Taking Broadcast Management Systems onto a New Level

Reprinted from: IBE

March / April, 2008

In a recent issue of IBE, I was interested to read an article from Joe O’Halloran entitled “2008: the year of the SOA?” The piece provided a strong argument for the enhanced integration and interoperability that SOA can deliver.. This type of incremental benefit to real-world projects is critical to the success of many broadcast management solutions not least our own traffic and billing system, ForeTV.

While interoperability is clearly important, this article considers the impact of SOA within the design of a single, operation-wide application. As such, it looks at other issues that can influence the adoption of SOA based applications including; software architecture & re-use, speed of development, flexibility deployment and maintenance.

Service Orientated Architecture

Employing SOA as the basis of the architecture in ForeTV means a separation to the software stack used as the foundations for the application. Therefore, each element in the application – database, data access layer (DAL), business logic layer (BLL) and presentation layer – is developed as an independent and self-contained tier. At first reading, this could be considered solely a technical consideration, with little impact on real-world solutions. However, it is this basic tenet of SOA that enables a host of benefits that underpin a modern operational environment.

Multiple Platform Support

In a world where the Internet is ubiquitous, companies are becoming increasingly frustrated by the cost and inflexibility of enterprise software. Similarly, end-user experience is greatly influenced by the performance of standalone applications such as Microsoft Office. In vertical markets such as the broadcasting industry, it has been a near impossible requirement for systems to evolve and incorporate new facilities, while maintaining tight control over costs.

The separation of tiers within the stack provides a way forward. The database, DAL and BLL remain consistent, leaving only the presentation layer to be repurposed. This reduces effort, time and cost involved in developing user interfaces from new devices and enables support for new devices to be deployed more quickly.

To ensure as rich an environment as possible there are a number of options available; principally Software as a Service (SaaS) and Software plus Services (S+S). SaaS can be deployed centrally, with client access wholly supported through a web browser, whereas S+S can employ a mixture of locally hosted software supplemented by other elements that are hosted in the cloud.

The clear benefit of SaaS is that it enables access from any internet capable host, whereas S+S generally requires an element of initial installation and maintenance. However, the overriding benefit of S+S within a line-of-business application is that more complex functionality is supported and system response is more in keeping with a standalone application.

This enables richer environment capabilities, with features such as online validation of a large volume of data, which may prove unresponsive in a SaaS environment. Furthermore, a reliance on underlying software being installed on a client machine can prove useful within business applications that manage sensitive data such as sales contracts and billing information.

Distributed Systems Environment

Indeed, when considered in the context of a multinational operation, SOA can be deployed to create sophisticated deployment architecture across the enterprise. A centralised application host can be used with remote connection from satellite offices.

Where the level of remote (or even dial-up) access remains minimal; either SaaS or S+S can be used to content individual clients to the centralised server.

In situations where greater volumes are managed, it may prove more reliable to maintain an environment as a subset of the primary server. There are a number of operational benefits that can be secured from this approach:

• Independent systems are maintained at a local level when communication links are not available to the centralised host
• Support for clustering to ensure data integrity is maintained
• Reduction in data traffic between client, centralised application and workflow engine reduces the burden on network bandwidth
• Capability to schedule updates to the centralised server for periods where network traffic is minimal
• Failover capabilities in disaster recovery (DR) situations where the local server is unavailable.

Consider the advantage that can be secured from efficient infrastructures when deployed alongside powerful, but standardised technologies such as Workflow Foundation (WF), SharePoint or Biz Talk Server. These options can be included the overall solutions directly from generic application providers, in this case, Microsoft.

The adoption of these technologies within a vertical sector means broadcasters are able to benefit from the economies of scale in R&D, development and licensing that is just not possible when applications are deployed using proprietary technologies.

Centralised Administration and Maintenance

A recent report in MSDN Architecture Journal cited that 70% of IT budgets are deployed to support and maintain legacy systems. Fortunately, this is another area where SOA-based applications can be employed to increase operating efficiencies. Whether using a centralised application server configuration or a distributed architecture, a licensing server – based on a web service – can be deployed to maintain version control.

A poll to the centralised license server is made each time a client initiates an application session. If a newer version exists on the license server to that on the client, it will automatically download the required updates. More importantly, if a license server is located in each of the operation centres, these satellite licenses servers can initiate a workflow to download updates from the central license server. From this point, the satellite licence server can provide automated updates to each of the clients within the LAN; a huge bandwidth efficiency gain compared to distribution directly over the WAN.

Future Possibilities

The tangible benefits outlined here represent only the most fundamental applications that can be adopted through SOA. As deployments, techniques and possibilities mature, a host of opportunities emerge. Indeed, many if not all, the required technologies are already in place.

It is just a matter of time for more ambitious uses to be deployed in real world installations. Deployment of web parts that can be hosted in SharePoint or compiled into mash-ups directly by the organisations’ IT staff are a reality. Adoption of this capability raises concerns over the provision of effective support, but that is a contractual consideration to be addressed in another place.

Workflow definitions capable of automating systems across an entire infrastructure without the need for extensive development of standard commands will extend functionality beyond traditional application boundaries, providing added-value to clients. Presentation layer development that complies with Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF) in the rich client, or Silverlight for thin client applications, offer the opportunity to revolutionise the user experience.I don’t know if it is a brave new world out there, but it is going to be interesting to see it develop.