Federated architecture

Last updated
Federated architecture Federated Architecture.jpg
Federated architecture

Federated architecture (FA) is a pattern in enterprise architecture that allows interoperability and information sharing between semi-autonomous de-centrally organized lines of business (LOBs), information technology systems and applications.

Contents

Architecture areas of concern

This is an approach to the coordinated sharing and exchange of information which is organized by models, which are describing common concepts and behavior. The pattern emphasizes a controlled sharing and exchange of information among autonomous components by communication via messages. Highest possible autonomy shall be given to the different cooperating components. In return they are expected to adhere to common models by using defined interfaces.

Complex problems

"Complex architectures are extremely hard to manage, not only in terms of the architecture process itself, but also in terms of getting buy-in from large numbers of stakeholders. This in turn requires a very disciplined approach to identifying common architectural components, and management of the commonalities between federated components — deciding how to integrate, what to integrate, etc." [1]

The pattern's intention is to provide the highest possible autonomy in order to reduce the complexity, which at the same time shall increase what is called agility. The expected result is a high degree of flexibility — which at the end means, taking local particularities seriously and solve local problems locally whenever possible. There are different areas where autonomy can help solve complex problems better.

Autonomic

Federated architecture is expected to deliver high flexibility and agility among independently cooperating components and at the same time reduces complexity significantly. It should be considered for problems with the root cause of unmanageable complexity. That can be caused by functional business and non-functional IT requirements. The pattern is applicable for decoupling and decentralization projects, heterogeneous environments, where a central one-fits-all approach cannot be applied and will not solve the problem of constantly changing underlying realities. It is especially applicable for long term migration projects, where a big bang approach cannot be applied.

The federated architecture is an architecture vision to foster managed independence among loosely coupled cooperating components sharing a common aim.

Federation and syndication

The concept of federation is supplemented by the concept of syndication. Syndication is a kind of central authority being able to interpret the federated model and compile meaningful information out of it. This is typically done by management information and workflow systems, portals, reporting systems, general ledger, tax reporting and even identity and security management. A typical example is demand planning of a supply chain or a stock exchange order book, where different participants have agreed on a standard protocol. Common to all such systems and organizations is a common semantic model and protocol, to which each participant agreed to adhere and behave like to a law.

Federated architecture foundation

The FA pattern with its emphasis on autonomy by sharing of a model is forced to deliver a constitution, a federated architecture foundation (FAF), something like The Ten Commandments, common concepts, principles and even a common technical architecture: "a corpus juris". "In the absence of a global authority, the federated architecture has to resolve two conflicting requirements: the components must maintain as much autonomy as possible, but the components must be able to achieve a reasonable degree of information sharing" (Heimbiger, 1985). This is the reason federated architecture strongly demands for governance. The FAF is the legislative body, which needs an executive or an architecture enforcement QC process and sometimes a jurisdiction.

Federated organizations

The federated architecture pattern was first used by the US Federal CIO in the early 1990s and was since then adopted by other large organization like banks, IT architecture organizations, etc. Large and complex organizations with independent lines of business (LOBs) federate the administrative and IT functions among several local authorities. It enables LOBs to maintain diversity and uniqueness, while providing interoperability. LOBs have full autonomy to develop standards for applications and infrastructure and to define enterprise architectures. The goal of the LOB is to optimize performance at LOB level. Federated Architectures define common or shared architecture standards across autonomous program areas, enabling, e.g., state government entities to maintain diversity and uniqueness, while providing interoperability. Federated Enterprise Architecture is a collective set of organizational architectures (as defined by the enterprise scope), operating collaboratively within the concept of federalism, in which governance is divided between a central authority and constituent units balancing organizational autonomy with enterprise needs. The central authority’s architecture focuses on the dynamics of economies of scale, standards, and the well being of the enterprise, while constituent units’ architecture has the flexibility to pursue autonomous strategies and independent processes. [2]

Federated information technology systems

Most recently the principle was carried over to application design by large software vendors, emphasized in large scale database system architecture as well as portal infrastructure and identity management. Federated identity systems link a user's attributes to multiple systems, such as with single sign-on technologies. It is also used to manage pricing in service industries, where the requirement of bundling services and invoice customers according to these service-bundles needs independently, across product areas organized processing systems to syndicate their service definitions and pricing determination. It allows the introduction of new pricing models in market-oriented time. A holistic customer view as well as a detailed and traceable price calculation shall allow for transparent information towards the customer and the corporation.

