Texas MultiValue User Group – June 2009
Mark Pick – Vice President Reality
Mark Fuller – Reality Development
Gail Lawrence – Customer Development
Slide 1
AGENDA
• Welcome – Mark Pick
• Is your data safe and secure? Mark Fuller
• Web Services – Mark Fuller
Slide 2
Who is Northgate?
•
You might remember…..
►
Microdata
►
McDonnell Douglas
Dick Pick – circa 1973
……..All part of Northgate’s history!
Slide 3
Reality
Yes.
It’s the REALITY
you remember.
But much more.
Slide 4
Continuous Enhancements
REALITY
REALITY
Reality X
Reality X
Reality X
Reality
Reality
Reality
V1.0
V7.2
V2.0
V5.0
V8.0
V9.0
V9.1
V10.0
Reality
V11.0
Reality
Reality
Reality
Slide 5
V12.0
V14.0
V14.1
First commercial PICK release
Last proprietary O/S release
First UNIX release
Last UNIX (only) release
First Windows NT release
Windows 2000 Support
AIX, Linux, Sockets
GUI Admin, Rapid Recovery
File System, 2TB database,
SQL View, Foreign Database
Auto File Sizing, GUI Spooler,
Databasic from English
Web Services, XML Parser
Fast Backup and Restore
Data Encryption at Rest, DR
Case insensitivity D3 flavor
1974
1990
1992
1996
1998
2001
2002
2003
2004
2006
2007
2009
About Northgate
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Slide 6
Reality the first commercial Multivalue release (1974)
38 years + experience (company established in 1969)
07/08 revenue of $1.1 billion
Company worth $2 billion
Approximately 8,000 staff
46 locations worldwide
Head Office: Hemel Hempstead, UK
Northgate has three major divisions
•
Northgate HR is the specialist HRS division of Northgate
Information Solutions. We are the UK and Ireland’s leading
supplier of HR, Payroll and Pensions software solutions and
services to all market sectors. Moorepay is Northgate’s small HR
& Payroll specialist division.
•
Northgate Public Services is the number one provider of
community justice technology solutions. Our task is to enhance
public sector value through the intelligent use of information
technology and to share in the economic and social benefits that
this brings.
Reality
•
Slide 7
Northgate Managed Services provides infrastructure solutions to
organisations across the public, private and not-for-profit
sectors, and specialist ICT managed service solutions in
education, local government and utilities.
Reality Core Characteristics
•
•
•
•
•
Slide 8
Proven, Industrial Strength, Standards-Based Database
Exceptional Resilience and Recovery
►
No loss of data
Rich, Web-Enabled Application Development Tools
Exceptional Interoperability
Excellent MultiValue Compatibility
Heritage with a Future
•
•
•
•
Back to Reality
Where are we going? The sky’s
the limit!
Future
►
Continual development and
commitment to the Reality
product and to MultiValue.
Third Party Vendors
►
►
►
Slide 9
DesignBais
MITS
Sierra Bravo
Why Choose
Reality ?
Slide 10
Questions?
Slide 11
Is Your Business Safe and
Secure?
Mark Fuller – Reality Development Team
Slide 13
Introduction
• Investigate what is meant by the terms Disaster
Recovery & Business Continuity Plan
• What is a disaster?
• What is their effect?
• What techniques can reduce the risk?
• How can Northgate’s Reality Help?
Slide 14
What is disaster recovery?
(DR) is a coordinated activity to enable the recovery of
IT/business systems due to a disruption.
• DR can be achieved by
►
►
►
Slide 15
Restoring IT/business operations at an alternate location,
Recovering IT/business operations using alternate equipment,
Performing some or all of the affected business processes
using manual methods.
What is Business Continuity Planning?
BCP - All encompassing term covering both disaster recovery planning
and business resumption planning.
Slide 16
•
Set of procedures for sustaining essential business operations
while recovering from a significant disruption.
•
This umbrella term also refers to other aspects of disaster recovery
►
Emergency management,
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Human resources,
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Media or press relations,
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Building Control
Disaster Recovery & Business Continuity
►
►
Slide 17
Business Continuity/Organisational Resilience has gained in
importance over the last five years.
