Software Confederation - An Architecture for Global Systems and Global Management

Abstract

Many (especially the large) software systems tend to be virtual peer-to-peer (P2P) networks of permanent autonomous services (e.g., e-government should be supported by the network of information systems of individual offices). The services are loosely coupled, a service can join/leave the system quite easily. We call such networks software confederation (SWC). The paradigm of the SWC is orthogonal to the paradigm of the object-oriented methodology. The architecture of SWC is an engineering necessity in the case of global or very large information systems (IS) and provides many software engineering advantages like incremental development, openness, modifiability, maintainability, etc. SWC is a necessity in many other cases. SWC supports the trend of large enterprises or modern states to be decentralized, dynamic, and able to work in the time of globalization. Software confederations are the result of the tendency to globalization, and at the same time, the tool allowing of implementation of IS for a globalized society. SWC changes basic features of a CEO’s work as well as a CIO’s. In both cases, it supports the decentralization. This paper discusses the motivation of software confederations, the techniques of their design and implementation, including the use of XML (inclusive SOAP-UDDI), their software engineering advantages, relation to object-oriented technology and methodological consequences of their use. The main conclusion is that the concept of SWC is the crucial for the future software and information technologies and substantially changes the management tasks of the CIO and CEO.