Cloud services need integration
Posted by Jaco van Rooijen
In the Software as a Services (SaaS) world, we are currently in a phase that I like to call the ‘pre-Cloud computing’ era. It has been referred to some writers as blue sky computing. The shear breadth of cloud services out there is simply staggering. You can do anything online with a service that used to be the domain of the super computers when some of us were still studying, like video editing, and you can play games that used to be available only on dedicated game consoles. But these services are often offered in a totally stand-alone fashion. Little disconnected clouds in the blue sky that is pretty, but they cannot produce rain. Stand-alone cloud services are useful on their own, but fall short of a real seamless cloud-only experience.
One of the challenges of maintaining Cloud based or Software as a Service (SaaS) TEM solutions is about keeping data in the service up to date. This is especially true in environments where large volumes of data are kept in disparate systems. When information about users and devices are maintained inside of HR systems, the maintaining of the same information inside other services that depend on that information leads to double work. And often leads to errors. SaaS solutions often advertise standard web service integration points where this information can be sent automatically when there are information changes in the source HR system. This can bring the data in both systems in synchronization in regular intervals, or even near real-time. But that requires an investment on the source system side to implement SOAP messaging. An alternative method could involve automated loading of data from spread sheets or flat-files which can be exported from the source at regular intervals.
A handy extension on the traditional TEM solution is asset management. In this extended scenario, the TEM solution is no longer only a consumer of data. The process of managing the lifecycle of assets frequently touches on other domains. For instance, placing an order for new assets involve registering the order at a supplier as well as entering it in the asset management system; leading to double work and the potential of errors. Asset management workflows that handle the authorization of orders could require the fulfilment party to work on the same system. But more and more the operators and resellers are starting to advertise their capabilities as web services. It is fast becoming a necessity to integrate the asset management solution with the fulfilment providers.
Nowadays, there are so many services and websites that is, oh so, handy. Every website used to require a separate login name and password. Thankfully, many of the modern websites, especially social media sites, allow you to login by using your Twitter or Facebook account names. Behind the scenes, there is a technology called Single Sign-On (Single Sign On); and there is many references to OpenID in this area. In the Business to Business environment we have the big brother of SSO, called Federated SSO. Companies that already have active directory based authentication in place, typically have everything inside the company wired in such a way that the end users do not even notice the seamless switching between different applications. This same seamless switching can be extend to some modern cloud services, with little effort on the side of the company or the service.
In an overly (inter-) connected world, security has to be taken very serious. A number of measures has to be implemented to keep the hackers out and keep the honest folks honest. Every message that arrives at the web service interface needs to be encrypted, in the same way we expect from trusted web sites, by means of SSL. On top of that, some form of access control needs to ensure that every sender only gain access to the correct services and data. Web services security (WS-Security) requires a digital signature on every message. The combination of these measures protects the parties involved in the transactions from a wide range of vulnerabilities, including: identity theft and unauthorized access to confidential information.
Integration is the glue that will help build cloud computing solutions that is less isolated, while enforcing high levels of security.
