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IBM
Ibm
Business Transformation & Integration Division’s
Response to
Arizona Supreme Court
Administrative Office of the Court
Arizona Criminal Justice Integration Project
Request for Information
IBM Response to Arizona Supreme Court, Administrative Office of the Courts - Arizona Criminal Justice
Integration Project
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IBM
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW ......................................................................1
SOLUTION OVERVIEW ........................................................................2
HUB AND SPOKE .........................................................................................................2
MIDDLEWARE...............................................................................................................3
INTEGRATION...............................................................................................................4
SOLUTION TOOLS ...............................................................................5
MQSERIES.....................................................................................................................5
MQSERIES INTEGRATOR..........................................................................................8
MQSERIES WORKFLOW......................................................................................... 12
IBM LABORATORY-BASED PROFESSIONAL CONSULTING
SERVICES ...........................................................................................13
RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS..........................................................14
1. How data will be extracted from and posted to sending and receiving systems. Discuss
adapters available and means of integration to applications. ............................................ 14
2. How transformation of the data can be accomplished. .............................................. 14
3. How transactions will be sent to receiving systems. ................................................. 14
4. How or whether both synchronous and asynchronous communications are supported.15
5. How the identity of systems to which transactions are routed is maintained................ 15
6. How delivery once and once only is assured. ........................................................... 15
7. How rollback is accomplished when an uncompleted process fails. ........................... 15
8. What the scalability of the product is and what hardware and software incremental
upgrades are directly related to increased volumes. ........................................................ 16
9. What the network bandwidth requirements are......................................................... 16
10. What effort and resources are required to add another system which is a source and/or
destination of information from existing systems already sending and/or receiving transactions
(additional hardware, software, programming, or administrative and management tasks)... 16
11. What effort and resources are required to add another source and/or destination of
information (additional hardware, software, programming, or administrative and management
tasks). 16
12. A description of the routine maintenance tasks required to administer and manage the
integration system......................................................................................................... 17
13. What the skill level of those tasked with performing system administration and
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IBM Response to Arizona Supreme Court, Administrative Office of the Courts - Arizona Criminal Justice
Integration Project
IBM
management should be. ................................................................................................ 17
14. What the ability of the proposed product to create, transmit and/or use XML data tags is.
17
15. What the management monitoring and reporting capabilities are. ............................. 18
16. How security will be assured. What encryption and authentication is employed. ....... 18
17. How proprietary the proposed solution is. Does it adhere to industry standards such that
other agencies can select different products and send to and receive from the proposed one?
What would we be excluding by selecting your solution. .................................................. 19
18. What integration standards are incorporated into your integration solution/products and
which you have worked with (i.e. EDI, EDIFACT, HL7, XML, etc.) .................................... 19
19. What segment(s) of the integration industry your products/proposed solution represent.
(ETL [extract, transform, load], EAI [Enterprise Application Integration], MOM [Message
Oriented Middleware], MB [Message Broker], IAI (Internet Application Integration], MW
[middleware], Platform Middleware, Database Middleware, etc) ....................................... 19
20. Whether your solution is a total solution or if we will need to bring in other vendors and
products to provide other needed utilities and functions. .................................................. 20
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IBM Response to Arizona Supreme Court, Administrative Office of the Courts - Arizona Criminal Justice
Integration Project
IBM
EXECUTIVE OVERVIEW
IBM is pleased to submit the following information in response to Arizona Supreme
Court, Administrative Office of the Courts Request for Information “Arizona Justice
Integration Project”. IBM is in the forefront of defining and developing middleware
technology with our MQSeries Family of Products. With our vast product line of
middleware and application development solutions, IBM can support the integrated
end-to-end solution that meets the needs of the State.
Each element in the solicitation has been specifically addressed in the following pages.
IBM’s proposed solution meets and, in many cases, exceeds the requirements defined
in the RFI. The IBM solution is extensible, open, scalable, and delivers a solid
platform on which to connect existing applications and to build additional applications.
IBM is pleased to offer a state-of-the-art solution for middleware technology, which
will allow the State to selectively choose the appropriate tools and development
platform on a project-by-project basis.
