Mike Walker's Blog

Microsoft Azure Services Platform

Another announcement at PDC today from Ray Ozzie was the Azure Services Platform. This is an Internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers, which provides an operating system and a set of developer services that can be used individually or together. Azure’s flexible and interoperable platform can be used to build new applications to run from the cloud or enhance existing applications with cloud-based capabilities. Its open architecture gives developers the choice to build web applications, applications running on connected devices, PCs, servers, or hybrid solutions offering the best of online and on-premises.

Key components of the Azure Services Platform include the following:

• Windows Azure for service hosting and management, low-level scalable storage, computation and networking
• Microsoft SQL Services for a wide range of database services and reporting
• Microsoft .NET Services which are service-based implementations of familiar .NET Framework concepts such as workflow and access control
• Live Services for a consistent way for users to store, share and synchronize documents, photos, files and information across their PCs, phones, PC applications and Web sites
• Microsoft SharePoint Services and Microsoft Dynamics CRM Services for business content, collaboration and rapid solution development in the cloud

Windows Azure is a cloud services operating system that serves as the development, service hosting and service management environment for the Azure Services Platform. Windows Azure provides developers with on-demand compute and storage to host, scale, and manage internet or cloud applications. Windows Azure supports a consistent development experience through its integration with Visual Studio. In the early stages of CTP, .NET managed applications built using Visual Studio will be supported. Windows Azure is an open platform that will support both Microsoft and non-Microsoft languages and environments. Windows Azure welcomes third party tools and languages such as Eclipse, Ruby, PHP, and Python. This further solidifies Microsoft's wiliness to open up the developer platform.

As you can see below, the Azure Services Platform aligns quite well with the Microsoft vision of Software-plus-Services and overall services strategy by offering customers, developers, and businesses a transformation in connecting devices, business, productivity, and software. Azure provides the backbone for Microsoft's cloud based computing platform.

Azure is a platform that will complement your existing IT environments or data centers by providing services in the cloud. the cloud based processing runs in Microsoft's data centers and is optimized for cloud computing scenarios. You may be asking, "will Microsoft continue to innovate and invest in Server products"? Of course, the Windows Server tram addressed this right away on the Windows Server blog. They say:

We will continue to innovate and ship Windows Server for both on-premise application and infrastructure scenarios and will ensure that customers continue to have choice in choosing the platform that best meets their need, whether on-premise or in the cloud. - Bill Hilf, General Manager, Windows Server

http://blogs.technet.com/windowsserver/archive/2008/10/27/pdc-2008-azure-services-platform-and-windows-server.aspx

 

Overview Video

If you want some more information there are some initial source out there:

• Azure Services Home Page
• Azure's Customer Technology Preview
• Issues and Constraints of Azure (MSDN)
• Demo videos
• Frequently Asked Questions
• PC Magazine Coverage
• Windows Server blog

 

Technorati Tags: Cloud,Azure,S+S,Services,Cloud Computing,SaaS,Datacenter

Loan Origination Reference Architecture v.2.0 Source

Many have asked for source code to the Loan Origination Reference Architecture and now it's on CodePlex.

Source Code

http://www.codeplex.com/los/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx?ReleaseId=15173

Home Page

http://msdn.microsoft.com/architecture/orlos

New Financial Components Released for Insurance and Capital Markets

   

 

Claims Processing Reference Architecture

Claims Processing Reference Architecture provides quality services in the field of Auto Insurance Claims Processing however these components can be leveraged for other forms of claims processing such as: Home, Medical, Mortgage, and other general claims processing services to work on behalf of clients for better advanced services. Today, global insurance industry is facing a challenge to provide cutting edge services and value added customer experience coupled with faster response time and easily adaptable services. Like with the other Financial Services architectures released, this reference architecture leverages the ACORD standard throughout. This insurance interoperability with both Commercial Off The Shelf (COTS) and custom built applications in your enterprise.

