(D)COM & ActiveX in Banking

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(D)COM &Act iveX in Bankingln roductionAs we fast approach the millmniuq banks are faced w i t h a dilemua.Theageo f electronic commerceo pmup new possihilitia, niw ways to reach thecustomer>n m mites o offer, and the potential tounderstandIh e custonm, corporateor p a s o r 4 as never bdore. Yet banks also find thmsclvcs wonderingwhetherthey ar e at a disadvantagc to intdlopm startixtg with a clean sheet Can today's majorb&ginstiWionsbe flmile and flcctof oot enough LO m s m d quickly tomidiet changcs, to mtmduce newp d m ast inresponse to changes m cus lo i i i a denmid? Establishedbanks havc an advantage m terms ofLheir acquired e x i a t i s c aad howledge of ULUcustomers, but facedwith ahailagcof dispnnte systems itcanprove hard to locate and orgbr:rlmr data to full advantage.A prolifccationof divami? ysremscanas0be espcnsive to maintainas well as m a b g t hard to take an entap isc-w ide viem of he business.Technology shouldbeai enabler for banks, assisting than to exploitthe age of e-commercc to &e full=nothu1di1~hem back and resnicting thcirability to actswiftly.To hi s end hqneed a systems architecturewluch g;vts themflexibilityto " f a c e easily with legacy databases and transaction systems, and withnew defveq channels as hey merge. Thispaper discusses how Microsoft and itspartnershme dqlayedcompelling componcnt-based solutions orheir customas enabling than losaw the mtmsecusiomerdemand for altcmative delivery ~hyme l~ ,hile taking full advantageof Wcistingsystems mfsaucnlre.

Using COM 8 DCOM to enable alternative delivery channels.Bsnks are facinginneasingprcssurefrom theircustomersto improve&e level of Sav i c e they OJTLT.Batdcsare also facing pressure from thcir shareholders to improve profirabiliry, Surprisingly,a siuglecome ofaction can at leastpartly satisly both of theser q u t e c l l a ~ . rovisionof allmlalive delivery channelsinthe form of telephonesnd online banking canborh improve customer s&ce and alleviate heneed tomaintain the immensely cxpmsivebranchnetwork on he skilc 10 whidi it ismainOined today.A s i e i icanxm o u n t of tcchnolog isrequiwd to supportthe dclivezy of tclcplionc and onlinebanking yetihc bank's uaditional operational systems. based on dumb tetmhals conncctcd to " n e cavi."ats,are unablc to m ea hese demands. luaddition, thedual spectmof thc Euro and the Yex 2000 areconsumingvast amoimts drilaiuframe developmentresource,making th e modifidion of hostcnvirOnments to supporL theseuew delivuy chann& =ai h s ikely.Banks ar e ituudore ~iiovhgo build the s y s t m s rcquiredfor their online andphone services onnavplatlorus tlut pmvids a diduted "front-cnd"to th e mainfrvneenvinmments. Thesc front-endsystemsprovide the bulk of the new unctionality rcquired.and COIIUUKI~GL~ withthehost t o retrieveand updatecustomer i a f b d o n . Many of these front-end systems are being built an op of Windows NT S m e r andam usingCOM and DCOM mensivdy as theirsoftwareintewontechnology.A typical systems zchit&ure for the dclivery of onlinc andphone banking couldbc described as mIn his architechire COM andDCOM are uscd as the pximiq software inregration Lcdu~olo@esnthecheatPC's and applicslion servers andbetween the m a d & m Wit make up th e 1* ad d i e r s inthi sarchitecture Fuahcr, developing crihcal business compoiients using COM/DCOMu h g n applicathservers allows developers TO build an abstraction l q c t whi& becomes ndepmdmtof he underlyinSsystems infrasnuchare, allowing formore flexibility for zhe future. It isalso impomtto note however thatwhilsL coniponentsoftware technologies play a key rolein h e delivery orsystem built uponthisarcl~ecturc,um?other system services ar e requircd t o ~ S I K Cila1&e systm performs adcquatdy M ~ J -of hese servlccs are ugldi&ted in th c r e s t ofthispap-.

diagram1.