Benefits

The benefits of being as independent of a global authority as possible (where a global authority may be a central computer system, central organization or central process management system), are expected to outweigh problems caused by misunderstandings and incompatibilities. There are different areas where independently solved problems can reduce complexity and increase agility.

Independence

History

Federated architecture as database architecture was first introduced by Denis Heimbigner 1982 [3] and 1985 with the title: A Federated Architecture for Information Management: [4] "This federated database architecture allows a collection of database systems (components) to unite into a loosely coupled federation in order to share and exchange information. The term federation refers to the collection of constituent databases participating in a federated database."

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Data warehouse</span> Centralized storage of knowledge

In computing, a data warehouse, also known as an enterprise data warehouse (EDW), is a system used for reporting and data analysis and is considered a core component of business intelligence. Data warehouses are central repositories of integrated data from one or more disparate sources. They store current and historical data in one single place that are used for creating analytical reports for workers throughout the enterprise. This is beneficial for companies as it enables them to interrogate and draw insights from their data and make decisions.

Autonomic computing (AC) is distributed computing resources with self-managing characteristics, adapting to unpredictable changes while hiding intrinsic complexity to operators and users. Initiated by IBM in 2001, this initiative ultimately aimed to develop computer systems capable of self-management, to overcome the rapidly growing complexity of computing systems management, and to reduce the barrier that complexity poses to further growth.

In software engineering, service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an architectural style that focuses on discrete services instead of a monolithic design. By consequence, it is also applied in the field of software design where services are provided to the other components by application components, through a communication protocol over a network. A service is a discrete unit of functionality that can be accessed remotely and acted upon and updated independently, such as retrieving a credit card statement online. SOA is also intended to be independent of vendors, products and technologies.

Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the use of software and computer systems' architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications.

System of systems is a collection of task-oriented or dedicated systems that pool their resources and capabilities together to create a new, more complex system which offers more functionality and performance than simply the sum of the constituent systems. Currently, systems of systems is a critical research discipline for which frames of reference, thought processes, quantitative analysis, tools, and design methods are incomplete. The methodology for defining, abstracting, modeling, and analyzing system of systems problems is typically referred to as system of systems engineering.

A federated database system (FDBS) is a type of meta-database management system (DBMS), which transparently maps multiple autonomous database systems into a single federated database. The constituent databases are interconnected via a computer network and may be geographically decentralized. Since the constituent database systems remain autonomous, a federated database system is a contrastable alternative to the task of merging several disparate databases. A federated database, or virtual database, is a composite of all constituent databases in a federated database system. There is no actual data integration in the constituent disparate databases as a result of data federation.

Enterprise architecture (EA) is a business function concerned with the structures and behaviors of a business, especially business roles and processes that create and use business data. The international definition according to the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations is "a well-defined practice for conducting enterprise analysis, design, planning, and implementation, using a comprehensive approach at all times, for the successful development and execution of strategy. Enterprise architecture applies architecture principles and practices to guide organizations through the business, information, process, and technology changes necessary to execute their strategies. These practices utilize the various aspects of an enterprise to identify, motivate, and achieve these changes."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Open Group Architecture Framework</span> Reference model for enterprise architecture

The Open Group Architecture Framework (TOGAF) is the most used framework for enterprise architecture as of 2020 that provides an approach for designing, planning, implementing, and governing an enterprise information technology architecture. TOGAF is a high-level approach to design. It is typically modeled at four levels: Business, Application, Data, and Technology. It relies heavily on modularization, standardization, and already existing, proven technologies and products.

