The TMF has been working on a new initiative called the Solution Frameworks Blueprint. The effort seeks to bring together the work of two distinct work streams.
- NGOSS Solution Frameworks used to help architect next generation BSS and OSS.
- Service Delivery Frameworks (SDF) & associated initiatives like IPsphere used to help architect hosted services / managed network services such as Microsoft Live Services and Online Services.
Supporting both initiatives are tooling initiatives. For the most part, these tooling initiatives have been focused on facilitating the documentation of key specifications at an architectural level.
Now, the TMF is beginning to focus on the developer as well as the architect. The TM Forum is launching Developer’s Network.
Microsoft Communications Sector and DPE are working with the TMF on a complementary initiative designed to directly support the Microsoft .NET developer wanting to incorporate TM Forum reference frameworks into their BSS/OSS designs or their hosted S+S services solutions.
SolutionFrameworks.NET is slated to become a part of the TM Forum’s Developer’s Network initiative. Microsoft and other TM Forum members will be working on specific tools to seed the program. Ultimately, a growing developer ecosystem with members drawn from service providers and vendors should help .NET developers leverage TMF artifacts directly from within the Visual Studio IDE.
SolutionsFrameworks.NET initiative will also tie into the Microsoft MSDN developer support environment as well as http://www.microsoft.com/serviceproviders/developers.mspx. The difference will be that TMF SolutionsFramework.NET will provide developer guidance and solutions accelerators specific to the use of TMF Solution Frameworks by .NET developers.
What is a Service Delivery Platform (SDP)?
What is a Service Delivery Framework (SDF)?
The question came up again at the TM Forum’s Team Action Week held in Baltimore, MD this past week during a joint session with several representatives from ATIS.
An SDP is a system that manages service delivery across a specific domain. Typically that domain is entirely within one service provider’s environment and is controlled by rules established by that service provider. A service provider could have several SDPs at the same time each one controlling specific groups of services. Typically, the SDP makes direct use of very telecom specific standards and best practices.
An SDF on the other hand can be thought of as a service delivery mechanism that transcends multiple SDPs and/or service provider domains. An SDF is not supposed to be telecom specific. By its very nature, an SDF is supposed to abstract services in ways that hide telecom specific terminology and language. It should be equally useful to a retail outfit, a content service provider, or a non-telecom hosted service provider.
Because the services acted on by an SDF may not be under the administrative control of one service provider, an SDF places increased emphasis on service manageability. Whereas an SDP typically operates in an environment under the control of a specific service provider’s OSS, an SDF manages interactions between services hosted in different domains managed under different rules. An SDF seeks to leverage the common ground that could exist between entirely different services deployed by entirely different organizations with entirely different rules.
This is the focus of the service definition template part of the SDF specification. It provides for a Functional Interface (FI) and Service Management Interface (SMI) that are equally useful and readily understandable by telecom / network service providers and non-telecom service providers alike.
If you look at just the numbers, Microsoft is used by only a very small percentage of BSS and OSS systems. In the true telecom BSS/OSS space, Microsoft can claim less than 10% market share today. The other 90% is split between legacy Mainframe, UNIX, and some LINUX. IBM IMS and DB2 predominate on the mainframe side with Oracle dominating on the AIX, HP-UX, SUN, UNIX, LINUX platforms.
Most new development has been J2EE based. IBM WebSphere has dominated over SUN/BEA – no surprise. Enterprise Service Buses (ESBs) also play a major role in BSS/OSS architectures as well. Most large telcos own several flavors of ESBs. Open source has been gaining some ground especially as a result of the growth of the Eclipse development ecosystems.
However, Microsoft Windows Server, .NET, SQL, BizTalk, etc have all been making progress especially over the past several years. Almost all of the examples of viable, Microsoft based, Commercial-Off-The-Shelf BSS/OSS/SDP solutions have arrived on the scene over just the last several years – certainly post the CLEC collapse in the U.S. Each visit to a Management World or a B/OSS World find a few more vendors leveraging Microsoft platforms and tools.
