the benefits of cogility
DESCRIPTION
Provides products to commercial organizations and government projects seeking to improve their application delivery and development timelines and resource loadTRANSCRIPT
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 1 1
Cogility Studio: Product Differentiation Cogility Studio Conceptual Background
COGILITY SOFTWARE The Leader In Model Driven Complex Event Processing
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 2
When the Model is Not the System
Most modeling software is like the Legotm H2 Hummer
The Model creates a facsimile of the real thing
The Model is not executable like the real thing
Nobody mistakes the model for the real thing
The Model has value because it helps you understand the high-level components of the real system by using high level abstractions
In other words, if you actually want a Hummer that you can drive, you still have a lot of work to do
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 3
An actual system is like the General Motors H2 Hummer
It requires much more effort to build
There are many other actual sub-systems that need to be designed and implemented, beyond the high level abstractions provided by the model
It takes an enormous amount of effort to actually realize the modeling abstractions
It actually needs to operate in a real environment
Nobody mistakes the GM H2 for the Lego H2
Most normal people do not attempt to build their own equivalent of the GM H2, even though this is theoretically possible
The Real System is MUCH More Complex
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 4
It were possible to build a model of a system using a much superior modeling environment with rich semantics that allowed you to describe the most complex artifacts of a real Hummer
Such a model, after it was built, could actually become the system it represents by animating the model semantics
It could be operated in a manner indistinguishable from the desired real system…(except that it is much easier to maintain and repair)
What if…
This is the fundamental difference between Cogility and other modeling tools: Cogility enables the Hummer model to operate like a real Hummer!
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 5
A model of an IT system built within Cogility Studio is not a facsimile of the system being modeled, with static representations of desired behavior
The model specified semantics will actually execute exactly as specified, enabling the model to become the system
When the Model is the System, as the model is maintained the system follows, automatically
The executable model can be easily extended to encompass new capabilities as business requirements change
The model executes in a high-performance, scalable environment
Cogility Studio: The Model is the System
This is the fundamental difference between Cogility and other modeling tools: Cogility enables the system model to run like
the real system, because the Model becomes the System!
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential.
Studio
6
Cogility Studio: Architecture Big Picture
Cogility Studio: Architecture Big
EAI EII BPM
Data Transforms
EDA: Event Driven Architecture SOA: Service Oriented Architecture
J2EE: Application Abstraction Layer JDBC: Storage abstraction Layer
Schema Processes Event
Handlers
Web Service
Deployment
Web Service
Orchestration Schema Data
Transforms
IBM WebSphere
BEA Weblogic
JBoss Oracle 9i
IBM DB2
SQL Server
Windows Linux Solaris AIX MacOS OS400
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 7
Conventional MDA Approach: Model Translation
UML System Model
3GL Form Model
Virtual Model Execution Environment
Conventional approach to an MDA based executable model is via translation. The UML model is translated by some means to a 3GL language, which is then executed after compilation and deployment in a Virtual Model Execution Environment.
Problems: Deployment, testability, debugging, interaction, divergence, using pre-existing 3GL libraries, disjoint data and behavior.
Data
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 8
Model Driven systems are a paradigm shift in the way in which systems are generated.
MDA with translation is an evolutionary change, since what is ultimately executing is the compiled 3GL code, just as in the hand-coded systems.
The translation is inherently lossy, because the execution environment does not have the capacity to understand the model semantically
Furthermore, there is a varying degree of completeness in the translation
A paradigm shift cannot be effected by evolutionary changes.
Too easy to fall back into the previous paradigm
Translation: An Evolutionary Approach
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 9
Cogility’s approach is more akin to “programming with objects” than “object oriented programming”, while offering full benefits of the latter.
Each model artifact has predefined executable behavior that implements a useful capability
Generic model artifacts can be combined to create systems that could not have been conceived when the class of model artifacts was created
Software “Legos”
Cogility’s MDX approach keeps the model and the implementation tightly synchronized by maintaining the model as an invariant from high-level abstraction to the lowest level of implementation detail.