In information science and information technology, single source of truth (SSOT) architecture, or single point of truth (SPOT) architecture, for information systems is the practice of structuring information models and associated data schemas such that every data element is mastered in only one place, providing data normalization to a canonical form. Any possible linkages to this data element are by reference only. Because all other locations of the data just refer back to the primary "source of truth" location, updates to the data element in the primary location propagate to the entire system, providing multiple advantages simultaneously: greater efficiency/productivity, easy prevention of mistaken inconsistencies, and greatly simplified version control. Without SSOT architecture, rampant forking impairs clarity and productivity, imposing laborious maintenance needs.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Enterprise modelling</span>

Enterprise modelling is the abstract representation, description and definition of the structure, processes, information and resources of an identifiable business, government body, or other large organization.

The European Committee for Standardization (CEN) Standard Architecture for Healthcare Information Systems, Health Informatics Service Architecture or HISA is a standard that provides guidance on the development of modular open information technology (IT) systems in the healthcare sector. Broadly, architecture standards outline frameworks which can be used in the development of consistent, coherent applications, databases and workstations. This is done through the definition of hardware and software construction requirements and outlining of protocols for communications. The HISA standard provides a formal standard for a service-oriented architecture (SOA), specific for the requirements of health services, based on the principles of Open Distributed Processing. The HISA standard evolved from previous work on healthcare information systems architecture commenced by Reseau d’Information et de Communication Hospitalier Europeen (RICHE) in 1989, and subsequently built upon by a number of organizations across Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Business architecture</span>

In the business sector, business architecture is a discipline that "represents holistic, multidimensional business views of: capabilities, end‐to‐end value delivery, information, and organizational structure; and the relationships among these business views and strategies, products, policies, initiatives, and stakeholders."

In information systems, applications architecture or application architecture is one of several architecture domains that form the pillars of an enterprise architecture (EA).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">View model</span>

A view model or viewpoints framework in systems engineering, software engineering, and enterprise engineering is a framework which defines a coherent set of views to be used in the construction of a system architecture, software architecture, or enterprise architecture. A view is a representation of the whole system from the perspective of a related set of concerns.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TAFIM</span>

Technical Architecture Framework for Information Management (TAFIM) was a 1990s reference model for enterprise architecture by and for the United States Department of Defense (DoD).

Live, Virtual, & Constructive (LVC) Simulation is a broadly used taxonomy for classifying Modeling and Simulation (M&S). However, categorizing a simulation as a live, virtual, or constructive environment is problematic since there is no clear division among these categories. The degree of human participation in a simulation is infinitely variable, as is the degree of equipment realism. The categorization of simulations also lacks a category for simulated people working real equipment.

Enterprise interoperability is the ability of an enterprise—a company or other large organization—to functionally link activities, such as product design, supply chains, manufacturing, in an efficient and competitive way.

Enterprise data planning is the starting point for enterprise wide change. It states the destination and describes how you will get there. It defines benefits, costs and potential risks. It provides measures to be used along the way to judge progress and adjust the journey according to changing circumstances.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Praxeme</span>

Praxeme is a methodology for enterprise architecture which provides a structured approach to the design and implementation of an enterprise information architecture.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Architecture of Interoperable Information Systems</span>

The Architecture of Interoperable Information Systems (AIOS) is a reference architecture for the development of interoperable enterprise information systems. If enterprises or public administrations want to engage in automated business processes with other organizations, their IT systems must be able to work together, i.e. they need to be interoperable. The AIOS represents a generic building plan for these organizations to develop interoperable information systems by systematically adjusting and extending their internal information systems. The AIOS was described in a doctoral thesis and is based on the results of various research projects on interoperability. It is independent from specific products or vendors but describes generically the different layers, views, relationships and technical means needed to efficiently establish interoperable information systems. To this aim it combines concepts from service-oriented architecture, Collaborative Business and Business Process Modelling. It can be seen as complementary to ARIS, a well-known architecture for internal information systems and business processes.

References

  1. ↑ TOGAF Version 9 Enterprise Edition.[ where? ][ when? ]
  2. ↑ See Meta Group.[ where? ][ when? ]
  3. ↑ Heimbigner, D. M. A federated architecture for database systems. Ph.D. dissertation, Univ. of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, August 1982.
  4. ↑ Heimbigner, Dennis and McLeod, Dennis, A Federated Architecture for Information Management, 1985.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.