It is instructive to consider the shift in MOMENTUM and not just the numbers, such as they are today, because the numbers by themselves are fundamentally misleading. Whereas .NET and Microsoft were total non-starters in this space up through the 1990s, this is increasingly not the case anymore.
Consider these factoids:
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Microsoft platforms are vastly better than they were in the 90s when many of the perceptions that exist today in telcos were formed. Microsoft can support 3x9s, 4x9s, even 5x9s systems today efficiently with the right hardware and virtualization choices. This has been repeatedly and fully demonstrated.
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With the launch of products like Mediaroom / IPTV and Windows Mobile, Microsoft began to fill the role of a Network Equipment Provider. The argument that “there will be no Microsoft technology managing my Network” becomes increasingly mute when Microsoft technology IS the network being managed at the server infrastructure level, the device level, and/or the Software + Services layer.
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Traditional Network Equipment Providers (NEPs) are increasingly selecting Microsoft technologies to build their equipment console applications. Some equipment from these NEPs expose interfaces to the OSS layer that are enabled by Microsoft .NET. Some pieces of equipment will be managed via Silverlight enabled web interfaces.
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With the launch of Microsoft Azure Services Platform, Live Services, and Online Services, Microsoft has become recognized by leading industry groups as a SERVICE PROVIDER in its own right. Last year, Microsoft IT and Microsoft Operations adopted the TM Forum’s NGOSS reference architecture and built an internal BSS/OSS to support a new business: Microsoft Business Online Services www.microsoft.com/online. As I have written previously, this effort achieved some recognition when it caused Microsoft Online to be selected as a FINALIST in the TMF Best Practices Excellence Awards 2009 in a Service Provider category. There is a published case study documenting this work at www.tmforum.org/casestudies called “A Fast Track BSS/OSS for Online Services”.
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Microsoft Azure, Live Services, and Online Services have hundreds of millions of subscribers and users. The sheer scale of the Microsoft user base dwarfs the typical Tier 1 telco. The number of IMs, Emails, and Unified Communications VOIP/SIP traffic calls handled by Microsoft infrastructures is “Tier 1 Telco” class and the other service providers know this… in some cases they fear this. They worry about being reduced to a commodity bit pipe carrier. However, they also recognize Microsoft as a service provider partner able to provide a global reach to those other service providers.
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A major trend in the telecom space is the movement towards converged services with consistent content delivery across multiple devices: IPTV, PC, Windows Mobile, NetBooks, Surface powered kiosks etc. Microsoft has become recognized as an important partner in these revenue value chains. Microsoft Advertising Solution has become very important to monetizing these new services. Announced Service Provider to Service Provider deals are indicative of this:
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Microsoft and Verizon Mobility (for all targeted advertising delivery)
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Microsoft and Telstra (Online Services Syndication)
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Microsoft and Vodafone (Online Services Syndication)
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Industry groups like the TM Forum, ATIS, OMG, OMA are all working the technical aspects of this new business model and Microsoft is a major player in multiple ways. The key fact is that Microsoft is an important service provider partner to these other service providers directly contributing Content and Services that enable a richer digital user experience to subscribers all over the world at less cost than any one service provider could achieve by themselves. The industry refers to this as the “Services Marketplace”. All of this capability from Microsoft is delivered on .NET powered systems.
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The largest global suppliers of BSS/OSS and Service Delivery Platforms have begun to deploy Tier 1 class BSS/OSS applications engineered on Microsoft platforms. These companies recognize that Microsoft offers an exceptionally strong platform value proposition across the data center, the private cloud, and the public cloud.
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Another interesting factor is that Oracle is increasingly perceived as a competitive threat to other BSS/OSS suppliers. Because of acquisitions, Oracle is not just a DB vendor anymore. Oracle’s offers across telco BSS, OSS, Service Delivery Platforms, and Integration Platforms effectively compete in significant ways with virtually all other BSS/OSS suppliers to the industry. This has become a contributing factor to an accelerating movement towards Microsoft platforms. Microsoft, which gets ~96% of its revenue via partners, is not perceived to be a threat.
