GEL - Beyond The Core( Turing Dreams into Reality )

By: D Robertson

J W Whiteway

Of: AstraZeneca PLC

At : Bletchley Park

On: June 9th 2009

For: 45 minutes

Fundamentally:

GEL is a large Content Management based system, current primary client application is a VB stack – GEL Explorer 5.x

Multiple forces have triggered the creation of GEL Explorer 6.0

5.x – monolithic VB application

6.0 – set of WCF services, one WinForm client is GEL Explorer 6.0 – FUNDAMENTAL change in architecture

- .net, the opportunities seem endless…

- services

- GEL “core”, use as required

- can we create a pattern for future AZ applications and systems ?

Forces, Ideas, Possibilities…:

• Pharma. Business is changing fundamentally, we need to position for now and future, to ensure there is one…

• Shorter App. Maintenance times, but still Validated System

• Lower cost of ownership, sharing services, reusable solutions, lower App Dev and App Maint costs

• Increase use of AZ systems by “non AZ permanent staff”, company collaborations, virtual organisations

• ALWAYS more access to information required – BUT still rigorously controlled.

• New information / collaboration models – portable devices, Linked-In, Facebook etc…and applicability to the business world

• Changes in how organisations furnish IT solutions, AzuSpace…

Scope:

Diagram from http://cyrusxp.com/images/gph_Interoperability.png

Security

WCF Services

GEL Core

Binary Stack

To Address:

• Candidate Architectures for GEL “Beyond the Core”

• Azure – GEL schemes and dreams

• Sharepoint Strategy – Dave R.

• Can we have some “AzuVerse” ( I.e. some Azure Space…) ?

• How DO we measure or evaluate interop “level” of a system ?

Business Critical – Global Electronic Library ( GEL )

$$$Author, Manage, Publish and Track Submissions.

Nearly 10,000 users

all Regulatory Documents with AstraZeneca

THIS SYSTEM SPEEDS UP DRUG SUBMISSIONS

24 / 7 Global usage

2 million documents

Enterprise Application

17 Business Areas

75 Sites

50 countries

11,000 submissions / year

Content Management – GEL #0

• Dave Robertson

Interop – GEL #1 – Landscape

GEL #2 – Tooling (current)

C#

DQL, XML, SQL, XPATH, HTML, HTTP, .DOC, .DOCX, SAX, DOM, XSLT, .PDF,

Interop – GEL #3 - WCF

GEL Explorer Client

WCF Services

GEL Core

GEL Repository

Web ServicesBinary Stack

Externalisation Stack

Citrix Host Application Server Host

Support Tool Client

WCF Services

GEL Core

A.N.Other Client

Spot the Interop – GEL #4

Office

eCTD

.NET / JAVA

SuppotTool FutureClient

Terminal Server <> Application Server

Across application stack

Scenarios:

• Non-AZ staff “tailored” ( aka restricted ) access to GEL services

• Enterprise search, Semantic Search

• New layers to give new services

• Reuse of “GEL Core” / “GEL pattern” – for other AZ systems

• Use of AzuSpace for subset of GEL services - non-IP elements ( intellectual property )

• GEL + A.N.OTHER system collaborate for “Emergent Results”

Architecture Extensions to Core – Open Forum

Alter Boundaries

What are some architecture possibilities to cater for scenarios of previous slide ?