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callCmke PC'S

Mid tier applicationservers

HostSystems -

What are COM,DCOM andAcfiveXBankkg producrsare changingand being mtroducedfarmore f!reqiimUytoday thanhasbeen typical hi thepast. As idormation s y s t e m becomc increasinglyccntral o the dcliveryof thcseproducts, it is mperativethat ihc developmentof such systems does notprevent timely deliveryof these products to the market. In anutsha n significantportionof software arrchitecture design inmbe ocusedon ixpfoving t h eproductiviQ of software dwclopers. Thc most@oTtant areas to coneatrate 011 are th e followin[;:-

SoFtwarere-use.- Eff ic ia t use of software tcams.Commcrrialwailiibiliy ofpre-bdt software.Good supportbymainstreamsoftware devdopment tools.The ComponcntObjectModel(COM)s fundammtdly a s o f t m m integration technology A sirrnificantaspect of COM s the model that forms i rSfoundation - t h i s modelprovidesfeatures t.lrildh-ectiysupportt h e abovc productivityimperatives.To adfieve software re-usc, it isnow accepted hat sortware designcrsmist focus on encapsulating lhcimplementationof softwarccomponenubehind well-dcsigned intufaces. COM duecUy supportsrllcnotion of 3n f a c e that cm be definedusing an InLaface DefmitionLanguage (IDL), or direct ly in8specific languagc (where thnlmguage canlainsan nterface specificationsyntax). Examplesof anguagesthathavean interface specification syntax areVisual Basic, Java or illaybe futlrrevasjons of C++ COhlIalso defines h e dea ofan object tha is the implementationofone 01more inrerfaccs. Tlus providesdesignastvhh afrimiliarahs t r x t i on (ie objaa oriented design)within which to erate systemsd e s b thatdirectly encourages h e re-use ofboth desigos and implementations.

Q 1997Microsoft Coxpondon

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Using software developen Crriciutly relies upon bcing able to create loosely couplcd sub-systemswhidrtcams canwork on jndcpmlrtuitly. This approach is facilitated by COM throughthe ability to ddmeinterfacesin aneulrii language (typically IDL) giving teams a common dcfintion o f at leastUie syntr+\:o fth e sub-syslcm i i tufacas. This trwbles hem o work on systcm design and the implementadon of thcircorrpuiieiitswithout having to understand thc intricacies of implement;ltion of e v e q componentm thesySten1.Howwcr, many people do not considerissuesrelated lo mmponent versioning and the independen1wohuon of componats that affect the teams dler release1. The ability tobe able t o reliably cvolve thefunctionality of sub-system components is crucial to the succcssfuloperation of a de-mupled developmentteammodcl. COM proxides thebasic infrastructuret o achicvc successful "penal volution,primrilyduc to h e ability ofCOM components to support mulliple distinct h t d a c c s , achofwhich i s uniquelyidentified. This allows new b b y componentsIO be integrated transparmtly into existing sysrems throughtheir SUP~OTLof exininginterfaces,whilst simultaneously supportingnew hterfaccs forh e evokedfunctionality of new systems.Comercial availability ofpre-built componentswillbe NI increasingly signif icant factorin our ability torapidly delivernw systems. COM rovides henecessary mfmlruae o enablc commacial sofhvarcsuppliersto build and supply binary componmts. Two parlicular issuesaffea commercialsupplicls.Firstly, m tams orcomnercialviability COM is supported aatively by Windows, iuakiufi it th e mostwidely deploved, Iangwgeneuual, componentmodel by several ordm of Iugutude. This isverysignificant ac ilpmvides cummcfcialsoftvare suppliaswith a large and weJl=undcrstoodmarkctfur thcirsof twrpc. Secondly,&e issucs of componentvers5mh.gand ndependent evolution areevcnmorc crit ialin a commercial markctplace where th e t a m s buildingandu i g omponeuts willbc unknownto eachorher. This m a c s the delivery ofuew versions o f binary components thatreliably support existingapplicalionscritical to thecoriuilcrual success of t he Componentvendor.Development 1001s lravc probablythe largest single -act cm our ability to deliver softwarein a timelymanner. COM s now supportedby themajorivof Windows d evelopm attools making t usable fromprogramming languagesranging fromObcron to Delphi An irnpomnt aspect of how easy 3 articularcomponat technoloa is to usc, is th e amount of d d i ~ o doiler-plate, code &at is rquircd to build acomponent in a dcvclopmentlanguage. In.paticuk, if the language already supports the notion ofobjects,idcally thc creation of componm objects shouldbe s e d e s s l y mtegmlcdinto the developmenttool torcduce he develope l&g curve. COM has a significant advantageover other languagenmtralcomponentmodels in&at it d e b s a binary standadfor th e layout of mterfaces. This allows developmenttools LD providefacilities o allow developen lo bypass th e m e o f TDL, avoiding th e nccd to leami n f i a s t r u m e and languagesotherthan thosc that area intrinsic part of &e languagethat they hme chosetito use. This s demonstratedvory effectivdyby the current versions of Microsofts Wsual Basic audVisual 3++DCOM (DiskibutcJ COW is he namedused to descnbcthe general-purposertxwtingprotocol built intoCOM.DCOM s ofim described asCOM with a longerwirc, 1UgldigMng thc factthat COMcomponentsc m e reinoted (executedon a differeritmclrine)without chanjjng a single linc of code ineither clientor server A key ssue m theprovision of complete ocalhemote msparcncy is the need Lo beable o oprimise the usc of 3 articular objectclassin hc m o t e case. An interface design thatworks wellwhere die componcnt implemenhg~e iuterface isloaded into the samcproccss as its client i n q notworkwell ifthat component is ona different m d n e rom its client. To handlethis, COM also provides theinfmmcturen e c e s s q to owa componcntto change th c rcmoling mechanism atrun-time. injecting asmmproxy into Lhc diaits address space to handlcthc cross machine imp1eauon of the nterfacemoreintelligently.ActivbX is a marketbg term used to dcsaibc technologies thatarebuiltupon COM Examples aPthese areActive Conmls and Active Docummts. Active Conuok are definedby a specificationthat describes theprotocol that must beadhad tob m e e n the conwl and ts contabcr. Thisprotocol is described in termsof COkl interfaces.

