement for more resources or a new application is triggered, automated tools perform tasks that before could only be done by multiple administrators operating on their individual pieces of the physical stack.
A somewhat different usage relates to the process of coordinating an exchange of information through web service
interactions. (See also service-oriented architecture
, and web service choreography). Applications which decouple the orchestration layer from the service layer are sometimes called agile application
s.
Although appearing to make rather arbitrary use of language, a distinction is often made between orchestration (a local view from the perspective of one participant) and choreography (coordination from a global multi-participant perspective, albeit without a central controller).
With the popularity of Cloud computing it is now necessary to understand Service Orchestration in the context of this paradigm. Work flows and processes are used in different domains. At one level there are level inter-company business processes and at another level there are processes to get the wide area network operational. To keep matters simple, we will define an orchestrator as the entity that manages complex cross domain (system, enterprise, firewall) processes and handle exceptions. Since an orchestrator is valuable in the fulfillment, assurance as well as billing processes, in its most advanced service aware incarnation, should be capable of adjustments based on feedback from monitoring tools. At the most basic level an orchestrator is a human. The main difference between a work flow automation and orchestration is that work flows are processed and completed as processes within a single domain.
Cloud Service orchestration therefore is the
It is critical in the delivery of cloud services because
Middleware
Middleware is computer software that connects software components or people and their applications. The software consists of a set of services that allows multiple processes running on one or more machines to interact...
, and services.
It is often discussed as having an inherent intelligence or even implicitly autonomic
Autonomic Computing
Autonomic Computing refers to the self-managing characteristics of distributed computing resources, adapting to unpredictable changes whilst hiding intrinsic complexity to operators and users...
control, but those are largely aspirations or analogies rather than technical descriptions. In reality, orchestration is largely the effect of automation
Automation
Automation is the use of control systems and information technologies to reduce the need for human work in the production of goods and services. In the scope of industrialization, automation is a step beyond mechanization...
or systems deploying elements of control theory
Control theory
Control theory is an interdisciplinary branch of engineering and mathematics that deals with the behavior of dynamical systems. The desired output of a system is called the reference...
.
This usage of orchestration is often discussed in the context of Service Oriented Architecture, virtualization, provisioning
Provisioning
In telecommunication, provisioning is the process of preparing and equipping a network to allow it to provide services to its users. In NS/EP telecommunications services, "provisioning" equates to "initiation" and includes altering the state of an existing priority service or capability.In a...
, Converged Infrastructure
Converged Infrastructure
Converged infrastructure packages multiple information technology components into a single, optimized computing solution. Components of a converged infrastructure solution include servers, data storage devices, networking equipment and software for IT infrastructure management, automation and...
and dynamic datacenter topics. Orchestration in this sense is about aligning the business request with the applications, data and infrastructure. It defines the policies and service levels through automated workflows, provisioning, and change management. This creates an application-aligned infrastructure that can be scaled up or down based on the needs of each application. Orchestration also provides centralized management of the resource pool, including billing, metering, and chargeback for consumption. For example, orchestration reduces the time and effort for deploying multiple instances of a single application. And as the requirement for more resources or a new application is triggered, automated tools perform tasks that before could only be done by multiple administrators operating on their individual pieces of the physical stack.
A somewhat different usage relates to the process of coordinating an exchange of information through web service
Web service
A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...
interactions. (See also service-oriented architecture
Service-oriented architecture
In software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...
, and web service choreography). Applications which decouple the orchestration layer from the service layer are sometimes called agile application
Agile application
An Agile Application is the result of Service Oriented Architecture and Agile Development paradigms. An Agile Application is distinguished from average applications in that it is a loosely coupled set of services with a decoupled orchestration layer and it is easily modified to address changing...
s.
Although appearing to make rather arbitrary use of language, a distinction is often made between orchestration (a local view from the perspective of one participant) and choreography (coordination from a global multi-participant perspective, albeit without a central controller).
With the popularity of Cloud computing it is now necessary to understand Service Orchestration in the context of this paradigm. Work flows and processes are used in different domains. At one level there are level inter-company business processes and at another level there are processes to get the wide area network operational. To keep matters simple, we will define an orchestrator as the entity that manages complex cross domain (system, enterprise, firewall) processes and handle exceptions. Since an orchestrator is valuable in the fulfillment, assurance as well as billing processes, in its most advanced service aware incarnation, should be capable of adjustments based on feedback from monitoring tools. At the most basic level an orchestrator is a human. The main difference between a work flow automation and orchestration is that work flows are processed and completed as processes within a single domain.