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Comparative infrastructure cost analysis heavily favors moving to Microsoft platforms. Regardless of how deployed, on premise data center, private cloud, or public cloud, the flexible S+S approach offered by Microsoft combined with an inherent lower hardware and software cost is becoming a huge positive for Microsoft. Recently, I have been involved in conversations with Tier 1 telcos telling their tier 1 OSS vendors they need their apps moved to Microsoft platforms because it will cut their OPEX in HALF! The suppliers are listening.
The trend towards Microsoft platforms for BSS / OSS solutions will accelerate.
Microsoft continues to enhance the interoperability of the Azure Service Platform with the announcement of the availability of the PHP SDK for Windows Azure.
Announcing PHP SDK for Windows Azure… and much more!
The goal of the SDK is to provide high-level abstractions that enable PHP developers to interoperate readily with Windows Azure http://phpazure.codeplex.com/
and a series of projects that offer samples and toolkit that enable PHP developers to easily include in their web applications the Microsoft technologies:
From a Telecom Industry perspective, the Microsoft Azure Services Platform is related to the TM Forum Service Delivery Framework (SDF) initiative. The availability of the PHP SDK for Windows Azure offers up yet another option for developers to create SDF Services that could be hosted within the Azure cloud.
The New York Times has posted a blog entry about the availability of the New York Times API Silverlight Toolkit with links to the toolkit and background information over at the New York Times Open blog. You can find the toolkit here created by my teammate Michael Scherotter.
Microsoft Online Services was selected as a Finalist by the TM Forum for this year’s Best Practices Excellence Awards 2009. The awards were recognized at the TM Forum’s Management World event held in Nice, France from 6-9 May 2009.
Traditionally one might expect Microsoft to be entered in the category of a supplier rather than the Service Provider category. But after some debate, it was recognized that the launch of Microsoft Online Services represented a converged services offerings. Microsoft Azure, Microsoft Live Services and Microsoft Online Services are all part of an evolving story that is repositioning parts of Microsoft into the role of a provider of Next Generation Converged Services.
Microsoft received the Finalist designation in recognition for its adoption and use of the TM Forum’s NGOSS reference architecture and framework as a basis to model and implement an internal BSS/OSS that supports the Online Services business. A total of six service provider projects were recognized for their use of TM Forum Best Practices. A summary of the six finalists and their projects is shown below in a graphic from the TMF Management World Show Guide.
As can be seen from reading through the project descriptions, the Microsoft Online NGOSS implementation was one of six impressive projects. Ultimately, Chunghwa Telecom received the Best Practice Excellence Award in a Service Provider category for 2009 for its multiyear, seventy systems plus NGOSS framework implementation. Congratulations.
Jaime Rodriquez has announced on his Blog a new series of Windows Presentation foundations trainings for Apr/May/Jun optimized for building business applications. The training should be well suited to those wishing to incorporate the latest Microsoft UI capabilities into their BSS/OSS applications.
“This two day training is designed to teach developers how to create Line of Business (LOB) applications using Windows Presentation Foundation (WPF).
- Day One is an introduction to the WPF graphics subsystem, the tools used to build WPF applications, and the core UI services: styling, data binding, templating, layout and input-
- The second day begins with interop (Windows Forms and Win32) and then quickly dives into LOB topics, including building applications using the Model-View-ViewModel pattern, creating unit testable applications, implementing data validation, and error handling.
After completion, attendees will have a solid understanding of WPF, its advantages over other Microsoft UI platforms, and how to use the M-V-VM pattern to create great WPF LOB applications.“
Dates, Locations, and Logistics are on Jaime’s Blog.
A nomination for TM Forum 2009 Excellence Awards has been accepted under the Service provider category. The winner of the award will be announced at Management World in Nice on May 6th.
