Web Services Platform for Management: Requirements

A Web services platform for management is critical to the continued profitable growth of a service network. To do the job, a Web services management platform must address the three types of change in an enterprise service network that dominate rising costs: unexpected change to a service in the network, planned change to a service in the network and planned simultaneous change to many services in the network.

The prior analysis yielded several key capabilities required to achieve this objective:

• Know when there is a service network problem – that the network of services is deviating from its normal operating range
• Identify the root cause of a problem – if it is a service network problem, then which application, service and operation is at the head of the cascading chain of trouble
• Insulate downstream applications and services from service changes and SOA failures, or from an intentional change that would cause trouble if it were not isolated
• Understand and visualize the makeup of the extended service network – identifying the complete set of the direct and indirect Web services dependencies and other dependencies between systems
• Predict the impact of a change – will this new application overload the Web services to which it will connect? If I move an application providing services, which other applications and services will be impacted?
• Formulate a response to a problem or a plan for non-disruptive intended change to a service or services – a set of rules that if followed in the service network, will eliminate or prevent failure conditions
• Distribute policy, rules and behaviors into the network of Web services in a consistent and automated way

In addition to these capabilities, a solution must scale and perform in a complex enterprise IT environment, requiring the following characteristics:

• Active – The solution must actively participate in shaping the behavior of the service network – redirecting traffic, changing in-flight documents and enforcing policy. Merely observing and reporting on the operation of the service network lengthens the time and expense of reacting to trouble and does little to expedite cost-efficient intended change.
• High Performance – Solutions that can actively manage a service network must be able to efficiently manipulate in-flight XML documents. In environments where message volumes are high or in which responsiveness is desired, this processing must be extremely efficient. Algorithms for gathering, consolidating and transmitting statistical information must also be efficient. Efficiency results in low latency, high throughput and fast service response times. Horizontal and vertical solution scalability must be demonstrable.
• High Availability – A solution must not introduce a single point of failure into the service network. Like the service network itself, a solution must be distributed by design. In addition, each individual component of the overall solution must be designed for maximum uptime and rapid failure recovery.
• Vendor Neutral – Every enterprise-computing environment is heterogeneous. The adoption of a service-oriented application approach heightens that heterogeneity. Application components can be mixed and matched. Packaged applications mix with custom applications. Services are often extended for use across the enterprise and across enterprise boundaries where the application underlying a service may not even be known. A solution cannot limit the types of systems that can be actively managed in an enterprise service network. A good solution will enhance an organization's flexibility in that regard.
• Non-Intrusive – A solution must not require that systems participating in the service network be aware of its presence. Any solution that requires service providers or consumers to knowingly participate in the solution effectively creates a proprietary network of services. Requiring coding to a special toolkit or framework in creating consumers and providers substantially limits the value and scope of the solution. For services delivered from or to other organizations, changing those systems may not even be possible. Management platform components must slip unnoticed into the service network.
• Deployment Flexibility – Solution components must be deployable on the widest variety of platforms and in the location most appropriate for the situation. In some cases, deploying on a service provider or consumer is appropriate and desirable. In other cases, deploying in the network between service providers and consumers is appropriate and can provide enhanced functionality. In some cases (for example, where managed service providers or consumers are not under the control of the entity seeking manageability) deploying between systems is the only practical option.

Summary

A Web services platform for management, as described above, must be able to handle the three types of network change: unexpected change to a service in the network, planned change to a service in the network and planned simultaneous change to many services in the network. Actional Corporation provides just such a Web services management solution.

For More Information

Learn more about Actional's Web services platform for management – and how it can dramatically improve your ability to deal effectively with change on the network. Download the free webinar, Runtime Governance