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$pageTitle = "CloudFree Commerce Platform Proposal"; | |
$pageKeywords = "cloudfree, commerce, platform, osgi, equinox, project, proposal"; | |
$pageAuthor = "Gunnar Wagenknecht, AGETO Service GmbH"; | |
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<h1>CloudFree Commerce Platform</h1> | |
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<p> | |
This project proposal is in the | |
<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/org/documents/Eclipse%20Development%20Process%202003_11_09%20FINAL.pdf">Proposal Phase</a> | |
and is posted here to solicit community feedback, additional project | |
participation, and ways the project can be leveraged from the Eclipse | |
membership-at-large. You are invited to comment on and/or join the project. | |
Please send all feedback to the | |
<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/newsportal/thread.php?group=eclipse.cloudfree" title="eclipse.cloudfree newsgroup">eclipse.cloudfree newsgroup</a>. | |
</p> | |
<h2>Background</h2> | |
<p> | |
E-commerce has become an integral part of todays ecosystem and is | |
material to many organizations businesses. It is one of the fastest | |
growing sectors in the Internet. More and more organizations | |
(manufacturers, retailers, education, travel and many others) are looking | |
at e-commerce as a cost effective and reliable channel to sell goods and | |
services to businesses and consumers. Unlike a few years ago, the | |
e-commerce initiatives are no longer seen as side track or pilots. As | |
the Internet usage grows exponentially with increasing bandwidths and | |
more and more Internet enabled devices, the development of integrated, | |
extendable e-commerce platforms is becoming critical to future growth | |
for any organization. This includes not only traditional business, but | |
also public organizations and governments, any educational organization, | |
or even charity. Everywhere an Internet transaction is performed, it is | |
safe to talk about "e-commerce" now. | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
While the past adoption of e-commerce was determined by the | |
availability of "on-premise", proprietary software solutions developed | |
by a handful software vendors, todays vendor landscape looks different: | |
It spans from low end, easy to deploy yet inflexible open source | |
solutions to ISP based "SaaS" offerings. Which seems to be good a good | |
fit for some user groups is certainly a thread for others who want to | |
explore new business opportunities outside of their vendor's radar. | |
Coming from such a background, we recognize the need for a dynamic, | |
flexible and extensible platform which is capable of hosting e-commerce | |
sites varying from a few to thousands of visitors and transactions per | |
day. Flexibility and extensibility in today's e-commerce depends on a | |
software vendor's roadmap, which is often determined by "the least | |
common denominator" of potential users. Quick, unconditional | |
provisioning of new features, feature updates or custom extensions | |
- preferably with zero downtime - is hard to find. | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
Organizations who seek new, competitive e-commerce processes do | |
experience that adopting e-commerce is not as easy as download, unzip | |
and run. Besides sticking to the vendor's product strategy and having to | |
pay extensive maintenance fees, many custom requirements can be | |
integrated by finding a compromise between the software vendor's feature | |
roadmap and their own requirements. Having said this, if organizations want to | |
leverage the R&D efforts and development of current e-commerce | |
vendors of any kind, they will certainly accept these compromises. But | |
organizations who want to explore innovative e-commerce initiatives and | |
at the same time rely on standardized components supported by a large | |
user group will barely find a solution today. They have to develop for | |
themselves a custom and proprietary solution which has high | |
maintenance efforts and will be constrained by high ongoing development | |
efforts. | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
While we have discussed the different user groups, also the bespoken | |
software vendors are struggling with legacy platforms which are hard to | |
maintain, extend and customize. Seeking a new technology platform to | |
develop a product offering, whether it is SaaS or on-premise, is a | |
gamble. What is the hottest technology today, can be outdated tomorrow. | |
Technology platform vendors coming and going and what seems to be a wide | |
choice is finally a selection between a couple of big software vendors | |
with very high fees, slow feature adoption and no interest in | |
e-commerce vendor specific needs. There is a development environment | |
needed, which allows e-commerce software vendors to develop their own suites | |
of products for their client base, combining it with other | |
technology and providing the right "runtime" environment for custom | |
development, high performance and scalability with low cost operations | |
and maintenance. | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
The Equinox Runtime provides a highly dynamic environment for building | |
