Data-Oriented Architecture: A Loosely-Coupled Real-Time SOA

The growing popularity of cheap and widespread data collection “edge” devices and the easy access to communication networks (both wired and wireless) is weaving in more devices and systems into the fabric of our daily lives. As computation and storage costs continue to drop faster than network costs, the trend is to move data and computation locally, using data distribution technology to move data between the nodes as and when needed. As a result, the quantity of data, the scale of its distribution and the complexity integration is growing at a rapid pace.

The demands on the next generation of distributed systems and systems-of systems include being able to support dynamically changing environments and configurations, being constantly available, and being instantly responsive, while integrating data across many platforms and disparate systems.

How does one systematically approach the design of such systems and systems-of- systems? What are the common unifying traits that can be exploited by architects to build systems that can integrate with other independently systems, and yet preserve the flexibility to evolve incrementally? How does one build systems that can be self aware and self-healing, and dynamically adapt to changes in their environment? Can this be done on the scale of the Internet, and yet be optimized for the best performance that can be supported by the underlying hardware and platform infrastructure? Can this be done without magnifying the ongoing operational and administrative costs?

These and related topics are the subject of this paper.