Cloud Service orchestration therefore is the
- Composing of Architecture, Tools and Processes by humans to deliver a defined service
- Stitching of software and hardware components together to deliver a defined Service
- Connecting and automating of work flows when applicable to deliver a defined service
It is critical in the delivery of cloud services because
- Cloud is all about scale – automated work flows are essential
- Cloud Service delivery includes fulfillment assurance and billing
- Cloud Services delivery entails work flows in various technical and business domains
Examples
- ActiveVOS is built on the BPEL, BPEL4PeopleBPEL4PeopleBPEL4People is the WS-BPEL Extension for People as proposed in a joint white paper by IBM and SAP in July 2005.- History :In June 2007, Active Endpoints, Adobe, BEA, IBM, Oracle, and SAP published the BPEL4People and WS-HumanTask specifications as a follow-up to the whitepaper, describing how human...
and WS-Human Task open standards to allow developers the ability to orchestrate various systems and services. - Apache ODE (Orchestration Director Engine) is a WS-BPELBusiness Process Execution LanguageBusiness Process Execution Language , short for Web Services Business Process Execution Language is an OASIS standard executable language for specifying actions within business processes with web services...
1.1 and 2.0 compliant business process managementBusiness process managementBusiness process management is a holistic management approach focused on aligning all aspects of an organization with the wants and needs of clients. It promotes business effectiveness and efficiency while striving for innovation, flexibility, and integration with technology. BPM attempts to...
(BPM) engine that supports two communication layers: one based on Apache Axis2Apache Axis2Apache Axis2 is a core engine for Web services. It is a complete re-design and re-write of the widely used Apache Axis SOAP stack. Implementations of Axis2 are available in Java and C....
(Web Services HTTP transport) and another one based on the Java Business IntegrationJava Business IntegrationJava Business Integration is a specification developed under the Java Community Process for an approach to implementing a service-oriented architecture . The JCP reference is JSR 208 for JBI 1.0 and JSR 312 for JBI 2.0....
standard (using Apache ServiceMixApache ServiceMixApache ServiceMix is an enterprise-class open-source distributed enterprise service bus and service-oriented architecture . It was built from the ground up on the semantics and APIs of the Java Business Integration specification JSR 208 and released under the Apache License...
). It is capable of Hot-deployment, and features a management interface for processes, instances, and messages. - Oracle BPEL Process Manager provides a framework for easily designing, deploying, monitoring, and administering processes based on BPEL standards. BPEL Process Manager is the service orchestration solution on Oracle's SOA Suite.
- Intervoice Media Exchange contains an orchestration engine that has been designed to initiate and manage media interactions. It is the industry's first commercially available product that has implemented State Chart eXtensible Markup Language (SCXMLSCXMLSCXML stands for State Chart XML: State Machine Notation for Control Abstraction. It is an XML-based markup language which provides a generic state-machine based execution environment based on Harel statecharts.SCXML is able to describe complex state-machines...
) as the framework for building complex multi-modal interactions. - TIBCO BusinessWorks is a very functional orchestration, integration and transformation tool that supports BPEL, Web Services, common integration activities and visual modeling of orchestration processes.
- Microsoft BizTalk ServerMicrosoft BizTalk ServerMicrosoft BizTalk Server, often referred to as simply "BizTalk", is an Enterprise Service Bus. Through the use of "adapters" which are tailored to communicate with different software systems used in an enterprise, it enables companies to automate business processes...
contains an orchestration engine often used for business process management (BPM), allowing developers to quickly orchestrate complex business processes involving multiple disparate systems. - The Orc languageOrc (programming language)Orc is a concurrent, nondeterministic computer programming language created by Jayadev Misra at the University of Texas at Austin. It's based on a Kleene algebra model.-Bibliography:...
is an academic language for describing and implementing orchestrations. - IBM WebSphere Process Server contains an orchestration engine, able to execute BPEL.
- Juju (software)Juju (software)Juju is a cloud-based package manager developed by Canonical Ltd. that delivers service orchestration. It is an open-source project hosted on Launchpad released under the Affero General Public License ....
is a next generation service orchestration framework for Ubuntu LinuxUbuntu (operating system)Ubuntu is a computer operating system based on the Debian Linux distribution and distributed as free and open source software. It is named after the Southern African philosophy of Ubuntu...
.