IBM’s middleware solution, based on the MQSeries Family of products, is dominating
the marketplace. It captured 72% of the 1999 Message Oriented Middleware market,
according to Wintergreen Research. In 1999 alone, MQSeries received 47 industry
awards. MQSeries has received enthusiastic and positive coverage from the major
analysts, such as Gartner, IDC, Yankee, Ovum, and Aberdeen. There are more than
2000 people with MQSeries Certifications working from more than 650 different
companies worldwide. Over 350 independent vendors offer MQSeries-based services
and products. For these reasons, we feel strongly that the middleware solution we are
proposing is a positive choice for the Arizona Justice Integration Project.
We encourage you to visit the MQSeries website at
http://www.ibm.com/software/ts/mqseries/
Furthermore, we encourage you to visit the Case Studies section of this website. It
will lead you to an exhaustive listing of satisfied MQSeries customers with detailed
write-up of their initial challenges and the benefits received from implementing an
IBM MQSeries solution.
For questions, please contact Robin Shalosky at 602-217-2069 or
rshalosk@us.ibm.com.
IBM Response to Arizona Supreme Court, Administrative Office of the Courts - Arizona Criminal Justice
Integration Project
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IBM
SOLUTION OVERVIEW
The solution proposed for the Arizona Criminal Justice Integration Project uses an
architectural pattern called the Hub and Spoke. Software to implement the
architecture is from the IBM MQSeries Family of products. The primary goals of this
solution include:
• Implementation of a messaging infrastructure technology which allows inter-
connection / integration of any number of state and local agencies.
• To provide an architecture that satisfies and assists in the implementation of
the strategies outlined in the Arizona “Strategic Plan For Information
Technology” document.
• Provide an architecture that is scalable by using tools, which are geared for the
predicted growth in information processing requirements, presented by the
Internet and associated technologies
Solution Architecture
Hub and Spoke
Two basic architectures can be employed in the quest for integration. The first
architecture Point to Point is described in the following diagram:
End Unit End Unit
End Unit
End Unit
End Unit
Point to point solutions have grown over time as IT organizations have attempted to
integrate information from different units of the same organization using the
technology then available. This solution suffers from a number of problems, which
multiply geometrically when inserted into a heterogeneous hardware and software
environment. While it is initially appealing, the main problems (scalability and
maintainability) end up being very costly even for small implementations.
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The alternative architecture, Hub and Spoke, is described in the following diagram:
End Unit End Unit
HUB
End Unit
End Unit
End Unit
The Hub and Spoke architectural pattern remedies the built in maintenance problems
associated with a point to point solution. It does this by moving the costs associated
with programmers developing a point to point solution to the Hub, and reducing those
costs by automating the process of integration.
Middleware
To support either of the above solutions, middleware is required. Middleware provides
the message passing support needed for different organizations to communicate.
Message Oriented Middleware (MOM) provides the services of choice for the
recommended Hub and Spoke solution. Attributes associated with the middleware
component of the solution should include the following:
• Assured delivery of messages
• Once, and once only, delivery of messages
• Publish / Subscribe capabilities
• Heterogeneous platform support
• Support for numerous development languages
• Security
• Scalability
Providing this required middleware support will be MQSeries.
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Integration Project
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Integration
Support is required at the Hub for automation of the integration tasks. The first of
those tasks is ‘Data Transformation’ from one format to another. The second,
‘Content Based Routing’, is the mechanism used to allow routing capabilities to multiple
output targets based on the data associated with the input.
A different view of the Hub and Spoke shows the interaction between the Hub
message management software and the integration engine:
End Unit
End Unit End Unit End Unit End Unit
Hub Integrator
Hub Queue Mgr
Message Message
Bus Bus
In the above scenario the end unit on the far left has the ability to send a single
message to the HUB. The Hub has the ability to reformat that message into three
other formats and send those messages to the end units on the right.
The functions associated with the automation process include:
• Parsing of input data based on rules describing the data.
• Transforming the input into one or more output formats based on rules
associated describing those formats
• Directing the output messages to one or more targets
Providing this required integration support will be MQSeries Integrator.
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SOLUTION TOOLS
MQSeries Product Family
People &
MQSeries
Processes
Workflow Task Lists
Modeling
Data Transformations
MQSeries Rules and Routing
Integrator APIs
Templates & Utilities
Messaging Services
Standard Formats
MQSeries
Languages and Adapters
MQSeries
Messaging system - the combined functions and characteristics of MQSeries
Applications interact with the messaging system using a simple programming interface
-- the MQSeries interface (the Message Queue Interface or MQI). MQSeries moves
messages to and from queues. MQSeries is responsible for the safe delivery of
messages, and for recovery in the event of network or computer failure.