Interest & Focus is at International Level
►
UK - Civil Contingencies Act 2004 & National Risk Register 2008
►
NFPA1600 (North America), HB221 & HB292 (Australasia),
►
2008 saw the launch of a new BSI Standard (BSI 25999)
►
Insurance Companies now take ‘preparedness’ into account
►
Weather in particular has shown events happen
►
Pandemic – hot topic
►
Organisations have become more complex, more reliant.
Which one is a potential disaster and may cause you
to implement your DR/BCP plan or parts of it?
Slide 18
•
Security Breach
►
Dishonest Member of Staff
►
Stolen Data
►
Stolen/Loss of Computer System
•
Loss of Service
►
Fire/Flood/Tornado/Earthquake/Explosion etc.
•
Hardware Failure
►
Complete server failure
►
Disk Crash
►
Network failure
►
Power fail
Security Breach - Impact
•
Incident Cost
►
►
•
Legal Compliance Issue
►
►
►
•
Breach of Data Protection Act
Breach of HIPPA
Breach of Contract
Reputation
►
►
Slide 19
Management time
Operational effort
Negative press attention … seen as a ‘blunder’
Are we a ‘safe pair of hands’?
Security Breach - Examples
Cost
$500,000!
ID theft concerns over Eden Project stolen laptop
IT Pro UK – Fri, 15 Jun 2007 12:45
...identity theft. The laptop was looked after by an employee of XXXXXX , a
company the Cornish tourist attraction uses to handle its payroll .
UK Chancellor admits HMRC lost 25 million people's data
Alistair Darling says taxman lost disks containing the detailed child benefit
information of 25 million individuals
Cost potentially billions!
(Compensation up to
$600 per record, total 15
billion (UK)
Slide 20
Security Breach - Examples
94% of large
enterprises
40 Million
Credit card numbers
stolen from TJX
Had a security breach
within
the last 12 months
Hotel chain falls victim
To 14,000 data-stealing
incidents
Slide 21
Database Security
•
Is your Database secure?
►
Can you control access?
►
►
►
Slide 22
By user, location, time or type of connection?
Can you detect inappropriate access?
Do you know who is accessing your database and when?
Database Security – Reducing the Risk
•
MV Account Based Security
►
Many users share the same user
name and password
►
►
Slide 23
Advantages
► Simple to Administer
Disadvantages
► Can’t identify individuals
► Hard to Audit
► Difficult to tell if the security has been compromised
► Passwords are difficult to secure
Database Security – Reducing the Risk
•
User Based Security
►
Each user has unique user name
and password
►
►
Slide 24
Advantages
► Simple to Administer
► Can Identify the individuals
► Auditable
► Individuals can change their passwords
► You should be able control how often, length and password
history
Disadvantages
► Identities can be conveyed to others or commandeered by others
Database Security – Reducing the Risk
•
Location Based Security
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Extends User based security
►
►
►
Disadvantages
►
Slide 25
Limit individuals to pre-defined locations
Individuals can have multiple security profiles
► Dependent on their location
Have to define acceptable locations
Database Security – Reducing the Risk
•
Time Based Security
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Extends User based security
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Logins are restricted to defined time periods
►
Advantages
►
►
Disadvantages
►
Slide 26
Tighter control of User based security
► Pre-defines allowable login times per user
Have to define acceptable time windows
Database Security – Reducing the Risk
•
Server Based Security (linked to user based security)
►
Allows same user different access rights to different services
(Remote File, Web, SQL)
►
►
Slide 27
Advantages over User based security
► Server processes can have different security profiles than
associated users
Disadvantages
► Have to define more access rights
Database Security – Using Reality
•
Reality is used in security critical systems
►
Police, Government, Health, Military
►
Supports
►
►
►
►
►
Slide 28
Account Security
User Security
Location based security
Time Based
Server Based
Data Security
•
Is your Data secure?
►
Can you prevent un-authorized access to the information on
your media?
►
►
Can you control access to the data?