Microsoft used TM Forum standards such as the NGOSS reference architecture, Service Delivery Frameworks, Architecture Harmonization, and Business Performance Metrics to design and implement a Microsoft BSS/OSS to meet the needs of its growing Software plus Services businesses. In this case, a BSS/OSS infrastructure was designed and stood up in only 8 months and is supporting service syndication deals announced with Vodafone and Telstra.
The use of the TM Forum standards greatly accelerated the time it took for Microsoft IT and Microsoft Operations to implement the needed support systems thereby enabling www.Microsoft.com/online to launch on schedule.
The TM Forum recently posted a Microsoft case study on how a BSS/OSS stack was rapidly designed and implemented to support www.Microsoft.com/online.
Business Problem:
To provide the speed and convenience of cloud computing services, Microsoft recently launched Microsoft® Online Services, a new family of offerings that combine elements of client-based programs with services hosted in remote data centers. For Online Services to be successful, Microsoft needed both a new business model and new business processes.
Solution Implementation:
Using models for creating and running a service business from the TM Forum, a select team used enterprise architecture tools to model a new Microsoft reference BSS/OSS architecture. The team customized and adapted it to accommodate specific business requirements and implemented a completely new BSS/OSS stack in less than eight months—one-third of the time normally expected.
The Online Services team used the New Generation Operations Systems and Software (NGOSS) reference architecture from the TM Forum to help establish the new solution architecture, generate code, and complete the integrations. The tools included Sparx Enterprise Architect, Microsoft Office Visio, Microsoft Visual Studio® 2008, Microsoft Visual Studio Team System Team Foundation Server, and the .NET enabling technologies of Windows® Workflow Foundation, and Windows Communication Foundation.
The team developed the architecture of the solution based on the following TM Forum NGOSS components:
• A business process model based on the eTOM Framework
• A data model based on the TM Forum Shared Information/Data (SID) Model
• An application model based on the TM Forum Telecom Application Model (TAM)
• A set of standard APIs
Deployment and Results:
The Online Services team started in February 2008 and completed architectural and design work in early July 2008. Coding new components and configuring and integrating existing components began in July. The new Microsoft Online Services Customer Portal was live and operational in early October and the team officially rolled it out for the broader service provider audience at a TM Forum event in November 2008.
More than 2,000 industry partners have signed up to support Online Services by using the new BSS/OSS. Online service syndication agreements have been announced with Telstra and Vodafone. In March 2009, Microsoft will invite international partners and customers to use the new service.
The full case study is available at www.tmforum.org/casestudies.
Here is information on an upcoming Web Cast Series covering MSDN licenses, Visual Studio and Team Foundation Server.
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Date and Time |
Title and Link |
Description |
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02/24/09
10:00 AM PST |
Webcast Series: How to license and manage MSDN Subscriptions
Meeting ID = K98MNK |
Overview of value of MSDN subscriptions and how they are licensed and licenses are managed. |
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03/3/09
10:00 AM PST |
Webcast Series: Team Foundation Server Overview
Meeting ID = H9DG88 |
In this webcast, we will cover Team Foundation Server 2008. We will discuss the Team Foundation Server architecture, from both a logical and physical perspective, and cover some installation tips. We will show the work item tracking and version control systems, as well as how you can organize your project information into Team Projects. We will also cover how you can use the reports in Team Foundation Server to understand the health of your project. |
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03/10/09
10:00 AM PST |
Webcast Series: Better Code Quality using Visual Studio Developer Edition
Meeting ID = 6PKDSH |
In this webcast, we will cover the Visual Studio Team System 2008 - Development Edition of Visual Studio. We will show how it can be used by the developer to write better code. Some of the tools that will be covered include static code analysis, unit testing, code coverage, code metrics, and code profiling |
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03/17/09
10:00 AM PST |
Webcast Series: Test Driven Development with VSTS
Meeting ID = GM9ZWN |