Bind your business together without tying it down
MQSeries enables you to get information moving further and faster than ever before
to improve efficiency and service, cut costs and open up new business opportunities.
It doesn't matter where programs are located or what computers they are on, now you
can:
• Distribute applications across the business and get everyone working in
harmony.
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• Bring information together from a variety of sources to provide the single
point-of-contact service that customers are increasingly expecting.
• Pass data from point-of-sale terminals to warehouse and purchasing systems and
benefit from just-in-time ordering and manufacturing techniques.
Extend your enterprise
You can also begin to go well beyond traditional boundaries to include suppliers, trading
partners and customers in an inter-enterprise network. By simply allowing customers
to enter their orders directly into your system, transaction costs will be cut
dramatically.
There's a global dimension to most businesses these days, and applications often need
to cross different time zones as well as different computer platforms. That's no
problem with MQSeries! Information can be held in the queue until the start of
business in the remote location, removing the need for a continuous connection. With
MQSeries, your business can really start to go places.
Make more productive use of your resources
Commercial messaging means your computers spend less time waiting and more time
working. It also gives you the flexibility to match the technology to the business
need.
For example, during peak periods you may want to reserve a particular computer for a
key task, such as order entry. Messages associated with less critical applications can
still be sent and held in the queue for processing during non-peak hours. When things
are quiet, you may decide to stop an application running to free processing power for
other uses. Messages can continue to be sent to the queue for delivery when the
application restarts.
With MQSeries products on some platforms, groups (or clusters) of queues can be set
up, allowing MQSeries to dynamically distribute the workload among them. So if things
get busy, heavily loaded queue managers can automatically reroute some of their work
to other available resources in the same group. Or if a system component fails, other
queue managers can take over, ensuring continuity of your mission critical work.
These are just a few of the ways in which MQSeries provides the ability to make much
more productive use of time and computing resources. A large bank has quoted gains
of up to 20 percent in branch office productivity using MQSeries flexible resourcing
techniques.
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Stay responsive to change
MQSeries enables you to do much more than match resources to peaks and valleys of
demand. It enables you to take more fundamental changes in your stride. MQSeries
gives you the capability to distribute applications and information around the
organization, and the ability to quickly restructure things in line with change.
A major concern with distributed systems is how to keep data consistent when it is
entered and stored at different locations, and when connections may not always be
available. When exchanging data between disparate systems and ensuring message
delivery with MQSeries, you can be confident that your business information will be
up-to-date and consistent.
If you worry that key information might not get to the right people and you want to
streamline flows of information for effectiveness and efficiency, the MQSeries
Publish/Subscribe facility allows users to register their specific topics and receive
information of interest to them.
Make sense of the differences
MQSeries products sit between the application and the network to iron out system
differences. Right now, MQSeries products are available on a large number of key
industry platforms, IBM and non-IBM.
At the heart of MQSeries is the Message Queue Interface (MQI), an easy to use,
high-level programming interface that allows applications to communicate across the
various platforms that make up your enterprise-wide computing environment.
MQSeries applications written using the MQI can be plugged anywhere on the
network.
With the common MQI, information can pass between mainframe applications, local
server-based applications and PC programs. Corporate applications can be integrated
with departmental and personal applications and all without time consuming and
expensive reprogramming.
Improve programmer productivity
In a fast-moving world, new applications need to be rapidly developed and quickly
deployed throughout the business. MQSeries handles all of the network protocol and
error handling tasks, leaving programmers free to concentrate on the business
problems. Shielding them from the complexities of network communications speeds up
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application development cuts up to 40 percent off development costs and reduces
maintenance costs.
Cut costs and improve reliability
Reduced dependence on continuous sessions means reduced network installation and
maintenance costs. Using MQSeries also generates less network traffic -- there are
fewer retries to find out if the partner program or the session is available. Adopters
of this approach are reporting savings of up to 20 percent in operating costs.
Reducing the number of direct links also reduces the risk of problems. The total
application system is no longer dependent on any one of its elements. In effect, the
MQSeries chain is stronger than the weakest link.