►
Slide 29
Disk & Tape
You may want to give file access but not the ability to understand
the data
Data Security– Reducing the Risk
•
Encrypt any data leaving site
►
Advantages
►
►
Disadvantages
►
Slide 30
Protects backups held off-site
Managing the encryption keys
Data Security– Reducing the Risk
•
•
Data stored in an encrypted form
Data Encryption at Rest
►
Advantages
►
►
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Disadvantages
►
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Slide 31
Protects data at source
Transparent to the application
Possible performance implications
Need to manage the keys
Data Security–
•
What is it
►
Transparently encrypts the data written to your database and
any other media
►
Access Management
►
Slide 32
Defines who is allowed access to encrypted data
Secure Management of encryption keys
Advantages
►
Selectively limits access to sensitive data
►
•
Using Reality’s Data Encryption at
Rest
Loss of Service
Sometimes the worst does happen …
Northgate HQ, Boundary Way, Hemel Hempstead, UK
6 am 11 December 2005
Slide 33
Loss of Service- Entire Regions May Be Vulnerable
Northeast
Power
Blackout
August 2003
Slide 34
Loss of Service- Nature is full of surprises
Primary Data Center
New Orleans
DR Site
Houston
Katrina
August 29th 2005
Rita
September 24th 2005
Slide 35
Loss of Service - Impact
•
Incident Cost
►
►
•
Contractual SLA’s
►
•
►
Negative press attention …
Are we a ‘safe pair of hands’?
Loss of business
►
►
Slide 36
Breach of Contract?
Reputation
►
•
Management time
Operational effort
Companies that aren’t able to resume operations within 10 days of a
disaster are not likely to survive’ (source: Strategic Research Institute, Jan
2002.).
‘Problems with IT cost small and medium enterprises (SME’s) £100 billion in
lost turnover each year according to the London Business School. Computer
crashes are estimated to cause losses of £31 million each year.’
Loss of Service - Causes
•
Loss of:
►
Data
►
Hardware
►
Network infrastructure
►
Site
►
Business!
►
►
Staff!
►
Slide 37
Forced to cease trading and wind company up!
May lose key staff members
Loss of Service – Reducing the Risk
•
•
•
Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery Planning
Put a BCP & DR plan in place & above all test it!
Some things to consider
►
Emergency Management Team
►
►
Business Recovery Actions
►
►
from HR, int/ext communications, finance, property & security
Longer Term Recovery Actions
►
Slide 38
site protection, salvage, security and safety
Support Services
►
►
teams on site, contacts, numbers, alternate office locations
Site Management
►
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the site's IT facilities, switchboard lines, DR arrangements for these
Office Space Recovery
►
►
site plan, departments, services delivered, key suppliers, tenants
IT Recovery
►
►
an ordered list of the actions to be taken by the EMT
Site Details
►
►
names, numbers, meeting venues, con. call numbers
the task of returning to "business as usual"
Loss of Service – Reducing the Risk
•
Resilient Hardware
►
Duplicate key hardware components
►
►
►
►
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Advantages
►
►
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Quick recovery
Little Admin
Disadvantages
►
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Slide 39
Disk Mirroring
Redundant power supplies, processors etc.
Redundant Networks
Hot Swappable Components
Can still cause the system to fail and need to be restored
Only protects individual machines
Loss of Service – Reducing the Risk
•
Regular backups (Offsite!)
►
Backup key data to removable media
Tape, Disk
►
Advantages
►
►
►
Disadvantages
►
►
►
►
Slide 40
You do have a copy of your data
Can be kept offsite
Media deteriorates over time
Slow!
Costly!
Only protects individual machines
Loss of Service – Reducing the Risk
►
Resilient File System
►
►
►
Slide 41
Journaling file system, allows the file system and database to
recover to the last completed transaction when the machine
unrepentantly stops
Advantages
► Recovery can be to last completed transaction
► Can be very quick to recover
Disadvantages
► Additional load on system
► Relies on storage devices being intact
Loss of Service – Reducing the Risk
►
Hot standby systems
►
►
►
Slide 42
Second machine is maintained
as a near real-time copy of the
live running system
Advantages
► No loss of service
Disadvantages
► Normally ‘closely coupled’ – Requires real time data link
► Can still lose both systems
► Additional hardware costs
Loss of Service – Reducing the Risk
►
Remote Hot Standby systems
►
►
►
Slide 43
A remotely hosted machine is maintained as a near real-time copy
of the live running system
Advantages
► Data copied off-site at the end of each transaction
► Off-site machine can be ready to run
Disadvantages
► Dependant on external communications link
► Requires a communications link which can handle the throughput
of the system
► Can be costly – depending on options taken
Loss of Service -Reality Resilience
Gateway
Data
Data
Unprotected
Database
Shadow
Heartbeat
Failsafe
Transaction
Database
Logging
Gateway
Logs
Logs
Primary System
Data
Secondary System
Heart Beat
Automatic Switch
Manual Switch
Failsafe
Manual Switch
Shadow
Hardware
Transaction Logging
Hardware
Data Restore
Replay Logs
Hardware
Data Restore
Re-key from last restore
Unprotected
Replay Logs
Service Restoration Time
Slide 44
Loss of Service - Reality Automated DR
•
Maintains remote disaster recovery systems
►
Further extends resilience options to support:
►
►
►
►
Reality Environment
Remote hot backup systems
Operation over slow or intermittent communication links Remote
standby
Sourced from one or more machines
system(s)
Secured up to the last completed transaction
Reality Environment
Reality Environment
Reality Failsafe Environment or Standalone System
Slide 45
Loss of Service - Fast Backup and Recovery
•
Backup & Restore your Database at near Media Speed
►
Backup while the system is still in use
►
In practice ‘near media speed’ is estimated to be up to 30
times faster than the current logical backup.