Simply put, it is WYSIWYG when it comes to model and implementation
Cogility Studio: Model Driven Execution (MDX)
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 10
Cogility Studio: Model Driven Execution
Information
Process Services
XForms
Transaction
Messaging
Behavior
Executable Model
Direct Model Execution Environment
Cogility does not depend upon model translation into 3GL code for execution.
Instead, Cogility’s extensible Model Action Semantics are directly executable within a Model Execution Environment with integrated execution data, which alleviates the problems associated with translation techniques. Auto-deployment, direct debugging, direct interaction, no divergence, direct usage of pre-existing 3GL libraries, integrated data and behavior. Integrated Execution Data and Behavior
Configuration Managed Model
Cogility Manager
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 11
Cogility Studio: Execution Architecture
Logic + Data Repository
Cogility Modeler
App Server
Exec Action
Semantics
Repository Authoring Interface
WS/JMS Interface
Cogility Manager
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 12
Cogility Studio: Automated J2EE Model Interface
Executable Model
Direct Model Execution Environment
SOA Services
DB Activation
Generated Browser
View
EDA Messaging
Timing Daemon
Cogility Manager
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 13
Cogility Studio: Directly Executable Model-Driven Action Semantics
Executable Model
Direct Model Execution Environment
Action Semantics
Tests
Service Invocation
Database Access
Message Publish
Action Semantics
Reports
Action Semantics
Scripts
Action Semantics Extracts
Cogility Manager
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 14
Cogility Studio: Highly Accessible Execution Data
Model Metadata
Execution Data
SQL Reports
Database Tuning
Database Backups Restores
Direct Database Cleanup
Federated Data
Solutions
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 15
Cogility Manager: Model Aware Execution Environment
Cogility’s execution environment has complete semantic awareness of the model, with the full richness of the modeling environment
The system is self aware and has a semantic understanding of the system information model, as well as the interfaces to it and to any other system it communicates with
The system is aware of the Model Action Semantics it can execute and how these relate to specifics in the system model
Every row of data in the execution database is self-aware and knows how it relates to others and the business processes and behaviors it provides within the system
System data structures are aware of behaviors they provide
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 16
System Command Console: Cogility ActionPad
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 17
Limits of Human Comprehension
Research in cognitive science indicates that on average we can integrate 7 ± 2 unrelated concepts at a time without error
Beyond that, we use a technique called “chunking” to group similar, well understood concepts together to reduce complexity
These chunks can then be used as building blocks for higher level concepts
Thus, even highly detailed, extremely complex concepts can be successively aggregated into a finite number of high level building blocks that can be intuitively understood
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 18
Chunking and Evolution of Computer Languages
The concept of aggregating low-level detail into a reusable chunk is common in the evolution of computer languages
Converting Binary to Hex is a form of chunking
Every generation of computer language provides a higher level understanding of the domain, which allows a single command to define a complex sequence of lower-level commands
1GL (Machine Language): every instruction is at the machine level
2GL (Assembler): created for specific processors, has a set of structured commands that reflect many machine language instructions RISC processor does more chunking
3GL (C, Java etc): general purpose higher level language that is not processor specific and allows for more general commands than 2GL
Each higher level language aggregates details of the lower level into reusable chunks
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 19
Applying Chunking to a Typical IT System
Parse Input
Transform?
Do Work
Read/Save Stuff
Talk to Other
Command
Response
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 20
Cogility Studio: Reducing IT Complexity by Chunking
Cogility defines an IT System using a combination of powerful, executable, system scaffolding modeling artifacts, which can be instantiated as necessary to represent the functional chunks
Model Driven Smart Persistent Objects, exhibiting Automatic transacted database CRUD behavior with association traversal Inheritance Behavior Definition Process Definition (state full, long-lived)
Model Driven Smart Data Structures, exhibiting Inheritance Behavior Definition
Model Driven Communication Artifacts, exhibiting Synchronous input/output using SOA Asynchronous input/output using EDA
Model Driven Data Activation Artifacts, exhibiting Remote database input/output Ability to respond to remote data triggers
Model Driven Transformation Artifacts, exhibiting Common Warehouse Metamodel based transforms XSLT based transforms
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 21
Cogility Studio: Executable Action Semantics
Further, Cogility provides a number of powerful, executable, system logic modeling artifacts in the form of Model Action Semantics keywords
Each Action Semantic keyword has inherent executable capability and does not need to be decomposed further and translated to 3GL code to execute It would take many lines of 3GL code to implement equivalent capability
effectively and consistently for every usage
Action Semantics can be safely and easily expanded if required.
