21st Century Workloads Running the World with Workload Automation

21st Century Workloads
Running the World with Workload Automation
Robin Bloor, Partner
Carol Baroudi, Partner
A Hurwitz white Paper© Copyright 2006, Hurwitz & Associates
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the copyright holder. Hurwitz & Associates is the sole copyright owner of this publication.
? 330 Bear Hill Road, Suite 230 ? W a l t h a m, M A 0 2 4 51 ? T e l: 7 81-8 9 0-7 1 8 5 ? w w w . h u r w i t z . c o m
Hurwitz White Paper 21st Century Workloads
ll things that can be automated will be automated. Beyond the The multi-careful choreography of sophisticated workflow, managing myriad dimensional simultaneous requests puts unprecedented demand on the software aspects of tAhat must schedule and perpetually deliver against well-defined service levels, contemporary in real time. Gone are the days of simple batch processing. Welcome to the IT require job oh-so-very-flat world that is embracing service-oriented architectures, grid scheduling to architectures, expansive ecosystems, and end-to-end processing. Workload take a quantum scheduling has got to grow up. leap. Here's why...
Quantum SchedulingAs soon as multiple events need to happen at the same time, some precedence, some orchestration has to happen. Whether it's a traffic light or air traffic control or workload scheduling, the consequences of inadequate management are predictably disastrous. The concept of scheduling is not new to IT. Operating systems schedule, routers schedule, and traditional job scheduling programs schedule. However, the multi-dimensional aspects of contemporary IT require job scheduling to take a quantum leap. Here's why:
Introducing Service-Oriented Architecture: A job is not a job is not a job Enterprises have begun to recognize the rigidity and inefficiency of traditional applications silos and have begun movement toward service-oriented architecture. Traditional applications have a beginning, a middle and an end, and lend themselves very well to traditional job scheduling that can create and prioritize a job queue that understands when a job starts and when it stops. In the world of SOA, traditional applications are deconstructed, their core functionality exposed as services that recombine in countless ways in numerous composite applications. The concept of a discrete job begs redefinition. And the idea that a particular service, instantiated in multiple composite applications, could be subject to simultaneously different service level requirements is enough make an engine seize.
Introducing Grid Architecture and Virtualization: A resource is not a resource is not a resourceJust as SOA wreaks havoc with the concept of job, grid architectures and virtualization wreak havoc with the concept of resource. The jobs that need to be scheduled and the resources that need to be scheduled are two critical components of scheduling. Grid architectures pool resources to deliver
Hurwitz White Paper  21st Century Workloads
capacity beyond that available from individual resources. Virtualization ...the transition redefines, reallocates, and simulates resources. The concept of a resource from centralized being a fixed entity of known capacity, available or not available, is lost in both computing the world of virtualization and in grid architectures. Traditional job scheduling to highly doesn't take the newer definition of resource into account. distributed computing From Whence We Came has not taken away the need During the mainframe era, centralized job scheduling and job management for scheduling controlled the flow of tasks within highly structured environments. The early and job mainframe computers ran like factory production lines. The basic unit of management. work was a job, and the jobs stood in line waiting to get precious moments In fact, the need with the computer - when punch card readers would devour their data, and to schedule the computer validated, sorted, processed and probably printed the results tasks has of this particular job. This approach was driven by the fact that mainframe increased in re... [download for more]