oracle application integration architecture (aia): does it deliver on it’s integration promise?
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Ahmed Aboulnaga Technical Director Raastech, Inc.
Does It Deliver On It’s Integration Promise?
Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA)
November 15th, 2011
13:00-13:45
Pres. No.: 149
Stream: SOA/BPM
Room: Riga
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1. Introduction
2. The Integration Problem
3. Introducing Oracle AIA
4. AIA Usage in the Real World
5. Summary
Agenda
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What is AIA?
What experiences have other customers had using AIA?
Should you consider AIA for your integration needs?
Goal of Presentation
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THE INTEGRATION PROBLEM
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Why do we need Application Integration?
Existence of multiple disparate systems in an enterprise
and their role in performing larger business functions
These systems are disparate in their:
– Technical Architectures
– Programming Model
– Connectivity
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Provides a complete, end-to-end solution for
Communication Service Providers (CSP) to deliver mobile
TV, 3G wireless networks, video conferencing, and more
The Oracle Communications Suite consists of the
following applications: – Siebel Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
– Communications Billing & Revenue Management (BRM)
– Supply Chain Management (SCM)
– Point-of-Sale (POS)
– Service Fulfillment (SF)
– Communications Order & Service Management (OSM)
– Communications Unified Inventory Management (UIM)
– Automatic Service Activation Program (ASAP)
– Communications Services Gatekeeper (OCSG)
– Oracle E-Business Suite & Financials
The Oracle Communications Example
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Point-to-Point Integration Architecture
CRM
ASAP
OCSG
OSM
OSM
BRM
UIM
POS
Using web services alone is not
enough when integrating Oracle
Communications applications
Integrating these applications can
be very difficult and time
consuming
Upgrading any application will
require code modification to the
integrations
Points of connections grow
exponentially
Limited reusability
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AIA Integration Architecture
CRM
ASAP
OCSG
OSM
OSM
BRM
UIM
POS
AIA EBO/EBS
By leveraging Oracle AIA for
Communications, we allow for
loose coupling of the Oracle
Communications applications
A change to any one
application has a minimal
impact on the integrations
Single connection for each
operation
One-time integration
development for multiple
providers
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AIA for Communications 2.5
Oracle BI
Analytics
Siebel Customer Relationship Management
Oracle SDP
Service Execution
Data Management
Product
Customer
En
terp
rise
M
an
ag
em
en
t B
us
ine
ss
In
tellig
en
ce
Info
rma
tion
Ma
na
ge
me
nt
Re
ve
nu
e
Ma
na
ge
me
nt
Cu
sto
me
r M
an
ag
em
en
t S
erv
ice
M
an
ag
em
en
t
ERP
Fins Assets
Procurement
Reporting
Oracle Content
Management
Oracle Service Fulfillment
Activation Network Inventory
Provisioning
Oracle Billing and Revenue Management
Billing Balance Tracking
Rating
Oracle Order and Service Management
Order Fallout Order Lifecycle
Management Ord
er
Ma
na
ge
me
nt
Oracle BI
Publisher
Invoicing
Sales Marketing/
Loyalty Partner
Order Capture
Self Service
Service
SCM
Planning Logistics Execution
Parts Inventory
Order Decomposition
and Orchestration
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Oracle Introduces AIA Foundation Pack
traditional SOA
Oracle AIA
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INTRODUCING ORACLE AIA
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1. Pre-Built Integrations
2. Canonical Data Model
3. Development Methodology
4. Error Management Framework
5. CAVS
6. Project Lifecycle Workbench
7. Other tools and features
Oracle AIA Components
Code
Data Model
Best Practices
Tools
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Also referred to as Process Integration Packs or PIPs
PIPS are a pre-built set of integrated orchestration flows,
application integration logic, extensible EBOs and EBSs
9 cross-industry PIPs, 8 vertical PIPs
Developing these from scratch is time consuming
PIPs are supported, upgraded, and maintained by Oracle
Pre-Built Integrations
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“Order to Bill” PIP
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Companies often spend many months just trying to agree
on a corporate data standard to represent their key
business objects
Eliminates the need to comprehensively analyze your
environment to determine a common message format
Also referred to as Enterprise Business Objects or EBOs
EBOs are based on the open source OAGIS data model
Designed with extensibility in mind
Canonical Data Model
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All applications are responsible for publishing as much
information to the EBO as possible
The integration will transform the data from the EBO to
the format of the target system(s)
Explaining the Canonical Data Model
Application A
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Date Of Birth
Position
Company
Application B
First Name
Last Name
Age
Salary
Application C
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Company
Customer EBO
First Name
Middle Name
Last Name
Date Of Birth
Position
Company
Salary
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EBOs are XML schemas (i.e., xsd files)
Examples:
– BankAccount
– CurrencyExchange
– CustomerParty
– Invoice
– Item
– Location
– PurchaseOrder
EBOs
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Canonical Data Model
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<xsd:schema xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
targetNamespace="http://www.siebel.com/xml/CMU%20AccSync%20Account%20Io">
<xsd:complexType name="ListOfCmuAccsyncAccountIo">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="Account" type="xsdLocal:Account" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="unbounded"/>
