A Distributed Approach to Business
Intelligence Systems Synchronization
Vlad Ciobanu, Florin Pop, Decebal Popescu, Valentin Cristea
Computer Science Department, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest ROMANIA
University POLITEHNICA of Bucharest, ROMANIA
{vlad.ciobanu, florin.pop, decebal.popescu, l ti i t }@
E-CAESAR
• The Centre for Advanced Studies on Electronic
Services (E-CAESAR) is a Romanian non-profit
association with research focus in the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) sector, especially in gy ( ) , p y the area of e-Services.
• The objectives of the E-CAESAR Centre are Research and Development in the field of interoperable, efficient and secure e-Government service-oriented
and secure e Government service oriented architectures, infrastructures and systems.
E-CAESAR Projects
j
• PrO - integrating companies with public institutions via secured and legally compliant communication channels. • The EU Services Directive Point of Single Contact in • The EU-Services Directive - Point of Single Contact in
Romania.
• SETUP - network of partners from the industry,
administration, universities, Romanian research centers and other Fraunhofer Institutes
and other Fraunhofer Institutes. Web: www e-caesar ro
Web: www.e caesar.ro
Business Intelligence
g
• Gather, store, analyze and provide access to data Æ make better business decisions
• Two types of applications • Two types of applications
– mission-critical to an enterprise’s operation – occasional to meet a special requirementoccasional to meet a special requirement • Available BI solutions in the market
– Oracle Business Intelligence – SAP Business Suite
Disadvantages
g
• Hard to install / configure
• Requires an R&D department
• Requires programmatic expertise to transform the enterprise business rules to electronic support
enterprise business rules to electronic support • Expensive to maintain and manage
• Solution:
– BI black-box solution in which orchestrations and business rules are remotely synchronized via a distributed system approach
System architecture
y
• Star-positioned client-server architecture
• Communication based on “Install on Demand” principle combined with “Automatically Check for Updates” feature
• Server applicationServer application
– Connect with the source BI system
– Export the applications that are going to be transferred to clients
K it f ll il bl li ti
– Keep repository of all available applications
• Client application
– check the list of available applicationspp
Synchronization package
y
p
g
• An archive containing a number of configuration files, among which there is the BI applications installation packages
• Main attributes
– Name of BI application – Version
– Type of BI system
– Generic representation of the BI orchestration / business rulesGeneric representation of the BI orchestration / business rules
Software architecture
• two-tier application design
• application layer controls the application’s functionalityapplication layer controls the application s functionality
– Communication and security layer – BI Integration layer
d t b t ti l id th d t d l
• data abstraction layer provides the data model
– Database support
Software architecture (II)
( )
• Communication layer
– assures secure and reliable means of transporting all the
synchronization packages between the server and all the clients – based on Windows Communication Foundation
– SOA architecture by providing a service interface used by different technologies
– XML as transport protocolp p
• Security layer
– support for Transport Layer Security (TLS) or its predecessor the Security Socket Layer (SSL) as cryptographic protocols
Software architecture (III)
( )
• Data Abstraction Layer
– Local File System on the server used for repository for the synchronization packages
– Configuration Database keeps track of all the required metadata by using ADO.net on Microsoft SQL Server
• BI System Integration Layer • BI System Integration Layer
– The most important layer
– Specific for each BI system type that needs to be synchronized – Enables the transformation: a specific BI orchestration ÅÆ a
common format that is transportable via Internet
Case Study: PrO Processor
y
• PrO Processor is a software communication processor that has as main purpose to create
p p p
a transparent and automated link between the companies and the public institution
• Main goals:
– optimize the current workflows in order to eliminate p the redundant and low quality data
– reduce costs for the local maintenance of current existing systemsg y
• BI System used: Microsoft BizTalk Server 2009 in combination with Windows
2009 in combination with Windows Sharepoint Services
PrO System Architecture
y
C t l A th it
• Central Authority
– Unique institution responsible for translating the manual
• PrO Processor
– Multiplicity N, one for each company
report filling into automated BizTalk orchestration
• Public Institution
company
• Company
– Customer that has PrO i t ll d i it i
– Intended audience for reports installed in its premises
Conclusions and Future Work
• Main role is to allow multiple Business Intelligence
systems to be safely and automatically synchronized via Internet
• Great impact on small and medium sized businessesGreat impact on small and medium sized businesses • “install-on-demand” - relieves the need for the server to
keep track of all clients
• The isolation of specific BI system development in an Integration Layer enables the system to interconnect with minimum effort to any Business Intelligence system with minimum effort to any Business Intelligence system that has an API present
• Future support for multiple BI systems: Oracle, SAP, OpenBPEL solutions