In this webcast, we’ll cover the concept of Test Driven Develop, how you can use VSTS-Developer Edition to improve code quality through unit testing and code coverage, plus how to integrate them with automated builds |
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03/24/09
10:00 AM PST |
Webcast Series: Database Concepts for Developers with Visual Studio Database Edition
Meeting ID = 7C2364 |
In this webcast, we will cover the Visual Studio Team System 2008 - Database Edition of Visual Studio. We will show how it can be used by the database developer to fully participate in the software development lifecycle. Some of the tools that will be covered include database projects, how to version control your database schema, unit testing of store procedures, automatic test data generation, and comparing data and schema information between databases and database projects. |
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03/31/09
10:00 AM PST |
Webcast Series: Visual Source Safe to Team Foundation Server
Meeting ID = HTG6HZ |
The Team Foundation Visual SourceSafe (VSS) converter tool transfers files, folders, version history, labels, and user information from a Visual SourceSafe database to Team Foundation source control. Before you move files and historical information to the Visual Studio Team Foundation Server, join this webcast to learn about Visual SourceSafe converter limitations, how history events in VSS are migrated, how to plan source control migration, and how to migrate from source control. |
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04/7/09
10:00 AM PST |
Webcast Series: TFS for Java Developers with Teamprise
Meeting ID = NBTHM2 |
Find out how you can use the Teamprise Plug-in for Eclipse to access the source control features of Team Foundation Server from within the Eclipse integrated development environment (IDE). In this webcast, we show you how to add new Eclipse projects to a Team Foundation Server, import existing projects from Team Foundation Server into Eclipse, and keep projects synchronized. |
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04/14/09
10:00 AM PST |
Webcast Series: Visual Studio Test Edition Overview
Meeting ID = M5H4W9 |
In this webcast, we will cover the Visual Studio Team System 2008 - Test Edition of Visual Studio. We will show how it can be used by testers to help them succeed at their job. Some of the tools that will be covered include web testing, load testing, and manual testing. |
It's a new year and it was time to think about replacing my HTC Tilt with something new. I had upgraded the Tilt to Windows Mobile 6.1 and it was working fine. However, the HTC Touch and Touch Pro had really caught my eye. I decided to move over to the new HTC Fuze.
I have had it a couple of weeks now. The Fuze has a nice feel in your hand and is considerably easier to use one-handed. The need for a stylus is virtually eliminated. The magnetic retainer of the stylus works much better than the friction mechanisms of before.
The full VGA resolution screen and the TouchFLO 3D interface work very well together. I am impressed with the Opera Browser as well with its ability to zoom in and out and the larger controls buttons. I loaded up Windows Live Search and found that it worked much better on the Fuze with its higher resolution screen. Combined with GPS functionality, its ability to locate destinations was much more useable. The only downside was the time it sometimes takes for the GPS to find its initial location.
Mail is always a primary mode of communications at Microsoft. I have my corporate email on Exchange, Live Mail / Hotmail, Yahoo Mail, another POP3 Server email account, plus of course SMS and MMS. This combined with Office Communicator Mobile 2007 and Windows LIve Instant Messenger means I can always be aware of what is going on. In fact, on a Windows Mobile device with instant delivery via Push Email of email messages, the differences between email and IM really blur...
Now that Windows Mobile 6.5 has now been announced, I plan to upgrade my Fuze to Windows Mobile 6.5 in the next couple of weeks.
Here is the press release on 6.5 from Barcelona: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2009/feb09/02-16MWCPR.mspx.
Just came back from the TM Forum’s Management World Americas event in Orlando, Florida held 16-20 November 2008. The theme was Create, Deliver and Monetize Digital Services.
For the past several years, we have talked about how Microsoft technology can help other service providers with Service Enablement and build BSS/OSS applications. At this event, Microsoft revealed how it had truly mastered the service provider business. Microsoft presented how the Azure Services Framework had been built and used to launch the Microsoft On-Line Services business in a mere nine months. Microsoft activities included press announcements, several demos, customer meetings and a number of speaking engagements throughout the conference program.