 

Shown above is the flow and business process demonstrated in the reference architecture. There are multiple personas involved from third parties, agents and internal personal such as various underwriters.

All of this workflow is managed from Windows Workflow Foundation (WF) and uses various technologies to implement.

Demo

 

Get the code and the binary installers: Claims Processing Reference Architecture

 

Capital Markets Structured Product Creation

This reference architecture addresses the space of structured product creation.  This is unique and complex process in capital markets. This is due largely to non standardization and isn't often like anything the bank is already trading. This presents a problem in that these types of deals are unlikely to be captured in a core trading system immediately.

Below is an illustration of the process captured from the creation of the product to selling and finally managing that product.

Demo

 

Get the code and the binary installers: Capital Markets Reference Architecture

 

Refreshed Installers Available

1. Broker Commissions Reference Architecture
2. Loan Origination Reference Architecture
3. Online Banking Reference Architecture

 

Get the code and the binary installers: Claims Processing Reference Architecture

 

Capital Markets Structured Product Creation

This reference architecture addresses the space of structured product creation.  This is unique and complex process in capital markets. This is due largely to non standardization and isn't often like anything the bank is already trading. This presents a problem in that these types of deals are unlikely to be captured in a core trading system immediately.

Below is an illustration of the process captured from the creation of the product to selling and finally managing that product.

Demo

 

Get the code and the binary installers: Capital Markets Reference Architecture

 

Refreshed Installers Available

1. Broker Commissions Reference Architecture
2. Loan Origination Reference Architecture
3. Online Banking Reference Architecture

 

Get the code and the binary installers: Claims Processing Reference Architecture

 

Capital Markets Structured Product Creation

This reference architecture addresses the space of structured product creation.  This is unique and complex process in capital markets. This is due largely to non standardization and isn't often like anything the bank is already trading. This presents a problem in that these types of deals are unlikely to be captured in a core trading system immediately.

Below is an illustration of the process captured from the creation of the product to selling and finally managing that product.

Demo

 

Get the code and the binary installers: Capital Markets Reference Architecture

 

Refreshed Installers Available

1. Broker Commissions Reference Architecture
2. Loan Origination Reference Architecture
3. Online Banking Reference Architecture

 

Get the code and the binary installers: Claims Processing Reference Architecture

 

Capital Markets Structured Product Creation

This reference architecture addresses the space of structured product creation.  This is unique and complex process in capital markets. This is due largely to non standardization and isn't often like anything the bank is already trading. This presents a problem in that these types of deals are unlikely to be captured in a core trading system immediately.

Below is an illustration of the process captured from the creation of the product to selling and finally managing that product.

Demo

 

Get the code and the binary installers: Capital Markets Reference Architecture

 

Refreshed Installers Available

1. Broker Commissions Reference Architecture
2. Loan Origination Reference Architecture
3. Online Banking Reference Architecture

Updates to the Financial Services Component Library

Hello everyone! More news on the Financial Services Component Library front.  I have developed a series of videos that give a solution overview. These are helpful for those that want to see these components in action before downloading.

There have also been updates to the source code and the MSI installers.

Links

See below for links to the projects:

• ACORD Software Factory (insurance messaging framework)
• Broker Commissions Reference Architecture
• Capital Markets
• Claims
• Insurance Rating
• Life Insurance Reference Architecture
• Loan Origination Reference Architecture
• Online Banking Reference Architecture

Videos

Videos of the components have been uploaded as well:

Broker Commissions

Video: Broker Commissions Reference Architecture

Life Insurance

Video: Life Insurance Reference Architecture

Online Banking

Video: Online Banking Reference Architecture

Life Insurance

Video: Life Insurance Reference Architecture

Online Banking

Video: Online Banking Reference Architecture

Life Insurance

Video: Life Insurance Reference Architecture

Online Banking

Video: Online Banking Reference Architecture

Life Insurance

Video: Life Insurance Reference Architecture

Online Banking

Video: Online Banking Reference Architecture

Presentation: Changing the Face of Banking Development

It's amazing how many e-mails I have received so far about sharing my presentation. So instead of sending to a few people I would like to share it with all of you. Keep in mind that with any presentation the deck is just a tool for communicating, I usually talk to a slide and not really follow bullet point. Also, with the publishing process the demos can't be seen, some of the animations broke and there is no voice over. This should give you a better feel for the presentation though.

