Shifting to the cloud an opportunity to rethink enterprise architecture

Cloud migration a chance to conservatively re-architect the enterprise, suggests expert panel

Shifting to the cloud could be an opportunity to re-think architectural strategies, simplifying, improving agility and cutting costs, without embarking on a massive migration project.

That was one of the messages that came out of Computing's ‘True data portability in the hybrid cloud' this week.

Computing was joined by Gary Mawdsley, chief technology officer of Anzen Data, Chris Cooper, co-founder of KnowNow Information, and John Abel, head of technology and cloud at software giant Oracle.

"You could take your existing legacy systems, virtualise them and that's a great route to get them into the cloud," suggested Mawdsley.

That, at least, could be the start of a wider, but conservative, architectural re-thinking, he added: "You could look at all of the things on the landscape that are converging in terms of where systems need to go.

"So it's not just the cloud, there's how you use open-source software in the solutions you are building out, and is it time for some of your systems to have a ‘green field' approach and, thereby, an opportunity to also look at the way data is designed and layered in order to reduce risk."

Cooper believes that re-architecting could extend to the business logic layer.

"One of the techniques we advocate is shifting your business logic into an API-based world, but maintaining the sanctity of the data within the enterprise.

"So exposing the data that you want to on a rules-based business level through an API, which can be open or closed, and that brings in some other benefits because if you have already made the leap to a service-oriented architecture you have already got that enterprise service bus, and you have probably got the services already exposed, but that can just be internal.

"So it's about making them exposed externally if you're passing data out to a hybrid cloud or to other third-parties [such as suppliers and customers]. It brings in the governance piece, too, which you should have had in place for your data layer," said Cooper.

In other words, a shift to the cloud can stimulate an evolution in the enterprise architecture, building on what the organisation has already developed and has in place, rather than a disruptive revolution.

Oracle's John Abel agreed, pointing to the company's acquisition of APIary, which provides Oracle's API gateway. This leads to what Abel described as "function as a service".

He explained: "That is where you can encapsulate data and actually protect organisations from having to worry about how it moves around the organisation because there are only interfaces and APIs."

What that means, added Cooper, is that "you don't lose the investment you have already made in probably what is a very good, ‘does what it says on the tin' enterprise data store. But you are getting the business value and you can also gain economies of scale by having one API that's pointing to multiple data sources".

That also facilitates developments such as agile development methodologies and devops, he continued.

"You can say ‘you guys go and create this new business function, run it like a lean start-up, but I'm still protecting my legacy ‘crown jewels', so to speak," said Cooper.

Oracle has fleshed out its cloud and enterprise architecture offering in recent years. In addition to APIary, earlier this year Oracle acquired Dutch cloud software company Wercker.

Wercker provides an open-source command-line interface with which developers can create Docker containers on their desktop, automate their build and deploy processes, and then deploy them to various cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services and Rackspace.

This makes setting up servers and applications faster and easier, aiding business agility.

Oracle also won a coveted Computing Vendor Excellence Award in 2015 for its Virtual Compute Appliance X5, which provides a consolidated platform for Oracle or non-Oracle applications database technology to run flexibly in the cloud.