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Flexible Deployment configurations.Microsoftand onc of its parhers WE currenllyengaged in assistingOIIG of the largestUK clcaringbanks indevelopingits ncxt generation corporate clectronic banking senice. Tlie archfieme adopted is identicaltothat pic tur d above. T h e scrvice ishtendcd o pmt-ide a varieq 01differentcustomaofferings,mighgfrom a WcbBrowset fronted semicc or small cus~omc~shrougli tu a full Win32 application"hg t thecustomus site. On e of the mosf inkrestingand important archilectunl goals in th c development of thissystem is the design of components which are rcusable acm~sshefullm e f customer offeringsbuiltupon COM and DCOM technologies.In h e Web Brow sa fronted s&cq dl of he application logic is provided by compunents that run on thcWindowsNT applimtion c c n 7 e f s locatedin ffIC ank. Customas connect to abank hosted wcb smer toconductthcirbusiness ,and the wcb s em e r uuka rquests viaDCOM o &e applic&on componentstha~are distributed a m s s avariety of other servers to ensure a d q u a t e load balancing. InQe Windowsapplitatmiioffering,manyorhesmic cDolponmtsarc dqloped on h e customer's WindowsPC longwithalternativecomponentsthat supporta n o d Windows style qqdication interface.Tlus exampledemonsmites bv o key aspects ofCOM nd DCOM hat makethis tle~bility ossible.Fintly, COM components cini mn idcnrically in hree distina situations,in the sameprocess as he clientappliwtioqin a cliJIwent process on hc s a n e computer, and ona different coinputer. Secondly,bydowing the rqkicementof the rcmoting inlnstmchae, we arc able to create a customremohig layerbetveen cediin components that &low as to remote over HTI'PS (secureHIT? protoool) ratherthanthcstandard DCOM u4re protocol Thisallowsus to usc standard firewallmfl$graths and ake advantageof 12Sbit security.Mixed Ianguage programming modelDCOM is dcsigoed to provide a h p g e eubl progammhgmodel. In addition, mostcommercial'Ivindows softwaredevelopment oolscan build COM components, E;nsUringthemis awide selection oflanguages and .toolsthat can be us& tobnild DCOM componmls. Inmany of th c baukingdevelopmcnlsthat ar e currentyprogressing, specifjc choiceshave been Tiladeregardhgwhich languagesshould be usedb a e d on he trade-off betweeuskill availability andp d o m n c e of th e resultingqpkation.VisualBasic hasbeen chosen inmany situationsduc o the largc pool ofresourcc availablcand t h e m ewith which Vimal Basicd l o v s a developertobui l d DCOM components. There is currentlya smallperfommce diffscnce behvccn a V i s d Basic componcntand aVisual Ctc component,primarily due tothe call werheadinuoduced by h e VisualBasic runtime. H o w w e r itis important to put the performancediferencc nr0&e context ofdaveloperprodudvity, Ifthe choiceisbetwecn spending a few thousandprnmds exm on hardwae tu account for thcpcrformimce di f ference and shippmg the new savice sevrsd.months earlier,mod bads and theircustomers) would op t for earlierdelivq every time.Mission critical applicationsWhilst impoWL t h e basic dismibuted objecthfmhudureprovides only a smallpart orUie o v d upporTrequired Lo build highly scalable and reliable a p p l i u t i ~ . ince he introduction o f dieMicrosoftlkims;ictiofi S e w s@ITS), many DCOM based development p mjem have atiliscd llie facilities providedby MTS to simplify thc dcvelopInent of the application. h4TS provides twokcy additionalpieccs ofh m c n u c oDCOM; set\" resourcemanagement amd mplicit Innsaclionsuppmo n l i n eb m g pplicauons ncedtobc abletomanage high tr-Jxlsadon valumesrclisbly.Buildinghighlyscahbk applicationsr q u h he us c of ignificantm o u n t s of drastrucblrein hc form ofrquest p ~ k ,thrcadpools and general resource rnanagemenr MTS provides this additional infr;lstrume for he DCOMdmdopa, alleviatingthe need for an application developer lo wony aboutthrcadjng or resomccman3ggement, leiwing ust the ap-plimtion ogic o be c o d d .Anotlm equally importanl aspect of onlint banking applications is thcneed for tIiem to suffer failuregmcefully. Due t o thcclistribvted nature of he cypiml achitecturcbeing dis~~ssed,here ar c a nnichWge~