Action Semantics artifacts can be combined in arbitrary ways and embedded inside the scaffolding modeling artifacts, allowing them to behave in a manner that is completely new and directly representative of system requirements
Programmable Software Legos
Modeling constructs are like a RISC system, making them easier to grasp and retain based upon rules of human cognition, resulting in a flatter learning curve
Repetitive use of well understood, well tested, automated patterns can build highly complex solutions while drastically reducing hand-coded low-level artifacts
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 22
Cogility Studio: Action Semantics Chunks
The Action Semantics itself can be chunked as follows
Basic (Declaration, Assignment, Arithmetic, Logical Operators)
Database
Control Structure
Behavior Invocation
Communication
Exceptions
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 23
Conclusion: Model Driven Execution With Cogility Studio
Cogility Studio provides essential executable modeling artifacts which can be used to model and execute the required system. System is much easier to develop
Each type of modeling artifact provides useful executable capability in the domain where Cogility is used It would take an extensive, systematic and expensive coding effort to reproduce
the execution capability provided by the modeling artifacts in a 3GL language
Modeling artifacts are directly executable, and auto deploy to a scalable, cross platform execution environment in a manner that closely integrates execution data with system behavior Shields users from technological complexities of the execution environment
while maintaining interaction at the system model level
Modeling artifacts do not require translation into 3GL form, either manually or through code-generation System is easier to manage, test, document, certify and maintain
With Cogility, the Model Is The System, and the two never diverge The model becomes the single source of system information and organizational
competitive advantage
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 24
Additional Reading
Some of the concepts that have been discussed here have been discussed by others.
Some practical books that provide useful concepts
Business Engineering With Object Technology by David A. Taylor. Published by John Wiley & Sons. Old book, but extremely easy to understand and easy to read. Good for model-
based concepts.
The Object Primer, by Scott W. Ambler. Cambridge University Press. Parts of this are aimed at hands-on developers, but others are relevant for just
about anyone, to understand the modeling process.
See www.agilemodeling.com
CAVEAT: These books assume that the modeling effort will be followed by coding, which is NOT the case in Cogility since Cogility models are executable.
© 2010 Cogility Software Corporation All Rights Reserved. Proprietary and Confidential. 25
Cogility Studio: The Model Is The System
Cogility’s unique abilities Cogility’s unique capability is Model Driven Execution, which goes beyond just
being MDA compatible. Cogility Studio uniquely provides a directly executable, auto-generated end-
application, unlike other MDA approaches that generate code stubs that have to be manually hand-coded to conform to the system model and then manually synchronized as the system model changes.
Cogility’s unique features: Model Driven Transacted Persistence, allowing model action semantics to
automatically control low-level database operations. Model Driven Durable Messaging, allowing model action semantics to control
low level messaging operations. Model Driven Behavior Specification using executable action semantics. Model Driven Process Execution, allowing high level business process models
to directly execute at the physical level. Model Driven Data Transformation, allowing for model action semantics to
seamlessly control the access of similar data in dissimilar formats. Model Driven Service Specification and Orchestration, allowing the model to
directly specify complex services and orchestrate complex remote services with full control over the associated data flow.
Model Driven Data Activation, allowing the system model to react to changes in data in remote databases.
Model Driven Test Scenarios, with executable action semantics based tests that can interact directly with the low level physical layer.
Model Driven Documentation, by exploiting the detailed system metadata inherent in the model.
Comprehensive Model Configuration Management, from high level abstraction to low level implementation artifact within the execution environment.