►
‘Point in time’ backup
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Examples
►
►
Slide 46
MOD
► from 4 days to 9 hours
Wolseley
► from 2 hours to six minutes (50GB)
Loss of Service – Using Reality
•
Reality Supports
►
Fast backup & Restore
►
►
Journaling
►
►
Failsafe & Heartbeat
► No loss of service
► Automatically switches to secondary system
Remote Disaster Recovery systems
►
Slide 47
Shadow Database
► Stored on same machine, separate offline disks
Hot backup standby systems
►
►
Rapid Recovery
► If hardware survives crash, quickly recovers database
Offline backup databases
►
►
Backup & Restore your database at ‘media speed’
RealityDR
► Low Cost, Offsite system kept up to date in real time
Conclusion
•
Plan in advance
►
Create Business Continuity & Disaster Recovery plans
(NOW)
•
Slide 48
Be aware of the Risks
►
Security Breach
►
Loss of Service
► Data,
► Hardware,
► Network infrastructure,
► Site, Business,
► Staff!
Conclusion
•
Deploy techniques to mitigate those risks
►
Security Methods
►
►
►
Protect Your Service
►
►
►
►
►
•
Slide 49
Database Security
Data Security
Resilient Hardware
Regular backups
Resilient File System
Hot standby systems
Remote Hot Standby systems
Move to Reality
►
Northgate and Reality have the tools to protect your business
Thank You
Questions?
Slide 50
Reality Web Services
Texas User Group – June 2009
Mark Fuller – Reality Development Team
Web Services & XML
•
•
•
•
Slide 52
What are they?
►
Technologies involved
►
Examples of them being used today
Why Web Services?
►
Making your services available to a wider audience
►
Greater efficiency
►
Greater interoperability
►
Reduced integration costs
►
Simplified Business communication protocols
Demo of Reality Web Services using C# to produce a GUI
application.
Reality’s XML capabilities
►
Parsing
►
Generating
Web Services – They are not…
•
•
•
Slide 53
Not exclusive to Web
Browsers!
Not exclusive to web based
applications!
“Web” - Is used in the name
purely because they typically
use HTTP as their transport
mechanism and are served
by a web server.
Web Services - What are they?
“A software system
designed to support
interoperable machine-tomachine interaction ...”
W3C
Slide 54
Web Services - What are they?
A “Web service” is an
evolutionary technology that
allows businesses to integrate
their internal/external computer
systems, leverage legacy
systems, and automate
communication with their
business partners in ways
never before possible..
Slide 55
Web Services - What are they?
•
Web Services are standards driven
•
Key standards
►
Based on Extensible Markup Language (XML)
►
Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP)
►
Universal Discovery, Description and Integration (UDDI)
►
Web Services Description Language (WSDL)
•
Have standard communication mechanisms
►
Enables interoperability of applications
►
►
Slide 56
Different languages
Different platforms
Web Services - What are they?
Consumers
.net Application
Java App
Others
SOAP
XML
WSDL
HTTP
Provider
Reality DataBasic
Application
Slide 57
Web Services - What are they?
Slide 58
Web Services - Why?
•
Key Business Drivers
►
Greater efficiency
►
►
Allows IT departments to grow organically by
hooking into third party software systems rather
than building from scratch.
Greater interoperability
►
Allows greater communication between
systems that would benefit from more
automation.