A clear path to the future
MQSeries does more than just enable you to improve the effective management of
the technology that you have today. It gives you a clear path to the future -- a
flexible infrastructure into which you can build mobile communications, multimedia
applications and a whole new spectrum of network centric and e-business applications
that are being developed to take advantage of the special characteristics of
Commercial Messaging, while allowing you to set your own pace.
MQSeries Integrator
With MQSeries Integrator you turn your enterprise infrastructure into a dynamic,
real-time, application network, exploiting all resources and achieving business
integration. Business events, such as receiving an order, pre-empting a customer’s
question, building new stock, searching for economies, billing and payment -- all the
normal processes handled by the enterprise -- become cooperative processes,
dynamically and freely sharing information, overcoming the traditional gaps between
different business applications and between different workgroups.
MQSeries Version 2 is a second-generation message broker, compatible with, and
containing, Version 1.x. It has an open architecture, and the flexibility to handle
future business and technology changes.
Making business integration easy
Integrating the many diverse aspects of your business may seem an overwhelming task
but IBM is making it easier and easier.
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First there was MQSeries, messaging middleware, that enables applications on
different platforms to talk to each other and takes care of network interfaces,
assures the delivery of messages, deals with communications protocols, and handles
recovery after system problems.
Programmers (and programs) communicating via MQSeries have to know the programs
they communicate with, for example, the queue manager name. The programmers
define the integration connections by setting up the connections (queues) between
each set of two programs.
When MQSeries Integrator Version 1 came along it sat at the heart of the enterprise
and all messages passed through it. It applies enterprise rules for deciding which
applications should be recipients, and directs messages accordingly -- reformatting as
necessary. Instead of two programs communicating as directed by a programmer,
Integrator intervenes and directs a message to one or more queues using rules
specified by a programmer.
MQSeries Integrator Version 2 takes a leap forward by enabling business analysts,
who understand the processes and strategies of the enterprise, to create, inspect or
change rules. Now it is the business need that defines the integration connections. A
business need can be just about any action the enterprise wants to take, involving
applications, resources or people, to carry on day-to-day business, make it more
efficient, provide better customer service, or introduce new ventures.
Not only can Version 2 send messages to queues but to relational databases too. A
bank account exceeding $10,000, for example, could trigger a message to a bank
employee to call the owner with financial advice on investments -- a service to the
account holder and increased business for the bank.
Version 2 substitutes middleware for programming, reducing costs and decreasing the
need for special programming skills. It enables the expertise of business analysts and
business managers to be captured and applied to automate flexible business processes.
MQSeries Integrator Version 2.0
MQSeries Integrator Version 2.0 builds on the routing and formatting of MQSeries
Integrator Version 1 to provide flow defined by information content or by a process
model.
It has new graphical ‘process modeling' tools for constructing how critical data or
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business events are handled, by visually “wiring” (connecting) together a sequence of
processing function to dynamically manipulate and route messages, combine them with
data from corporate databases, warehouse in-flight message data for auditing or
subsequent analysis, make computations on message content, apply filtering, and
distribute information efficiently to business applications.
It exploits and complies with industry standards such as Structured Query Language
(SQL) and eXtensible Markup Language (XML), enabling different systems to share
information and to directly support emerging e-business standards. Integrator’s
ability to support XML, and bridge it to non-XML users as they migrate to XML, can
accelerate the penetration of supply chain e-commerce by reliably carrying
transactions between customers, suppliers, manufacturers and finance organizations.
MQSeries Integrator Version 2 has an open architecture so that built-in processing
components can be combined with those from third-party software vendors or the
enterprise. Examples of third-party software are data cleansing packages that apply
filters to warehouse data to extract business intelligence, and timing packages that
correlate time-sensitive events such as guaranteed fix time for service calls, and
trigger alerts at chosen intervals during countdown.
Message formats can be defined through a message dictionary -- either the one
supplied with the product, the MQSeries Integrator Version 1.x compatible dictionary,
or a third-party dictionary that has been enabled by a vendor.
MQSeries Integrator Version 2.0 has a publish/subscribe service, which is compatible
with the MQSeries base publish/subscribe function, and includes significant
enhancements such as:
• Routing a message to interested subscribers on both the message topic and
content
• Authorization based on multiple levels of the topic name
• Support for more flexible topologies of publish/subscribe brokers
Messages using any code page can flow through the system.
Business flows
MQSeries Integrator Version 2.0 makes the natural, logical flow of information
visible. Programmers are no longer needed to define the flow: processes and
relationships are easily defined and observable.