| View | Upload your own

Partner talks about the business impact of OBA

Dataract CEO Craig van Zeyl discusses how SharePoint has impacted his company. Craig alludes to how his company had made a fundamental change in their technology platform to completely retool on the SharePoint architecture. He also discusses our collaboration and his adoption of Financial Services Component Library in there product offerings.

Video: Dataract adoption of Financial Services Component Library

Check it out!

Check it out!

Check it out!

Insurance Messaging Framework Available

Last year I mentioned we had an Insurance Messaging Framework that focused specifically on the integration issues in insurance. Well we finally have released the bits to the public on CodePlex. In this early release of the reference framework it that allows you to dynamically create ACORD based messages to integrate into your .Net projects.

A big thank you goes out to Colin Cole from our US based insurance group who had created this framework. Colin will be showing this off at the Financial Services Developer Conference next week in NYC.

The framework provides a unique architectural approach to accomplishing this business need by abstracting the complexity. While this approach is appealing and have been attempted, they usually fails because people don’t know where to start, due the size of it’s scope, mistake prone and mistakes are expensive, usually involves a lot of foundational work that are not directly related to meeting the business needs (e.g.: using ACORD to design systems), etc. The uniqueness of our approach is we enable jump starting and organic evolution towards alignment by providing a rich set of assets/artifacts that align with industry models (e.g.: alignment to Motion insurance model) and semantic definitions (ACORD standards). We can abstract the many different policy administration system into a set of service that we can consistently use for business process composition.

Below is just a fraction of what is delivered in the framework:

 

To sweeten the pot, we have even included SDK-like help files that will allow you to navigate the framework with ease.

 

For more details look on the CodePlex and MSDN Architecture Center sites.

• http://www.codeplex.com/imf 
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/FinServArch

Financial Services Component Library Downloads

You may of seen my post announcing the Financial Services OBA Component Library. If you did you were most likely wondering when and where the code was going to be released. Due to a small issue on the code publishing side these were a little delayed. But don't fret, we have them uploaded now on CodePlex:

• Broker Commissions Reference Architecture
• Life Insurance Reference Architecture
• Loan Origination Reference Architecture
• Online Banking Reference Architecture

You will find several materials on the site including:

• Source Code
• Binaries Installers
• Installer Help Files

If you at the Financial Services Developer conference in New York we will be showing these architectures.

More coming reference architecture coming shortly!

Loan Origination Reference Architecture Version 2

I announced at the Office Developers Conference 2008 the release of the Loan Origination Reference Architecture version 2. Like the previous version, this reference architecture shows architects and developers how to bridge OBA technologies with transactional service oriented systems such as BizTalk.

The Loan Origination Reference Architecture shows how to build architectures that unify people, process and technology through familiar Office 2007 user interfaces. It includes an architecture framework for lending with an Office Business Application based scenario and BizTalk “MISMO” Accelerator for the loan origination process in banking. OBAs are an emerging class of business applications that connect existing line-of-business (LOB) systems with the people that use them every day through the familiar user interface of Microsoft Office, bridging the gap between how business process systems work, and how people work. OR-LOS will help customers simplify document management, increase integrated workflow, improve efficiency and ultimately lower time-to-market offering for faster turn-around and reduced cost.