Q 1937 Microsoft Corporation

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numb= ofpossiblefdw casestransaction support, ensuring that, inthe case of ailure, ap p l id o n code docs notneed to be wrhten toidentify and perform data clcan-up- all modifications to pmsistentdaupdormed within thc aansactiunwill automaticallybe rolled hack by dieDisaiutedTrasaction Coordinator (pan ofMTS). The DTC usesindustry standard protocols to m.mage transaction wordination includingXA andOLE Transactions.By providing transpwcnt support for sewer raouce "agemm and "actions, MTS emoves B majorburden from developm, allowingthem to wiicmtrate on thc creation of th e applicationlogic that isrequiredto slippart rbeirbusmess. "hePauiciaSeybold group estimates that appmdmately 40%ofThedevelopmentefhn involvedinbuilding swer applications is spent building the basic inlhistnicnue -usingW S ould allow that t jm~Obe spent on building &e real application logic so hpmving developerproductiwry and tixneto-market.

have o hcl I~andled.MTS mvidesDCOM componemwithmplicit

Anaher aspect of blTSmostaimsaction systans is coordinating hc scopeof he transaction and participation (or not) of eachcomponent - l is problem isespecially real when some ofdie componentshavebeen purchascdfromexternal suppliers. ElTS resohrcs this issueby mcrrpsdatrmsa&on semantics as part of &eimplclueutation of an ndividualcomponat,removing th e need forany onc componwll t o be responsibleforcommittingor rollingbn& th e entire transacfion. This m m hatcomponentsbuilt in camplacisolatianfromeach other c a nparticipatem oordinated andrcliable ransactions- uite aboon orcomponentreusc