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An example of a process flow might be the handling of an order for a car. The order
form is held in a message dictionary.
Related to the message dictionary capability of MQSeries Integrator Version 2.0 is a
new logical message construction interface, the Common Message Interface (CMI),
which is supported by base MQSeries. To explain its benefits, we’ll follow a sales
person or customer ordering a car.
An image of the car order form or an optimized role-based order form may be
displayed. As the form is completed, information may be enriched or checked for
completeness. If the customer shows interest in colors or metallic paint that cost
extra, these prices are shown. If the customer is interested in power and torque,
clicking an Engine button will display the details (perhaps in XML from the engineering
database). The CMI dynamically constructs and parses messages, interrogating and
modifying them as appropriate.
Using the broker you can specify filters to select interesting information and
warehouse it for later analysis and action, such as selecting the owners of expensive
cars, designing attractive offers and ensuring finely targeted marketing.
You might want to examine in-flight messages to see in what part of the country the
order was placed and alert the local dealer.
Interfaces
Programmers who wanted to message-enable applications used to have to know the
message queue names, and decide message characteristics like priority, retries, expiry
time etc. With MQSeries Application Messaging Interface (AMI) you can define
standard policies to handle messages. For example, you may have a policy of always
using persistent messages, retrying six times, and if the destination message queue is
full to keep trying locally for the next 20 minutes; or you may have a simple
nonpersistent policy for query activities. These characteristics can go into a policy
register, and any number of applications can access the policy.
Additionally, the AMI implements the concept of a service name: this will commonly be
a message transport (queue) but it could be, for example, communication to a
database, a printer, or an e-mail. The service calls another piece of software. A
service can be input or output, for example, input to a database, which looks just like
someone accessing it.
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MQSeries Integrator Version 2.0 can handle service nodes but one end must be a
message: either software to message, or message to software.
Business integration with MQSeries Integrator
MQSeries Integrator Version 2.0:
• Takes a logical business view of what should be done with information, for
example, check and route a purchase order, publish a discount offer
• Substitutes middleware for programming, reducing programming costs and skill
levels
• Provides a comprehensive open architecture for achieving event-driven business
integration
• Supplies applications and corporate databases with the right information in the
right format
Hardware and software
MQSeries Integrator Version 2.0 was announced (June 15, 1999) on AIX and
Microsoft Windows NT. IBM has issued a Statement of Direction on the intention to
provide MQSeries Integrator Version 2.0 on the following platforms: Sun Solaris, HP-
UX, and OS/390(R).
The AMI is announced for Version 5.1 of MQSeries for Windows NT(TM), Sun Solaris,
HP-UX, AIX(R), and AS/400(R).
IBM has issued a Statement of Direction on the intention to provide the CMI on the
following platforms Version 5.1 of MQSeries for Windows NT, Sun Solaris, HP-UX,
AIX, and AS/400.
MQSeries Workflow
MQSeries Workflow aligns and integrates your organization's resources and
capabilities with your business strategies, accelerating process flow, cutting costs,
eliminating errors and improving workgroup productivity. With the ability to capture
and use knowledge about your business processes, MQSeries Workflow helps
organizations define, document, test, control, execute, improve and integrate their
business processes. The ease of change enables your organization to react quickly to
new market requirements.
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IBM LABORATORY-BASED PROFESSIONAL
CONSULTING SERVICES
Based on our past experiences, we can provide a set of services to help the State of
Arizona with a Proof of Concept or simple pilot implementation. Services may include:
• Technical introduction to the MQSI architecture.
• Installation of the MQSI product software on a machine in your environment.
• Product feature training through the use of sample scenarios.
• Definition of a subset of your messages into the Message Repository database.
• Demonstrate the product's ability to parse and route the defined messages.
• Assistance services with implementation requirements and design
• Scope planning and analysis
IBM is flexible and can create a custom solution that fits your needs and the way you
want to work with us. Here are some of the services we can provide:
• Consulting - IBM can help identify skill gaps and formulate training plans. We can
assist in recruiting staff with new skills. We can help you determine what you
really need and then help you find it.
• Mentorship - When out on engagement, our staff has access to the developers who
built the product and can usually answer most questions quickly. When you hire us,
you hire the lab!
