Date: November 9, 2007 Speaker: Uwe Vieille and Mike Anderson, Unisys Corporation Topic: “Modernizing Your Enterprise with Open Source ” Event Registration

Outline

Enterprise Modernization with Open Source

Premise: Enterprise modernization with Open Source technology, if done with due diligence, will provide business value through increased business and IT agility, vendor independence, and cost control.
Modernization must include the business, not just IT

1. Modernization can not take place in silo implementation, needs to be enterprise architected
2. Modernization must recognize the investments made in legacy systems and processes that provide strategic IP
3. Modernization must start with an enterprise architecture which includes both, business and IT, such as SOA
4. Dependent on the position the enterprise finds itself on the Strategy S Curve, the entry point to modernization varies:
1. Comprehensive Business and IT strategy
2. Enterprise architecture and technology framework
3. Business process modernization
4. IT Infrastructure Modernization
5. Application Modernization

• Where will Open Source provide value in the modernization effort?

• Review of Open Source ecosystem

 

IT Infrastructure Modernization

•  Platform modernization through migration to commodity Intel platforms

•  Platform consolidation

•  Virtualization

•  Migration to Open source Linux operating systems such as Re Hat, SuSe, Ubunt

•  JVM

•  ESB

•  Application Middleware

•  Apache, Tomcat

•  OpenLDAP for directory services

•  Database consolidation

•  Database migration to Open Source products such as MySQL and Postgre

Application Modernization

 

 

•  Why are businesses considering application modernization?

•  Application modernization options

•  Wrap-around of legacy applications

•  Complete re-write with no changes to processes and rules

•  Mining of IP and rules, new development

•  Mining of IP and rules, selective re-write and wrapping

•  Benefits, risks, and estimated costs

 

Approach	Benefits	Risks	Estimated Cost
Traditional (Manual)	•  High quality	•  Expensive •  Labor intensive •  Business model – extra cost •  Requires heavy support from Subject Matter Expert	$10-20 per line of code (Baseline cost)
Translation	•  Quick turnaround •  Least expensive	•  May require extensive “legacy remediation” before the process •  May require extensive “refactoring” after the process •  May not work well for complex or poor quality application code •  May have high maintenance cost	$3-6 per line of code (Roughly 1/3rd the baseline cost)
Knowledge-Based	•  High Quality •  Produces business model (vocabulary, rules, processes) •  Generates automated test cases •  Generates usable documentation, including training documents •  Deploy target applications from business model •  Low maintenance cost	•  More expensive than Translation method •  Requires validation support from Subject Matter Experts	$8-12 per line of code (Roughly 2/3rd the baseline cost)

 

•  Where to start…

 

 

•  Case Study

 

Sector, Location: Transportation; Germany

 

Business Challenge: Lufthansa Systems (LSY) is a leading provider of IT services for the airline industry. They are a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Lufthansa Group and host 40 airlines for reservations and departure control services based on Unisys legacy USAS Reservations. They needed to update their system in order to reduce costs and makes carriers more independent of global distribution systems (GDS). They needed a platform that can be customized to meet the specific needs of any airline – from traditional network carrier to low-cost airline.

Solution: Unisys provided AirCore our next generation reservation and departure control solution that handles the core processes of passenger airlines – from schedule, distribution, reservations, inventory, ticketing, and departure control to passenger service processes.

Benefits: AirCore will allow LSY to assist its airline customers in simplifying the business, providing business and IT agility, while reducing costs and improving the travel experience for customers. AirCore is a modular system based on a common IT component based architecture allowing for easier and faster enhancements and support. The central customer database is a unique feature of AirCore which provides airlines the visibility to provide better customer service to passengers.

•  What are the Open Source components of AirCore and how did they contribute to reduction in vendor dependency, increase business and IT agility to respond to changing requirements, and how are Open Source components provide cost containment ?

Unisys deployed:

•  Linux

•  Hypernate

•  Etc.

•  Open Source product support business model (reduction in vendor dependency)

•  Open Source premise supports agility (fast response to change)

•  Open Source License structure provides cost containment

Conclusion

Biography

Uwe Vieille is an Architect Director in the Unisys Open Source Pillar and has over 30 years of experience in the Information Technology industry. Uwe has served in numerous roles including IT Strategy and Architecture, presales support, and business development. Uwe also served as Vice President of IT Strategy and Technology at Phoenix Global Consultants, an international consulting company to the air travel industry.

Uwe obtained a BS in Telecommunications from Roosevelt University in Chicago, IL ,and an MBA from Northern Illinois University.