deserves amentionisits support for " p o x " re-usc. A major issue wiUl

Host integrationMostbanks still runtheirmainaccounringapplica~onsnCICS OTIMSbased " m e systems. Goodhon integration is thereforev i ta l to the sicccSsfJ dclivecy of systems to mpponnew b&g delivcrychannels. MicrosoftTransaction S e n m allowsDCOM omponents to invoke CICS1u.Is tmsactionsv iaCOM stubs thaz are gmerated auLonlabca3lyusing a Wizard dwclopmcnttool. T h i s pn- idesapplicarimdevelopas with P"manprogrammingmodel, COM, to cambincboth Widows and mainfiwnetransactions into a singleatomicpiece ofworkIn addition to theuse of CICS/IMS musactiom,IBM is working to provideanXA compliamODBC riverlor DB2 .and Microsoft are dose IO shippmganOLE-DB river forflatVSAM AS/400 iles-providingmore allerrdves for hostdau in tegrat imAnorher important areafor host integation ismessagirY technology. TheMicrosoftMessage Qucue(MSMQ)gab d e s se of COM to intepte a messagingMI n to the scwicesprovided Tor iuid-tierapplicationdwdopers. Thismcsaging queue is also integratedvk OLETransactionswiW4"S me3ningthat an y mcssagequeue updatcs c m al sopanicipdein a coordinated transaction. Many customers arerunning IBM's MQ eries on heirhost arvi ronmentsandv i a an MQSeries gatway developed byLcvel SCoztyuting, messrtgcsw&en to aMSMQ smercmW thek way on o th e niah&amc.Finally Software AG arerapidly completing their pons of DCOM onto other pldforms whichwill include09390, ig$.aI Unix, HP/UX, Solaris, Theseports arebdngaaivdy evaluatedbymnnybanks as a wayofpmvidingan exaemcly flexiblehost integration technology.

SecurityDCOM s e d @ alls into WO differcn~ ps , Intr;meLsecurity and IntunetseaEily.Xntmnet s&Q iswell c t c r cdform the existing DCOM nfrastructurethroughits useo f stmdzudWindowsFTLM challengeresponsc mthenticatioiiprotocol and RC4 encryption for messageprivacy.This llfraSt"1Te pmcicles for fully aul-hairicatedand plivalc DCOM callsin all env4roment.s supportedby DCOM hcludingWindows and hc other platforms supportedby Soflware AG. Within an enterpriseenvbnment,hom s e a 5 ntegr-on s pmvided vis die CICS/LNS Megration componwtswithin MTS.

0 997Minosof t Corporation

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This tcclmology uses SNA (via SNA Sever) t o co1111riu1~c3tewith the host etn%'"en2s and through thisgains the Tullhost security integmtionprovided by SN A Server.Full Internet se&@ will be cnabledv i3 t h e usc o f SSL o secmeDCOM calls, allowing3point lopointmutual authmticationvia piiblic key certif~calcs Authorisation controlwill also be enabled through thcability to map cErtificatcs IO certainNT user and group accounts. Thiswill provide a scalablean ds t~~dardisedechnnism to controlaccess fo rpcople that ar e not givennandN T domain accounts. WhilestandardsDCOMSSL kegration is not yet available, hc custommarshallingk J k s t n i c t u r e canbe used ioimplemcat a completely custom reiuoting layer that does use SSL.

ConclusionDistributed object coiuputing is a kcq cnobliylgtechnology or true clistribured systems. CObVDCOMprovides an elegant$ simple, yetpowerful object model that can be used o c rate distributed object basedsystems. DCOM upports the fuadamentalrecpikementsof languageneutrality, locatiou lxansparency,coinponcntvmioiringand ndcpcndentwolutionnecessary in a robust, commerLd objccrtechnology.Within Windows, COM (md DCOM) e used asrhepriacipal sofiware integatiou lechnologyusd toexpose all oZ the hsmbutcd senices, so ensuringaUaifompmgramming model for dcvelopcrs,reducingt h e 1e;inhq c u r v e WithinWindows COh4 andDCOM are supportcdby a variety of othctsenices h t rcbeingused today to deliwrmissioncriticalapplicatiollsin he banking hldustry.

Q 1997Mjausoft Corporation

216Authorized licensed use limited to: G H Raisoni College of Engineering. Downloaded on October 8, 2009 at 06:48 from IEEE Xplore. Restrictions apply.

(D)COM & ActiveX in Banking

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