Technology / Cerylion's Service Router

Cerylion's Service Router is a software-based system that dynamically links data from disparate sources to create interoperable, high-value services without the pain and cost typically needed to integrate unrelated IT systems. On the front end, it creates private and secure workspaces for each individual user and service agent. On the back end, it provides a brokering system that interfaces data, systems and processes from disparate sources. The magic is in providing these capabilities dynamically and directly from changes in your business operations. In other words, Cerylion's groundbreaking Context Management Engine™ assembles the key elements of the application, in the real-time context of your "right-now" business requirements.

Imagine adding a whole new user group, or changing key business processes, and then providing case-specific personalization to an audience of one. Then imagine not waiting months for your new application to be ready. That's dynamic stability.



Powered by Cerylion's groundbreaking context management technology, the Service Router gathers relevant data from distributed, isolated services and links it into a unified system of logical, contextual associations. The service router takes data directly from source inputs, regardless of their design and structure. With these contextual linkages established, the Cerylion Service Router manages workflow and processes by creating workspaces that manage the data and services within the context of a specific service request.

The impact of this approach is to:

Context Management Engine

At the core of the Cerylion Service Router (CSR) is a groundbreaking technology called the Context Management Engine. It works in much the same way that a physical network router manages quality of service and service-level agreements across a spectrum of users, available bandwidth and various security or system-level requirements.

The Context Management Engine dynamically composes services in a framework of managed workspaces. Specific managed workspaces are allocated for individual users, specific case data, business process logic and business environment reference points. These elements make up the key dimensions of "business context". The Context Management Engine orchestrates and manages the end-to-end execution, in context, of actionable elements at the granularity of individualized business situations: managing the execution of a specific process, by a specific user in a specific case.

System Architecture

The CSR operates on industry-standard infrastructure. Its runtime architecture is composed of a three-tier system:

The Service Gateway is the front-end system that provisions all service requests from both users and automated services, while shielding the CSR's internal operation from external systems. It is a distributed system that operates on industry-standard servlet containers and J2EE servers and routes all inbound and outbound interactions using industry-standard HTTP communication.

The CSR's middle-tier system is invoked by the Service Gateway to fulfill service requests for its composite applications using industry-standard servlet containers and J2EE servers. It instantiates a Service Sandbox™ for each individual constituent and manages this real-time interaction with a composite application. Service sandboxes are completely shielded from each other, and each one provides a unified sphere of control for services' execution. Each service is encapsulated by a Java class generated by the CSR. The execution of his corresponding runtime object is bounded to the private namespace of a designated Service Sandbox. A Service Sandbox manages the individualized state and context of all transactional interactions and guarantees their runtime integrity across a distributed set of context-driven workspaces.

Each workspace manages a state-full and durable individualized instance of a complex context variable corresponding to one of the key dimensions of service execution: Who, What, Where, When and How. The CSR instantiates and manages, respectively: Account Workspaces, Case Workspaces, Environmental Workspaces, Event Workspaces and Process Workspaces. Cerylion's fully-transactional context management engine further optimizes the interplay of these instances and provides a unified Quality Of Service.

The CSR's back-end system provides persistent storage for all workspaces instances using industry-standard SQL databases. It further provides file-based storage for FTP-based data exchanges with disconnected systems.

The CSR unified runtime environment operates a scalable and fault-tolerant end-to-end system across all three tiers, providing service-level load balancing and runtime security, and managing Quality Of Services for its composite applications.