Service Oriented Infrastructure
Encyclopedia
Service Oriented Infrastructure or SOI provides a system for describing information technology
(IT) infrastructure
as a service. The underlying principles go back to, among others, Mainframe
and LDAP
technologies; SOI provides a framework or mindset for making business
benefits measurable.
:
This article covers the infrastructure domain of service-orientation. Key aspects of service-oriented infrastructure include industrialisation
and virtualisation, providing IT infrastructure services via a pool of resources (web servers, application servers, database servers, servers, storage instances) instead of through discrete instances.
While the IT industry has widely adopted service-oriented architecture
(SOA), service-oriented infrastructure or SOI has lagged in its adoption. This has changed with the availability of SOI solutions like application-server
grid
s, database grids, Virtualised server
s and virtualised storage
.
A joint effort between HP, Cisco
and Capgemini
has resulted in the following definition for a service-oriented infrastructure:
The term SOI also has a broader usage, which includes all configurable infrastructure resources such as compute, storage, and networking hardware and software to support the running of applications. Consistent with the objectives for SOA, SOI facilitates the reuse and dynamic allocation of necessary infrastructure resources. The development of SOI solutions focuses around the service characteristics envisaged. The service characteristics provide the basis both for the development as well as for the delivery of the services. The notion of a fully managed life cycle of the services envisages a continuum that contrasts with the event-based deployment of IT infrastructure that provided discrete silos of IT infrastructure for specific applications.
A SOI exposes a set of fundamental services such as mobility or security which form a part of the network environment that can deliver resource sharing, application integration, and communications and collaboration: ubiquitously, scalably, reliably, sustainably, maintainably and cost-effectively. In order to ensure each service provides a standard response to a standard invocation at all times, the service must include a control process. The control process measures both the demand and the supply of a capability and automatically updates the capability if required.
In April 2007 The Open Group
started a project on SOI
within its SOA Working Group. This SOI project aims to develop more common understanding around SOI between the members of The Open Group.
) and increased service-levels as applications do not depend on the availability of any individual resource, but may use any one resource available in the pool.
, available IT infrastructure technologies provide a full stack of options to deliver an end-to-end service-oriented service. Schedulers can virtualise each service within this domain, and a highly automated provisioning process can manage the required number of resources constituting a service , thus ensuring standard quality and consistent behaviour of the infrastructure services. This applies to servers, storage, networks, directory services, databases: in fact to every component of the IT infrastructure.
Information technology
Information technology is the acquisition, processing, storage and dissemination of vocal, pictorial, textual and numerical information by a microelectronics-based combination of computing and telecommunications...
(IT) infrastructure
Infrastructure
Infrastructure is basic physical and organizational structures needed for the operation of a society or enterprise, or the services and facilities necessary for an economy to function...
as a service. The underlying principles go back to, among others, Mainframe
Mainframe computer
Mainframes are powerful computers used primarily by corporate and governmental organizations for critical applications, bulk data processing such as census, industry and consumer statistics, enterprise resource planning, and financial transaction processing.The term originally referred to the...
and LDAP
Lightweight Directory Access Protocol
The Lightweight Directory Access Protocol is an application protocol for accessing and maintaining distributed directory information services over an Internet Protocol network...
technologies; SOI provides a framework or mindset for making business
Business
A business is an organization engaged in the trade of goods, services, or both to consumers. Businesses are predominant in capitalist economies, where most of them are privately owned and administered to earn profit to increase the wealth of their owners. Businesses may also be not-for-profit...
benefits measurable.
Overview
A service-oriented infrastructure provides a foundation for IT services. A concept initially developed by Intel discussed three domains for service-orientationService-orientation
Service-orientation is a design paradigm to build computer software in the form of services. Like other design paradigms , service-orientation provides a governing approach to automate business logic as distributed systems...
:
- the enterprise
- the application architectureApplication ArchitectureApplications architecture is one of several architecture domains that form the pillars of an enterprise architecture or solution architecture. Note that the term "application architecture" is commonly used for the internal structure of an application, for its software modularisation.Applications...