Highlights
Press releases can be seen at http://tmforum.org/ManagementWorldOrlando/5578/home.html
Microsoft highlighted a number of products and offerings in the Catalysts and Showcases including:
· SharePoint Server 2007
· Commerce Server
· Dynamics CRM
· Silverlight 2.0
· Windows Mobile
· Vista + Media Center
· Windows Server 2008
· Microsoft IPTV / Mediaroom
· Microsoft Advertising Solutions / Atlas AdServer
· Azure Services Framework
· Microsoft On-Line Services
· Microsoft Live Services
Presentations
• Online Services Transformation – Presentations by Alan Griver and Richard Sewell describing how Microsoft used TM Forum NGOSS standards to standup from scratch the Microsoft On-Line Services business on top of the Microsoft Azure Services Framework with a supporting BSS/OSS infrastructure in only nine months.
• Unlocking SDP Potential through Dynamic Product/Service Management – I presented with Ernest Margitta from Tribold on the mechanics of Service Syndication and the usefulness of dynamic service catalogs.
• Realizing Service Marketplaces through SDF, Syndication and B2B Agreements – I participated in a panel discussion about the business impact of Service Delivery Frameworks and the impact on converged services offerings with Ragnar-Miguel Myhrer – Accenture, Jenny Huang - AT&T, Grant Lenahan – Telcordia, Sagrario Alemán - Telefonica I + D, and Michel Burger – Vodafone.
• Service Delivery Frameworks Spotlight - Building new Services Marketplaces with Managed Syndication – A panel discussion with Sagrario Aleman, Telefonica R&D, and Lucia Gradinariu, LGG Solutions looking at the specific use cases explored in the Service Syndication Catalyst project.
Catalysts and Demos
Microsoft was involved with two Catalyst Projects at this event providing a vehicle to showcase thought leadership in collaboration with the industry and partners. The projects are as follows:
• Building Marketplaces with Service Syndication aimed at demonstrated how Microsoft Live Meeting Online could be syndicated to enable another service provider, Telefonica, to create enhanced service offerings. During the transition from Phase I in Nice to Phase II in Orlando, Microsoft Live was transition from the CSF Sandbox to Microsoft Live Online (www.microsoft.com/online). Microsoft and Telefonica sponsored this Catalyst. Other vendors participating included Tribold (a Microsoft partner), NetCracker, Accenture, CA, and Iptivia Inc. For additional information on the Catalysts see: http://tmforum.org/browse.aspx?catid=6193
• Content Encounter (Phase III) showcased best practices in content creation through to targeted delivery and consumption across multiple devices including IPTV, PC, and Windows Mobile. Matthew Barbour from Microsoft provided portal utilizing Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007, Microsoft Commerce Server 2007, Microsoft Dynamics CRM 4, Windows Media Services, and Silverlight 2, as well as core advertising services, provided by Microsoft Atlas Ad Server. The Microsoft solution was integrated to the Telcordia real-time charging and policy server product to deliver prepaid digital content with embedded targeted advertising. For additional information see: http://www.tmforum.org/LearnaboutotherContent/6578/home.html or http://www.tmforum.org/pages/6595/default.aspx
Overall the show was a great event. We showcased how Microsoft Business Groups and Microsoft IT are mastering the TM Forum’s NGOSS architecture and using it with great success to build out Azure’s services layer supported by a fully integrated set of Business Support and Operations Support Systems (BSS/OSS). With the release of Azure and the rollout of On Line Services and Live Services, Microsoft has demonstrated its expertise as a service provider, as a builder of Service Delivery Frameworks and BSS/OSS, as a technology provider, and as a systems integrator.
For those of us thinking about the practical aspects of implementing and managing Software + Services offerings, including Service Syndication, perusing the link below may prove interesting. Telecom service providers have been working in the S+S paradigm for years: they just don’t call it that. But if you think about it, today millions of disparate devices, running software, attached at the edge of many different networks, interact with “cloud” services to both 1) deliver something via a value chain leveraging “functional interfaces” and 2) to manage those services via a set of “management interfaces”.