</xsd:sequence>
<xsd:attribute name="Language" type="xsd:string"/>
<xsd:attribute name="Locale" type="xsd:string"/>
<xsd:attribute name="MessageId" type="xsd:string"/>
<xsd:attribute name="EnterpriseServerName" type="xsd:string"/>
</xsd:complexType>
<xsd:complexType name="Account">
<xsd:sequence>
<xsd:element name="AccountStatus" type="xsdLocal:string24" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
<xsd:element name="AccountClass" type="xsdLocal:string30" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"/>
<xsd:element name="CurrencyCode" type="xsdLocal:string15" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"/>
<xsd:element name="MainPhoneNumber" type="xsd:string" minOccurs="0" maxOccurs="1"/>
<xsd:element name="AccountName" type="xsdLocal:string100" minOccurs="1" maxOccurs="1"/>
Below is an example of the BankAccount EBO
It contains a superset of all account related fields
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AIA proposes a methodology to follow when developing
custom integrations
Designed to decouple the source and target applications
PIPs are developed using this methodology
Updates to any application requires little to no changes to
your integrations
Development Methodology
Requestor ABCS
AIA EBS
Provider ABCS CRM BRM
EBS Provider
ABCS
ABM EBM EBM ABM
EBM ABM
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Captures errors
Notifies on errors
Workflow processes surround the error framework
Can be used by custom code
Errors can be published to other systems or tools
Error Management Framework
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Claim, Escalate, and Delegate errors
Error Management Framework
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Error details are available to help in troubleshooting
Error Management Framework
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“Composite Application Validation System”
CAVS is a framework to test integration of AIA services
Provides test initiators that simulate web service
Provides simulators that simulate service endpoints
CAVS
Requestor ABCS
AIA EBO CRM BRM
CAVS Simulator
Provider ABCS
CAVS Test Definition
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Functional designs are created to specify requirements
that need to be implemented for an integration project
Used to perform functional decompositions to break down
overall projects into business tasks
Project Lifecycle Workbench
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Project Lifecycle Workbench
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1. Pre-Built Integrations
2. Canonical Data Model
3. Development Methodology
4. Error Management Framework
5. CAVS
6. Project Lifecycle Workbench
7. Other tools and features
8. Infrastructure
Oracle AIA Components
PIPs
AIA Foundation Pack
SOA Suite
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AIA USAGE IN THE REAL WORLD
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Large telecom company
$9.1 billion in revenue in 2010
Large number of enterprise applications:
– 6 Oracle applications
– 6 non-Oracle applications
– 3 external applications
Oracle AIA for Communications 2.x
Customer A: Profile
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2 PIPs were used
Huge time & cost savings for initial development effort
Customer A: Reducing Cost with PIPs
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CAVS not used
– Would not have impacted testing approach
– All code must pass functional testing anyway
Error Handling Framework not used
– Errors were being reported by other means
IAIADiagnostics interface was proposed, not used
– Customer could have implemented a simpler custom
solution
Lack of experience, comfort, and familiarity with AIA
causes teams to not use these features
Customer A: AIA Tools Not Leveraged
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Customer A: Benefits & Risks
Benefits Risks
PIPs reduced development time
during initial phases of the project
Lack of developer understanding of
AIA framework
Dependent on Oracle for bug fixes to
PIPs
Unable to upgrade to SOA Suite 11g
(for now)
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Global retail company
$9.2 billion in revenue in 2010
Large applications supporting global operations:
– 1 Oracle application (4 more in the future)
– 6 custom applications (50+ more in the future)
600+ SOA projects
Oracle AIA Foundation Pack 11g
Customer B: Profile
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A single integration consists of 5 projects, sometimes
resulting in high overhead under load (particularly when
using EBOs which are large in nature) and complicating
the development process
Did not firmly adhere to AIA methodology
Initial design mistakes were made as a result of learning
curve, which introduces risk in a new implementation
when trying to set the foundation
Customer B: Cumbersome AIA Methodology
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CAVS was perceived to be great in the beginning
CAVS did not provided much value over time:
– Developers unable to do data validation using CAVS
– SoapUI is a more convenient client testing tool for developers
Customer B: Dropping CAVS
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Reuse of integrations became evident:
– As the number of source applications increased
– Due to the loose coupling recommended by AIA
– After 2 years
Standardizing on AIA EBOs eliminated early analysis
efforts
Customer B: Long-Term ROI Evident
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Customer B: Benefits & Risks
Benefits Risks
No point-to-point integrations Learning curve was high
Long-term ROI is apparent due to high
reusability
Could not follow AIA development
methodology 100%
Using EBOs eliminated initial
requirements analysis for data model
CAVS usage did not survive in the
long term
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SUMMARY
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Should you consider using PIPs?