• Workshops - IBM’s workshops are created and delivered by practitioners, rich in
hands-on opportunities to learn applying concepts immediately after they are
presented. Individual workshops are generally short term in duration and can be
combined to form customized educational offerings. We create custom workshops
based on requests from our customers.
• Skills Transfer - Skills Transfer is also known as Education, Training, and
Technology Transfer. We believe that the most effective way to build skill is with
a combination of hands-on mentored workshops and real-life immersion and
mentorship on projects from your own domain.
• Coding – Seasoned lab developers know how to code.
• Troubleshooting - IBM can find bugs quickly to keep your projects moving forward.
• Performance Tuning - With our expertise in software development and code
optimization technology, we can help. Many other consulting assignments including
technology evaluations, proof of concept, prototype, pilot/production application
development projects, cross-platform deployment assistance, competitive
migrations, multi-language development, migration from one language to another,
project management, architectural design guidance and product extension.
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RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS
1. How data will be extracted from and posted to sending and receiving systems. Discuss
adapters available and means of integration to applications.
The MQSeries product does not support database management API’s as part of the
family. An application is required to connect MQSeries to a database.
For extract, transform and load, IBM offers Visual Warehouse. Visual Warehouse
combines database functions (both relational and multi-dimensional) with tools to
facilitate data extraction, automated scheduling, user authorization, warehouse
management and monitoring, information cataloging, data cleansing, and end-user query
and reporting in a single integrated package. Visual Warehouse provides an excellent
starting point for businesses looking to implement large-scale data warehouses.
Representing a centralized hub for integrating corollary data warehousing
technologies from IBM and its partners, Visual Warehouse is easily extended to
manage very large volumes of informational data, incremental data refreshes, complex
data cleansing and data transformations, and very efficient parallel load and query.
For replicating changes from an operational database to the warehouse database, IBM
offers DataPropagator Relational, which replicates data between all DB2 family
databases, and with DB2 DataJoiner, between databases from multiple vendors:
Informix, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Jet, Oracle, Sybase and Sybase SQL
Anywhere. The Capture component captures changes as they occur at the source and
stores them in the staging area. The Apply component reads the staging area and
applies these changes to targets, or copies data directly from the source (full refresh
mode).
2. How transformation of the data can be accomplished.
With MQSeries, transformation of data occurs at the Hub. MQSeries Integrator
provides the transformation service. The integration software allows an organization
to define the input and output formats as well as the rules associated with the
formatting of the output data and the routing of that data to the appropriate target.
3. How transactions will be sent to receiving systems.
MQSeries provides the transport mechanism for moving transactions from the point
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of origin to the system responsible for processing the transaction. MQSeries
provides assured, once and once only delivery of messages. MQSeries functions over
TCP/IP, SNA, and others.
4. How or whether both synchronous and asynchronous communications are supported.
MQSeries architecture provides asynchronous communications support between the
point of origin and the target. It is possible to simulate synchronous connections using
an asynchronous protocol. It is not possible for a synchronous protocol to act like an
asynchronous protocol.
5. How the identity of systems to which transactions are routed is maintained.
A destination or target of a message within MQSeries is defined as a specific queue
at a specific queue manager. The MQSeries systems manager is responsible for
creating these definitions.
6. How delivery once and once only is assured.
The actual movement of data between queue managers is accomplished using
MQSeries ‘Message Channel Agents’ (MCA). When a channel is initiated the MCA’s
insure that the ‘sequence wrap’ value, maintained at each end of a channel, are equal.
An unequal condition indicates a mismatch in the sequence has occurred and the
channel will not start until the condition is rectified and the ‘sequence wrap’ value is
reset.
7. How rollback is accomplished when an uncompleted process fails.
MQSeries provides transaction management. MQSeries can act as the transaction
manager or as a participant when running under another transaction manager such as
CICS. The MQSeries interface API contains the transaction verbs ‘BEGIN’,
‘COMMIT’, and ‘ROLLBACK’. In the case of a failed process all resources under the
control of the transaction manager will be backed out. If the cause of the failure is
controlled then the application can reroute the failing transaction to a target that can
handle the problem. If the failure is uncontrolled i.e. an ABEND, MQSeries provides a
‘Back out Threshold’, ‘Back out Queue Name’ for abending transactions. This allows
the application to review this count to insure that this is the first time it has seen
this transaction. The threshold value is used by MQSeries to determine if the
offending message should again be presented to the application or rerouted to the
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‘Back Out Queue Name’.