Dramatically reduces the #1 cost to IT
departments – Application Integration!
Slide 59
Web Services - Why?
Slide 60
•
Service Orientated Architecture market place
estimated at $43bn by 2010
•
We must allow you to work in a SOA
►
Expose existing applications as Web
Services
►
Calling Web Services
Web Services – Statistics (eBay)
•
•
•
•
Slide 61
As of December 2005, the eBay Developers
Program had more than 25,000 members who
created 1,900 live applications
Approximately 47% of eBay.com listings are
through eBay Web Services
►
Nearly 50% are from third-party developer
tools created by companies.
Q4 2005, the eBay Platform handled more
than 8 bln Web service requests
The number of eBay Web Services
transactions through APIs increased 84%
annually
Reality Web Services
•
Convergence of Northgate Technologies
•
Inbound
►
Ability to expose Reality DataBasic Subroutines as Web
Services
►
•
Outbound (future release)
►
Ability to call Web Services from within your Reality application
►
Slide 62
Very simple interface to create a web service.
DataBasic API – to call an external web service.
Reality Web Services Advantages
•
No Knowledge of Web Technologies required by developers
►
WSDL
►
XML
►
SOAP
►
HTTP/S
►
Slide 63
You focus on Business Rules and we do the plumbing!
Reality Web Services – In use today!
•
Challenge
►
The Northgate Integrated Incident Management Framework
integrates disparate control room applications into a single
user interface.
GIS
Control Room
Automatic Resource
Locations
Event
Management
Call Handling
Slide 64
Reality Web Services – In use today!
Slide 65
Reality Web Services – In use today!
•
Challenge
►
Reduce error rate of picking and packing exam papers
►
•
•
•
Slide 66
Integration with warehouse hand-held devices
Behaviour
►
Real-time
►
Fast response
►
Simple to implement
Target System
►
Handheld WiFi Barcode readers
Interface
►
Web Services
Reality Web Services – In use today!
Web
Service Call
CUP’s Reality
System
Slide 67
Wifi Access
Point
Barcoded Exam
Paper
Handheld Device
With Barcode
Reader
Reality Web Services Demo
•
•
•
Slide 68
Reality Web Services from Microsoft Office
►
Integrate your Reality applications into Office
Reality Web Services from Visual Studio .net
►
C#
See just how simple it is!
Reality XML Parser
Reality XML Parser
•
•
Slide 70
Numerous applications exchange information in XML format.
Reality supports an XML parser,
►
create XML
►
simple data extraction from an XML document using a query
template.
Reality XML Parser Example
XML Source
Document
XML Query
Result in
Attribute 1
Slide 71
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1" ?>
<server>
<miscellaneous>
<logfilespec>
<entry value="c:\tcpBridge.log" />
</logfilespec>
<maxconnections>
<entry value="20" />
</maxconnections>
</miscellaneous>
<control-service>
<service name="Control"port="5400" />
</control-service>
<services>
<service name="Time" port="5001" />
<service name="TimeL" port="5001"/>
<service name="Time" port="5002" />
<service name="MGate" port="5100" />
<service name="MGate" port="6100" />
</services>
<serial-ports>
<entry device="COM1" baud="38400"/>
</serial-ports>
</server>
<server>
<services>
<service port="5001" name="%1%" />
</services>
</server>
‘Time]TimeL’
Reality XML Parser Example
Slide 72
Reality XML Generator Example
XML Template
Source Data
Created XML
Document
Slide 73
<customer>
<name>\1\</name>
<address>\2\</address>
] <address>\3\</address>]
] <address>\4\</address>]
<postcode>\5\</postcode>
</customer>
“N Kelly^24 Some road^^^HP21 6NW”
<customer>
<name>N Kelly</name>
<address>24 Some road</address>
<postcode> HP21 6NW</postcode>
</customer>
Web Services & XML - Summary
•
•
•
•
Slide 74
What are they?
►
Technologies involved
►
Examples of them being used today
Why Web Services?
►
Making your services available to a wider audience
►
Greater efficiency
►
Greater interoperability
►
Reduced integration costs
►
Simplified Business communication protocols
Demo of Reality Web Services using C# to produce a GUI
application.
Reality’s XML capabilities
►
Parsing
►
Generating
Thank You
Questions?
Slide 75