Yes, if they are available; why would you want to develop
this code yourself?
Yes, if they meet the requirements of your Oracle
applications integration (at least 50-75%)
No, if you envision an extremely high degree of
customization to the PIPs (Oracle can provide a “fit
analysis”)
Recommendation
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Should you use the AIA Foundation Pack for custom
development?
Yes, if you have a very large number of Oracle
applications, since EBOs are becoming the common
message format for communication among Oracle
applications
Yes, if you envision a high degree of reuse
No, if you have a small number of non-Oracle
applications and/or don’t expect to add many systems
Recommendation
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Should you use CAVS?
Maybe, if your developers are strong and you follow a
strict configuration management, release management,
and testing process
No, if you have skillset or time constraints, as it
becomes more trouble than it’s worth
No, if your expectations are high, since it only helps in
binding tests and cannot help in data validation tests
Recommendation
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Should you use the Project Lifecycle Workbench, PIP
Auditor, AIA Diagnostics, or other tools provided with
the AIA Foundation Pack?
No, Oracle has a history of removing features after a
major release upgrade (e.g., BSR)
No, some of these tools (e.g., PIP Auditor) are rarely
used by most customers
No, since each tool requires yet another piece that
designers/developers must learn
Recommendation
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The “Truth Meter” contains a list of claims extracted from
Oracle AIA marketing material, press releases, and release
notes
12 Oracle AIA Solution Architects were interviewed to
provide, on a scale of 1 to 10, the truthfulness of each
statement
Background of the Oracle AIA Solution Architects:
– 10+ years of IT experience
– At least 1 long term AIA engagement (6-18 months)
– Includes customer architects, systems integration architects
(i.e., consultants), and architects currently employed at Oracle
Truth Meter Description
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Truth Meter
Oracle Claim Truth Meter
Reduce complexity, accelerating delivery 58%
Promotes reuse 78%
Leverages industry best practices 76%
Speed up design with pre-built, extensible product data model 73%
Allocate less work on maintenance 63%
Lower integration costs (using PIPs) 62%
Lower integration costs (Foundation Pack only) 61%
Reduces integration risks (using PIPs) 63%
Reduces integration risks (Foundation Pack only) 60%
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Truth Meter
Oracle Claim Truth Meter Total Customer SI Oracle
Reduce complexity, accelerating delivery 58% 47% 65% 70%
Promotes reuse 78% 77% 73% 87%
Leverages industry best practices 76% 80% 80% 67%
Speed up design with pre-built, extensible data model 73% 53% 82% 70%
Allocate less work on maintenance 63% 17% 55% 63%
Lower integration costs (using PIPs) 62% 50% 78% 67%
Lower integration costs (Foundation Pack only) 61% 50% 80% 57%
Reduces integration risks (using PIPs) 63% 50% 72% 53%
Reduces integration risks (Foundation Pack only) 60% 60% 63% 53%
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My past assessment of CAVS was “avoid at all costs”
Conducted additional surveys of clients and systems
integrators
Was I too harsh on CAVS?
CAVS Survey Question Result
You would recommend using it for an upcoming project 8%
You would recommend using it for an upcoming project
only if the team has prior experience using it 8%
Using it varies depending on the needs of the project 58%
You would not recommend it 25%
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AIA can be the solution to the fundamental challenge of
application integration
For small integration implementations, AIA is not
recommended
For larger implementations, expect to initially see cost
reduction, high cost and high risk during the middle, but long
term ROI afterwards
PIPs help reduce risk
PIPs are not available for all types of integrations; custom
development and/or customization is almost always required
Not enough qualified expertise in the marketplace
Competent AIA Solution Architects are very hard to come back
Summary
AIA
Sum
mary
PIP
s
Skillsets
Slide 47 of 47 © Raastech, Inc. 2011 | All rights reserved.
Contact Information
Ahmed Aboulnaga
Technical Director
ahmed.aboulnaga@raastech.com
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