SOA, Virtualization and Grid ComputingSOA, Virtualization and Grid ComputingDo They Guarantee Agility or a Reduction in Do They Guarantee Agility or a Reduction in

IT Complexity IT Complexity

Frank EnfantoVice President, Healthcare Systems Delivery

Blue Cross Blue Shield, Massachusetts

About BCBS of Massachusetts

• Based in Boston

• Largest health insurance provider in the state

• 2.9 million members

• 17,000+ participating physicians

• 4000+ employees

• Rated 1 of the 5 best US health plans by National Committee for Quality Assurance

• Founded in 1937

IT Agility

• What is IT Agility?• What does it mean to me?• What do I need to achieve it?• What do I do first?• What products do I buy?• How do I know when I have achieved it?• Will it reduce IT Complexity?

Business Challenges• Cost Control

Provide resources for members/patients that help them become more proactive about healthcare and minimize need for medical treatment

Keep IT/development costs in check• Time to market

Deliver applications and new features faster to support members/patients, providers and other constituencies

• ScalabilityStable business platform to support growthFlexible horizontal capacity (i.e., hardware) to

enable efficient and rapid scalability rather than building out many vertical silos

BCBSMA Approach

• Evaluate Ability to Respond• Biggest Need• Create a Roadmap• Develop a Plan• Take Advantage of Everything

Agile Infrastructure

• Initiated 2 years ago• Moved from an infrastructure that was

vertical and monolithic to that is more agile horizontal

• Created a mindset and a new way of thinking

Challenges

• Architecture Completely Vertical• Budget Constraints• Cultural Concerns• Replacement not a Consolidation

Results

• Agile/Horizontal Infrastructure• New DR/BC Capabilities• 3 Year Mandatory Funding• ILM Strategy• Business/Finance/Governance

Advocates• Created a Mindset

LDAP DataReplicatedwith Plano

Sun WebServer 6.0

Cisco CS11000(Managed by BCBSMA)

BCBSMA Enterprise Production Environment (Boston)

LoadBalancingFirewalls

WebServers

ApplicationClusters

DatabaseServers

DirectoryStores

IdentityServices

Sun LDAP Directory Server 5.2

Sun IdentityServer 6.1

BEA WebLogic 8.1(Java JDK 1.4)

Oracle 9i

Unallocated

BEA WebLogic8.1

Oracle 9i

DOM 1

DOM 2

DOM 3

DOM 4

CustomApplications

Oracle 9i

BEA WebLogic8.1

CustomApplications

DOM 1

DOM 2

DOM 3

DOM 4

Oracle 9i

Unallocated

BEA WebLogic8.1

Oracle 9i

DOM 2

DOM 3

DOM 4

DOM 1

LegacyConnect

ContentMgmt Interwoven

Teamsite 6.0

SeeBeyond andMQ Series Server

Why SOA

• Reusability Minimize risk

Eliminate need to reinvent the wheel on every project

Reduce development and integration workload

• Business agility Abstraction layer to simplify and accelerate change

Process orchestration to maximize productivity

Elimination of data and application silos

• Cost-effectiveness Extend lifecycle of older IT assets

Faster time to market = lower opportunity cost

IT able to tackle many small, discreet projects rather a few large, monolithic projects

SOA Approach

• Assess current capabilities (From an SOA maturity perspective)

• Identify gaps in capabilities and barriers/obstacles hindering adoption

• Develop and implement action plans and initiatives to close the gap and eliminate the barriers/obstacles

Focus of Assessment

PracticePlatform

People ProcessWho - Cultural Change,

Training, EducationWhat – Core Business

Processes, Business Capabilities

How – Best Practices, Solutions, Frameworks,

Blueprints

Where - Development/Deployment/

Mgmt. Infrastructure(Software, Hardware)

SOA

Assessment Approach

ImplementTransformation

Develop SOARecommendations

and action plan

Identify Gaps& Barriers

Discovery

Assess process

Assess Practice

Assess People

Assess Platform

Monitor – Review - Adapt

Gap Analysis Focus Areas

PracticePlatform

People Process

SOA

Leadership& Guidance

Organization& Culture Training &

Mentoring

ServiceMgmt &

Monitoring

MiddlewareESB JBI

CompositeApplication

Mgmt

Security & Identity Mgmt

Shared Framework

ComputePlatform

ChannelManagement

BusinessServices

Businessprocess

DomainModel

InfrastructureServices

Modernization

Plan

SOAAdoption Strategy

SOA SDLCMethodology

SOA Reference

Architecture

SOA Governance

Project Delivery

Assurance

= Priority area of focus

P

P

P

P P

P

Assessment Criteria

• Who

• What

• Deliverables

BCBSMA Reference SOA

Key Components to Success

• Educate Everyone• Define Roles and Skill Sets• Executive Sponsorship• Build into SDLC and Funding Process• Clear Deliverables• Iterative Process • Effective Governance Model

Next Steps

• Finish Assessments• Integrate with Current Processes• Complete Roadmap • Complete Reference Architecture• Identify Opportunities• Keep Moving Forward

Virtualization - Why

• Consolidation – Reduces Footprint• Optimizes Server Resources• Improves Reliability & Serviceability• Potentially Reduces Platforms• Reduces New Server Deployments• Cost Savings

Virtualization at BCBSMA

• Resource Utilization• Configuration Flexibility• Scalability• File and Print• Network Monitoring

Grid Computing

• No Direct Experience

• Don’t see a need for BCBSMA

• Purchase as a Utility

Realizations

• Can’t Buy IT Agility• SOA, Virtualization, Grid – Tools• No Silver Bullets• Educational & Iterative Process• Not Just What to Deploy But How and

Where to Deploy• IT Agility Is Attainable