If one looks at the list of projects on display at the upcoming TM Forum Management World, note the emphasis on service management i.e., some aspect of Configuration, Provisioning, Fault / Performance, SLA/QoS, Charging/Billing and “eBonding” between service providers:
1. …systems to manage capacity and quality of end to end … services
2. …addresses the issues around handling complex and multi-dimensional mobility applications in a mobile environment…
3. Trouble Ticket (TT) interface specification to facilitate incident management between service providers and their enterprise customers and enterprise partners
4. …Efficient provisioning leveraging …Product Lifecycle Management (PLM), Active Catalog and Business Process Management (BPM)
5. …key enablers needed for e2e SQM across a value network, and to show how competitive CE/ SQM applications can be enabled by uniform instrumentation of Edge Devices, Resources, Services, Applications
6. …Service syndication issues focusing on:
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Charging/Billing – issuing charging based on service usage in the syndicated scenario
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QoS Management - Correlated SLA, usage and charging
7. …IPsphere framework to provide extended reach for premium service delivery with elements of service transport provided by a combination of providers who have established a partnership brokered through IPsphere.
The reason for this ongoing focus has to do with the requirements for manageability and reliability. OpEX is THE KEY FACTOR to service profitability. This is why the projects at the TM Forum tend to focus a great deal on the manageability aspects of the atomic services and assembled services and not as much on the services themselves.
http://tmforum.org/ManagementWorldOrlando/CatalystShowcase/6193/Home.html?ctr=14509194
There are a lot of mistakes to be avoided here as Microsoft moves into the world of PROFITABLE hosted / syndicated services.
Microsoft has just announced joining the Object Management Group. As Cameron says, Steve Cook will be attending the the upcoming Orlando meeting where he hopes to meet up with quite a few old friends from the time when he represented IBM at OMG meetings!
This announcement may help illuminate for TM Forum members Microsoft’s direction for tooling and modeling. We expect this will facilitate accelerated development of NGOSS based BSS/OSS and SDF solutions leveraging the .NET framework and the Visual Studio Team System.
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Microsoft Focuses on Bringing Modeling Mainstream, Improves IT Delivery of Business Strategies
Senior Vice President Bob Muglia shares perspective on future of model-driven development and announces Microsoft’s participation in OMG.
REDMOND, Wash. — Sept. 10, 2008 — Microsoft Corp. today outlined its approach for taking modeling into mainstream industry use and announced its membership in the standards body Object Management Group™ (OMG™). Modeling is a core focus of Microsoft’s Dynamic IT strategy, the company’s long-term approach to provide customers with technology, services and best practices to enable IT and development organizations to be more strategic to the business.
Modeling often has been heralded as a means to break down technology and role silos in application development to assist IT departments in delivering more effective business strategies. However, although the promise of modeling has existed for decades, it has failed to have a mainstream impact on the way organizations develop and manage their core applications. Microsoft believes that models must evolve to be more than static diagrams defining a software system; they are a core part of daily business discussions, from organizational charts to cash flow diagrams. Implementing models as part of the design, deployment and management process would give organizations a deeper way to define and communicate across all participants and aspects involved in the application life cycle.
To make model-driven development a reality, Microsoft is focused on providing a model-driven platform and visual modeling tools that make it easy for all “mainstream” users, including information workers, developers, database architects, software architects, business analysts and IT professionals, to collaborate throughout the application development life cycle. By putting model-driven innovation directly into the Microsoft .NET platform, organizations will gain visibility and control over applications from end to end, ensuring that they are building systems based on the right requirements, simplifying iterative development and re-use, and resolving potential issues at a high level before they start committing resources.
“We’re building modeling in as a core part of the platform,” said Bob Muglia, senior vice president, Server and Tools Business at Microsoft. “This enables IT pros to specify their business needs and build applications that work directly from those specifications. It also brings together the different stages of the IT life cycle — connecting business analysts, who specify requirements, with system architects, who design the solution, with developers, who build the applications, and with operations experts, who deploy and maintain the applications. Ultimately, this means IT pros can innovate and respond faster to the needs of their business.”