8. What the scalability of the product is and what hardware and software incremental
upgrades are directly related to increased volumes.
MQSeries and MQSeries Integrator are scalable both vertically (larger machines) and
horizontally (more machines). Incremental costs in both hardware and software can
be expected when scaling either vertically or horizontally.
9. What the network bandwidth requirements are.
The MQSeries Family of products do not impact bandwidth requirements negatively,
and can have a positive impact by reducing the number of connections required to
support point to point solutions.
10. What effort and resources are required to add another system which is a source and/or
destination of information from existing systems already sending and/or receiving
transactions (additional hardware, software, programming, or administrative and
management tasks).
For MQSeries and Integrator, the addition of a new information source on an existing
server is primarily an administrative task. Queues, which define the paths to and
from remote sources, would require definition.
From a Visual Warehouse perspective, when additional sources and/or targets need to
be added to the warehouse-building parts of the architecture, an administrative task
of adding new sources and/or targets is accomplished through the Visual Warehouse
Administrative GUI interface. The tasks to extract from the sources and load to the
targets are also added via this same GUI.
11. What effort and resources are required to add another source and/or destination of
information (additional hardware, software, programming, or administrative and management
tasks).
The response to this question is primarily a deployment issue. An example deployment
model for a small to medium size agency might specify that an appropriately sized
server, which has been pre-configured with MQSeries, be plugged into an agency’s
existing network. This model centralizes server support and management, and is
primarily directed at distributed platforms. Using the MQSeries queue manager
clustering, administration efforts can be kept to a minimum. Large installations
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(OS/390) would require installation of the software on an existing platform.
Additional effort is required for the installation. Once installed, the cluster would
handle administration and management tasks.
12. A description of the routine maintenance tasks required to administer and manage the
integration system.
Administration of the Integration engine is minimal. It is primarily an application
which takes it’s direction from the formats and rules provided by the rules and format
developers. Rules and formats are created using a client/server GUI application.
With this GUI, the developer creates the required formats and rules. The complexity
of which is defined by the complexity of the input and outputs required. Once
completed, the formats and rules are exported to the integration engine’s repository.
13. What the skill level of those tasked with performing system administration and
management should be.
The role of Systems Administrator is an important one. Education is available for the
training of systems administrators. This role is required to understand how MQSeries
operates in detail.
14. What the ability of the proposed product to create, transmit and/or use XML data tags is.
The use of XML as a transmission format is not problematic. MQSeries only moves
the data (a message); it does not look at the data component of the message.
MQSeries Integrator is tasked with parsing the data in a message and reformatting it
into output messages. In version 1.1 of the product, the use of XML would require the
definition of the tagged pairs to the formatter. Once defined, XML or any other
format type can be processed. In version 2, an XML parser is shipped with the
product further easing the use of XML.
DB2's XML Extender provides new data types that let you store XML documents in
DB2 databases and new functions that assist you in working with these structured
documents. Entire XML documents can be stored in DB2 databases as character data
or stored as external files but still managed by DB2. Retrieval functions allow you to
retrieve either the entire XML document or individual elements or attributes. For
business-to-business e-commerce, XML is the standard for data interchange for the
next generation of solutions. With the XML Extender for DB2, it is easy to leverage
your critical business information in DB2 databases to engage in business-to-business
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solutions using XML based interchange formats. For Web publishing, XML documents
can be stored in DB2 in a single column or as a collection of data items, in multiple
columns and tables. The Text Extender in DB2 supports structured documents like
XML. Its powerful search functions can now be applied to a section or a list of
sections within a set of XML documents. This can significantly improve the
effectiveness of the search. In addition, specific XML elements or attributes can be
automatically extracted into traditional SQL data types to leverage DB2's
sophisticated indexing and SQL query capabilities.
15. What the management monitoring and reporting capabilities are.
MQSeries itself provides a management and monitoring tool which should be
considered minimal. The tool is a web based mechanism and should only be considered
as a intermediate step. When managing a small number of queue managers with
relatively few queues the tool is appropriate. If however your plan is to manage a
large number of sites then it would indeed make sense to review a more sophisticated
management, monitoring, and reporting tool. MQSeries is Tivoli enabled. IBM’s Tivoli
family of product is designed to manage large sites. Third party vendors such as
MQSoftware, BMC, and Candle all provide excellent tools.