Solutions that leverage the OR-LOS have the following benefits:

• Empowers Business Users to make informed lending decisions
• Using familiar Office tools for common business tasks (e.g., Outlook or Excel)
• Provided with a extensible lending platform that will reduce the development cycle
• Lending technology consolidation strategies can be derived
• Interoperable Lending Platform through BizTalk MISMO Accelerator
• Rich collaboration platform

 

Summary of Additions

• New Instant Messaging OCS Integration for Broker and Loan Processor collaboration
• A new set of five Excel based Mortgage Calculators
• More Content Management
• Real-World Patterns for ECM
• 2 New Business Intelligence Reports
• New 1003 FannieMae v.3.2 based InfoPath form
• InfoPath Quick Registration Enhancements including:
• Enhance Look and Feel
• Surfacing Workflow Steps
• MLS Integration using the RETS standard for an S+S example.
• Add Data Elements to conform to the industry standard 1003 Form
• New OpenXML Document Generation of Loan Documents Includes an example of generation of the Good Faith Estimate

 

Last month Gartner releases whitepaper entitled “Banks Must Redesign Their Lending Architecture”. The guidance is very similar to the guidance in the Loan Origination Reference Architecture.

Be sure to check it out.

 

 

 

 

 

Links for downloads of the source code will be made available soon.

Financial Services OBA Component Library

At the Office Developers Conference this week I announced the release of the Financial Services OBA Component Library. The Financial Services OBA Component Library is a comprehensive set of OBA components that span across key areas in the Banking, Insurance and Capital Markets industries. The components are built in a composite way. This enables customers to assemble OBA components into existing or new business processes.

There are three things you need to know about the Financial Services OBA Component Library:

• First, these components are built as composite OBA components. This makes these components composable in a mash-ups fashion. Since the components are driven by industry scenarios they address discrete areas of functionality in financial services business processes.
  • An example of this is a web part that is a 360 portfolio view of a insurance customer(shown in the screenshot above). Since this component is built in a composite manner, this component can be exposed across many different technology implementations (thick or thin client) OR business implementations (can be used in various other scenarios using the component as is but changing the systems it integrates to).  The Silverlight component is exposed as a web part in MOSS, the information is retrieved from the Business Data Catalog and the process is enabled by WF.
• Second, these components fit into an end to end set of business capabilities and processes. The Loan Origination Reference Architecture is a result of mashing-up a set of components that demonstrates not only the value of OBA but how OBAs can transform the business process.
• Third, components are all built on industry standards which makes these interoperable not only at the protocol level but at the business process level. These components break down the classic interoperability barriers. OBAs show customers new integration patterns and new uses of LOB information.

What are the scenarios?

Banking

• Lending Reference Architecture
• Online Banking
• Broker Commissions

Insurance

• Insurance Claims Processing (Coming in March)
• Insurance Channel Sales (Coming in March)
• Life and Annuity Components

Capital Markets (Coming in March)

• Create Structured Products Scenario
• Excel OpenXML

 

The library will include approximately 90+ OBA Components for Financial Services. Below is a list of the technology components that comprises the component library.

      

What is included?

1. Site Templates
2. Master Pages
3. Silverlight Components
4. Web Parts
   1. BDC Web Parts
   2. Extending Enterprise Content Management Web Parts
5. Industry Standards based Infopath Forms
6. Document Generation Framework
7. Custom XML based OpenXML Documents (Excel/Word)
8. State Machine WF Workflows
9. Series of standards based integration BDC Entities
10. WS-* enabled ACORD Web Services Messages
11. Office Communications Server Components

 

Over the coming months you will see more content and additional Financial Services scenarios. Keep an eye out for these additional materials:

1. MSDN Articles and Architecture Guidance
2. Source code will be provided for free
3. How To Articles
4. Scenario based Hands On Labs
5. MSDN Virtual Lab
6. Content can be found on:
   1. Microsoft Connect - http://connect.microsoft.com
   2. Financial Services Architecture Center - http://msdn.microsoft.com/FinServArch
   3. My Blog (of course) - http://blogs.msdn.com/MikeWalker

When will it be released?

We will be rolling out guidance, source code and installable packages over the coming weeks. Keep an eye out on the MSDN Financial Services Architecture Portal.