OMG has been an international, open-membership, not-for-profit computer industry consortium since 1989. OMG’s modeling standards include the Unified Modeling Language™ (UML®) and Business Process Management Notation (BPMN™). In addition to joining the organization, Microsoft will take an active role in numerous OMG working groups to help contribute to the open industry dialogue and assist with evolution of the standards to meet mainstream customer needs. For example, Microsoft is already working with the finance working group on information models for insurance business functions related to the property and casualty industry, and will eventually look to expand those models so that they can be applied to P&C, life and reinsurance. Another early focus will be on developing specifications for converting messages across the various payments messaging standards.
“Microsoft has always been one of the driving forces in the development industry, helping to make innovation possible but also simplifying many of the most challenging aspects of the application development process,” said Dr. Richard Mark Soley, CEO at OMG. “In less than 10 years, OMG’s UML, a cornerstone of the Model Driven Architecture initiative, has been adopted by the majority of development organizations, making OMG the seminal modeling organization and supporting a broad array of vertical market standards efforts in healthcare, finance, manufacturing, government and other areas. Microsoft’s broad expertise and impact will make its membership in OMG beneficial to everyone involved.”
Developers can begin to implement model-driven approaches today through innovations such as Extensible Application Markup Language (XAML) — the declarative model that underlies Windows Presentation Foundation and Windows Workflow Foundation — and ASP.NET MVC, which deeply integrates model-driven development into the .NET Framework and makes it easy to implement the model-view-controller (MVC) pattern for Web applications. Both XAML and MVC are examples of models that drive the actual runtime behavior of .NET applications. These are part of Microsoft’s broader companywide efforts to deliver a connected platform modeling, which includes technologies being delivered across both “Oslo” and Visual Studio “Rosario” initiatives.
Bob Muglia discusses Microsoft’s approach to modeling in a new video available online. The video can be downloaded at http://msstudios.vo.llnwd.net/o21/presspass/mpeg2/modeling9_10.mpg and viewed at mms://msstudios.wmod.llnwd.net/a2294/o21/presspass/modeling9_10_MBR.wmv; video for the Zune digital media player can be downloaded at http://msstudios.vo.llnwd.net/o21/presspass/zune/modeling9_10_Zune.wmv.
Founded in 1975, Microsoft (Nasdaq “MSFT”) is the worldwide leader in software, services and solutions that help people and businesses realize their full potential. |
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At IBC2008 (http://www.ibc.org), Microsoft will demonstrate an important new capability for Silverlight: H.264 video playback. Attendees will be able to see how customers in Europe are adopting Silverlight as momentum continues to build worldwide. Microsoft will also be talking about the recent investment in Move Networks, and how the companies continue to work together to deliver high-quality, programming over HTTP-based networks. Microsoft will be highlighting these items at IBC2008:
H.264 video and AAC audio support in future version of Silverlight
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Silverlight's support of H.264 and AAC will offer content owners greater flexibility and choice to deliver video and audio via Web and devices.
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Technology preview of Silverlight H.264 playback, Expression Encoder authoring and Windows Server 2008 delivery
Silverlight 2 Building Broad Customer Momentum, Building on Olympics success
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New customer deployments offering advanced SL2 experiences
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Examples include innovative live and video-on-demand (VOD) offerings from France Television, iTV, L'EquipeTV, MSN UK, NRK, RAI, RTL, SBS, Setanta and TF1.
Microsoft investment in Move Networks
Many do not realize that not only did Microsoft adopt H.264 in products like Xbox, Zune, and Mediaroom long before it was available in other products like Flash, but was a key participant in the standardization of H.264. Microsoft is an essential patent owner in the H.264 patent pool and was a key contributor to the H.264 standard along with companies like Sony, Philips, Toshiba and Fraunhofer, among others (see list at: http://www.mpegla.com/avc/avc-licensors.cfm).
Microsoft recently received recognition for the important role it played in the H.264/MPEG AVC Joint Video Standards Committee which was recently awarded the EMMY.
(see http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/2008/sep08/09-04MSSonyEmmyPR.mspx)