component oriented applications. Equinox and CODA (Component Oriented | |
Development and Assembly) is a proven component model which is also | |
perfectly suited for building flexible, dynamic and extensible | |
enterprise solutions. We therefore aim to bring this model into the | |
e-commerce domain. E-commerce has been and still is one of the fastest | |
growing sectors in the Internet. | |
</p> | |
<h2>Description</h2> | |
<p> | |
The CloudFree Commerce Platform is an open, dynamic and extensible | |
platform for e-commerce solutions of all kind. By using Equinox and CODA | |
we define a new platform that is designed from the beginning to gain | |
leverage from the key advantages of Equinox and CODA - flexibility, | |
extensibility and community. | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
CloudFree will support small, to medium, to large e-commerce sites by | |
providing a scalable architecture. It will be useful for standard | |
e-commerce shops to sell and merchandise goods as well as any public | |
organization who wants to leverage the Internet as a communication and | |
transaction channel, and for any organization who encourages their (potential) | |
users to perform a transaction, whether this is an order, an | |
application, online registration or content download provisioning. It | |
will be accessible and easy to use for small organizations, large | |
enterprises with multi-dimensional e-commerce initiatives or as a | |
technology platform for software vendors. It will allow users to build and | |
publish third party components which can be used and refined by all | |
associated users. | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
No focus is set on a specific feature implementation technology. The | |
CloudFree concept will be extensible and pluggable so that it can be | |
exchanged and adapted from a standalone server deployment to a | |
large-scale enterprise cluster consisting of many nodes spread across | |
different locations. It grows with the user's needs and can be maintained | |
by anyone who is familiar with the Eclipse environment. By that it gets | |
the large support of the community to conquer the most complex | |
e-commerce scenarios and use cases. Organizations who decide to develop | |
their e-commerce processes in CloudFree will have the development | |
standards of the Eclipse community, the ideas of many contributors and | |
the reliability of proven e-commerce modules at hand. | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
The CloudFree Commerce Platform will develop infrastructure, components, | |
and services that will support development, provisioning and operation | |
of e-commerce solutions of all kind including content transactions. The | |
essential functional elements of CloudFree 1.0 are well understood by | |
domain experts. While there is significant engineering effort required, | |
we feel that the work plan as proposed here can be implemented given | |
sufficient and experienced resources, and does not involve an | |
unrealistic level of technical risk. Consequently we propose this | |
project be considered as an incubator within the Technology top-level project. | |
</p> | |
<h2>Project Principles</h2> | |
<p> | |
Among the key principles on which this project has been initiated, and will be run, are the following: | |
<ul> | |
<li> | |
<b>Leverage Eclipse Ecosystem</b> - A major goal of this project is to | |
apply the application development strengths of the Eclipse Project to | |
the e-commerce domain. The project will work closely with other Eclipse | |
project areas whenever possible to leverage the capabilities being | |
developed in those areas. | |
<br><br> | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Vendor Neutral</b> - We aim to encourage Eclipse participation and | |
drive Eclipse market acceptance by providing vendor-neutral capabilities | |
and to encourage participation for complementary capabilities through | |
additional projects. | |
<br><br> | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Open, Standards-based Development</b> - Where market adopted | |
standards exist that meet the design goals, our aim is to leverage and | |
adhere to them. Where market adopted standards do not exist, we will | |
develop and publish any new capabilities in the Eclipse open forum. | |
<br><br> | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Incremental Delivery</b> - In order to meet the pent-up demand for a | |
standardized platform for e-commerce solutions, we aim to deliver | |
functionality to the market as rapidly as possible via an incremental | |
delivery model. | |
<br><br> | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Invite Users</b> - During project execution we are going to work | |
with potential user groups to understand the current needs even better | |
and get guidelines for further priotization of work. The group will have | |
its own schedule, but will actively seek for and involve potential | |
users. | |
</li> | |
</ul> | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
<h2>CloudFree Vision</h2> | |
<p> | |
The key vision on which this platform is based upon is: | |
<ul> | |
<li> | |
<b>No Clouds</b> - It must be a pleasure to work with the platform, | |
develop for and extend it, operate it and provide solutions on it. | |