16. How security will be assured. What encryption and authentication is employed.
MQSeries provides security in a number of ways, primarily however, through the use
of channel exits. These exits allow the product to plug in to the existing security
mechanism supporting the platform today. In terms of OS/390 systems this would
mean using an external security manager such as RACF or ACF2. Distributed
platforms (UNIX, NT, etc.) are provided with a security mechanism of their own,
known as the ‘Object Authority Manager’ (OAM) if no other security is provided.
Cryptographic software (encryption/decryption) is enabled at the channel exit level as
well. The security exit provides public/private key handshake capabilities between
channel ends. The send message and receive message exits are provided to perform
the actual cryptographic protocols.
Please refer to the provided redbook, MQSeries Security: Example of Using a Channel
Security Exit, Encryption and Decryption, SG24-5306, for more detail.
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17. How proprietary the proposed solution is. Does it adhere to industry standards such
that other agencies can select different products and send to and receive from the proposed
one? What would we be excluding by selecting your solution.
MQSeries is an open system. MQSeries runs on over 30 platforms as a server and an
equal number as a client. Since the MQSeries Interface (MQI) is an open interface
all independent software vendors have the ability to interface directly and use all the
capabilities of the product. Interfaces are available today for the other major
messaging products on the market today.
18. What integration standards are incorporated into your integration solution/products
and which you have worked with (i.e. EDI, EDIFACT, HL7, XML, etc.)
MQSeries Integrator currently supports Peoplesoft GL, SAP R/3, SWIFT, XML, etc.
through a business partner
19. What segment(s) of the integration industry your products/proposed solution
represent. (ETL [extract, transform, load], EAI [Enterprise Application Integration], MOM
[Message Oriented Middleware], MB [Message Broker], IAI (Internet Application Integration],
MW [middleware], Platform Middleware, Database Middleware, etc)
The MQSeries Family of products covers a number of the above segments. As a whole
they fall into the Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) segment based on Message
Oriented Middleware (MOM), platform to platform middleware. MQSeries Integrator
provides Message Broker (MB) services along with its basic function, data
transformation.
For ETL, Visual Warehouse allows data to be extracted from any of the leading
database systems, including the DB2 family, Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase,
Informix, and IMS. In addition, standard file systems, VSAM data sets, any source
accessible via ODBC, and any source accessible through IBM DataJoiner can be used
as input to a Visual Warehouse datamart or warehouse. Visual Warehouse
accomplishes transformations via a powerful built-in SQL generator, as well as
through GUI-selectable Java routines. In addition, Visual Warehouse is fully
integrated with the powerful transformation tools of IBM's partners, ETI and Vality,
through metadata interchange. The target warehouse can reside in any DB2 family
database or outside the DB2 family in a database accessible through DataJoiner, and
Visual Warehouse schedules and executes loads to these targets through various
methods: SQL inserts, replication applies, ETI programs and database load utilities.
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IBM
20. Whether your solution is a total solution or if we will need to bring in other vendors and
products to provide other needed utilities and functions.
One of the most important benefits of an IBM solution is the fact that IBM can
deliver “soup to nuts”, providing a total solution. We have a vast number of products
that compliment each other and integrate together smoothly. Because of our wide
range of products, services, and support capabilities, we have the ability to address
requirements across the board. In addition, IBM strives to implement open, industry-
standard, scalable solutions that will work with other vendors’ solutions. This prevents
the State from being “locked in” to an IBM only solution and allows the State to easily
incorporate existing legacy systems and applications.
IBM also has strong relationships with other vendors and business partners. This
allows us to provide industry-leading products and services that compliment IBM’s
offerings as they make sense.
MQSeries and MQSeries Integrator will address the majority of the Arizona Criminal
Justice Integration requirements, however some additional tools may be required in
certain instances. In these scenarios, IBM has solutions that could be implemented,
or you may choose another vendor’s solution. For example,
• For extract, transform and load, IBM offers Visual Warehouse,
• For replicating changes from an operational database to the warehouse
database, IBM offers DataPropagator Relational, which replicates data between
all DB2 family databases, and with DB2 DataJoiner, between databases from
multiple vendors, and
• DB2's XML Extender provides new data types that let you store XML
documents in DB2 databases and new functions that assist you in working with
these structured documents.
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