XML

The internet is creating an economy that is ubiquitous, continuously operating, and increasingly optimizing the process of buying and selling goods and services. Web content has gone from a few web sites managed by web masters to multiple site farms of content rich infrastructure. The number of contributors and players in the creation of a web site has astronomically increased to include marketing, IT, accounting, product development. Such diverse content has become increasingly important to purchasing, decision-making, cost control, and customer service.

The meaning of the content or information has become increasingly important. The content is usually bound to a single web application, and is often poorly typed. Users frequently cannot find content, although they know that the information exists. Current implementations of ERP and custom enterprise solutions decry an object model where business processes are tied to the data. Such object oriented methodologies are fragile, when there is a need to evolve. This is because the process is tightly coupled to the data. New methods for packaging contents and new methods for typing it have evolved. The key enablers are the XML standards that are being increasingly adopted by organizations.

TOP

Component Architectures

A typical company’s IT infrastructure is moving closer to the customer, thus increasing customer satisfaction and improved efficiencies. Applications are being developed will be used internally – but eventually by the end customer (people as well as systems).

These applications need to be flexible and reliable. The current evolution of the internet is neither rich nor reliable to support all the required functionality. Also, client applications will take many forms such as PDA’s, browser client etc. In such a scenario applications should be implemented on component architectures such as COM or EJB. Component models provide for the separation between the business logic and the user interface, allowing the same business functionality to be accessed from a variety of client types, including the browser. Also, a common programming model for combining data and behavior from independently developed systems into new applications, thereby reducing diversity and facilitating integration

TOP

Directory Services

A directory service is a distributed, replicated database of information about every application, user, server, service and resource attached to a network, either permanently or transiently.

It is a common, network-accessible location for storing shared data such as user and group identification, server identification, and access control information.

The popularity of Directory services are increasing because location independence is critical to loosely coupled distributed systems of today,and the difference between internets, intranets and corporate networks is blurring, as digital information is ubiquitous and end users don't know where it is and don't care as long as they can access it.

Like information, people too are mobile like never before. Fewer end users and administrators are tied to single desktops and specific geographical work locations. Workgroups are fluid. And wherever people are, they require access to digital information. True directory services provide secure,
location-independent access to the widely dispersed Internet/intranet/network resources today's increasingly mobile end users need.

TOP

Data Warehousing and Data Mining

A Data Warehouse is a single central repository that integrates enterprise wide corporate data, with the data organized in multiple dimensions. It provides an architectural model for the flow of data from operational systems to the decision support environment. Extraction of knowledge from such a large data set is called data mining or knowledge discovery in databases

TOP

Workflow Management

Workflow is the automation of the business process, which can be defined and interpreted at run-time. Workflow has evolved out of the growing needs of the businesses to offer more support to business processes and electronically manage unstructured information like documents and images. Additionally it can help improve interaction between teams of people within the company. Thus by providing these facilities it can provide great benefits to businesses due to the increased efficiency, productivity and reduction in human errors. Workflow also offers the capability to get the progress reports and statistics to redistribute the workloads easily among the resources on any contingency.

The major approach to the workflow management are:

1) Ad-hoc Workflow which include the application such as simple routing and tracking for the masses.

2) Application Specific Workflow offered as an embedded technology in specific applications or to integrate workflow technologies in to vertical or horizontal frameworks.

3) Workflow as business utility, to provide a comprehensive approach to work management and providing the design, development and management framework. This aims for the enterprise work management to deliver high levels of work management capability across the extended enterprises.

4) Message Broker Workflow is the newer development in the work management by incorporating the flow control functionality in the message brokers which connects the heterogeneous applications by explicit flow control.

TOP