- the infrastructure
This article covers the infrastructure domain of service-orientation. Key aspects of service-oriented infrastructure include industrialisation
Industrialisation
Industrialization is the process of social and economic change that transforms a human group from an agrarian society into an industrial one...
and virtualisation, providing IT infrastructure services via a pool of resources (web servers, application servers, database servers, servers, storage instances) instead of through discrete instances.
While the IT industry has widely adopted 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...
(SOA), service-oriented infrastructure or SOI has lagged in its adoption. This has changed with the availability of SOI solutions like application-server
Application server
An application server is a software framework that provides an environment in which applications can run, no matter what the applications are or what they do...
grid
Grid computing
Grid computing is a term referring to the combination of computer resources from multiple administrative domains to reach a common goal. The grid can be thought of as a distributed system with non-interactive workloads that involve a large number of files...
s, database grids, Virtualised server
Server (computing)
In the context of client-server architecture, a server is a computer program running to serve the requests of other programs, the "clients". Thus, the "server" performs some computational task on behalf of "clients"...
s and virtualised storage
Storage Virtualization
Storage virtualization or storage virtualisation is a concept and term used within computer science. Specifically, storage systems may use virtualization concepts as a tool to enable better functionality and more advanced features within the storage system.Broadly speaking, a 'storage system' is...
.
A joint effort between HP, Cisco
Cisco
Cisco may refer to:Companies:*Cisco Systems, a computer networking company* Certis CISCO, corporatised entity of the former Commercial and Industrial Security Corporation in Singapore...
and Capgemini
Capgemini
Capgemini is a French global IT services company, one of the world's largest management consulting, outsourcing and professional services companies with a staff of 114,274 operating in 40 countries. It is headquartered in Paris and was founded in 1967 by Serge Kampf, the current chairman, in...
has resulted in the following definition for a service-oriented infrastructure:
- a virtualised IT infrastructure with components managed in an industrialised way and which:
- expose a catalog of services instead of discrete instances
- can comprise service-oriented architecture application support
The term SOI also has a broader usage, which includes all configurable infrastructure resources such as compute, storage, and networking hardware and software to support the running of applications. Consistent with the objectives for SOA, SOI facilitates the reuse and dynamic allocation of necessary infrastructure resources. The development of SOI solutions focuses around the service characteristics envisaged. The service characteristics provide the basis both for the development as well as for the delivery of the services. The notion of a fully managed life cycle of the services envisages a continuum that contrasts with the event-based deployment of IT infrastructure that provided discrete silos of IT infrastructure for specific applications.
A SOI exposes a set of fundamental services such as mobility or security which form a part of the network environment that can deliver resource sharing, application integration, and communications and collaboration: ubiquitously, scalably, reliably, sustainably, maintainably and cost-effectively. In order to ensure each service provides a standard response to a standard invocation at all times, the service must include a control process. The control process measures both the demand and the supply of a capability and automatically updates the capability if required.
In April 2007 The Open Group
The Open Group
The Open Group is a vendor and technology-neutral industry consortium, currently with over three hundred member organizations. It was formed in 1996 when X/Open merged with the Open Software Foundation...
started a project on SOI
within its SOA Working Group. This SOI project aims to develop more common understanding around SOI between the members of The Open Group.
Orchestrating virtualised components
Service orientation provides significant advantages for IT infrastructure services. The main benefits include increased utilisation of individual resources (meaning lower total cost of ownershipTotal cost of ownership
Total cost of ownership is a financial estimate whose purpose is to help consumers and enterprise managers determine direct and indirect costs of a product or system...
) and increased service-levels as applications do not depend on the availability of any individual resource, but may use any one resource available in the pool.
, available IT infrastructure technologies provide a full stack of options to deliver an end-to-end service-oriented service. Schedulers can virtualise each service within this domain, and a highly automated provisioning process can manage the required number of resources constituting a service , thus ensuring standard quality and consistent behaviour of the infrastructure services. This applies to servers, storage, networks, directory services, databases: in fact to every component of the IT infrastructure.