</li> | |
</ul> | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
Among the principles behind this vision are the following: | |
<ul> | |
<li> | |
<b>Development Modularity & Extensibility</b> - Everything will | |
be build as components, can be developed and deployed individually, by the | |
community, project committers and partners. | |
<br><br> | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Solution Flexibility</b> - The platform, its components and | |
services will be open to new markets, market changes and must adapt to | |
business requirements. | |
<br><br> | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Operational Simplicity</b> - Easy provisioning into data centers | |
combined with smart and simple, but not simplistic, administration and | |
monitoring is a key element in making the platform operation a pleasure. | |
<br><br> | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Cheap Scalability</b> - It is important to grow | |
with clients and support a scalability model from the ground up. | |
<br><br> | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Stackability</b> - Platform, modules and components can be put | |
together in packages by third parties to allow easy deployment and | |
shipment - this saves time and effort. | |
</li> | |
</ul> | |
</p> | |
<h2>Project Scope</h2> | |
<p> | |
The CloudFree Commerce Platform will develop infrastructure, components, | |
services, and tools that will support development, provisioning and | |
operation of e-commerce solutions or e-commerce development | |
environments. Development of a fully-fledged e-commerce solution is | |
out-of-scope of this project. Instead, we will focus on the runtime | |
infrastructure and core components which are essential for building | |
e-commerce solutions or e-commerce products. Additionally, exemplary | |
services will be provided which demonstrate the extensibility and | |
flexibility of the CloudFree Commerce Platform. | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
The CloudFree Commerce Platform Project will initially focus on the | |
following components and exemplary services. | |
<ul> | |
<li> | |
<b>Inventory, Customer & Order Service</b> - A set of "core" services | |
typically required by e-commerce sites. These services will allow users to | |
define, manage and retrieve products, customers and orders. | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Exemplary Storefront Site</b> - Typically, storefronts are tailored | |
to merchant needs. They may be deeply integrated into portals and | |
provide rich dynamic content. Therefore, only an exemplary storefront | |
will be created which demonstrates the usage and integration with the | |
services provided by the platform. | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Contextual Runtime</b> - This is a central model for establishing a | |
"context" for building multi-tenant applications offered as SaaS. | |
Typically, certain aspects in a SaaS system will not be static. For | |
example, the availability of extension X of a service may depend on a | |
service level agreement of the tenant using that service. | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Clustering & Monitoring Service</b> - With scalability and | |
operational simplicity in mind, the clustering service will enable | |
multiple installations to form an application cluster and provide | |
operators with a management interface. Monitoring will be built into the | |
platform as an essential concept and will also provide integration and | |
extension points. | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Admin Service</b> - A central administration interface provided by | |
the platform. The service will also provide extension points to allow | |
extenders to integrate nicely with the platform. | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
<b>Provisioning Tool</b> - A utility for provisioning updates and new | |
components across installations in a cluster in an automated and | |
controlled way. | |
</li> | |
</ul> | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
Outside the project's scope will be the development of vendor-specific | |
integrations, such as integrations with specific ERP or CRM systems, as | |
well as highly specialized services, such as a sophisticated product | |
recommendation service. However, the CloudFree platform will provide | |
frameworks and extension points to allow third parties building such | |
integrations and specialized services. | |
</p> | |
<h2>Relationship with other Eclipse Projects</h2> | |
<p> | |
The CloudFree Commerce Platform project will be build on top of Equinox. | |
Eclipse projects which provide useful required technologies and | |
functionalities, including Riena, EclipseLink, and ECF, are candidates that the | |
CloudFree Commerce Platform codebase might depend upon. | |
</p> | |
<h2>Organization</h2> | |
<p> | |
We propose this project should be undertaken as a Technology project. Being | |
a Technology project gives it room to experiment without disruption to other | |
Eclipse Platform development work. Finally, since Technology sub-projects | |
are not meant to be ongoing, we foresee three possible evolutionary paths | |
for the subproject: | |
<ol> | |
<li> | |
The project is moved to a permanent state as a Runtime project. | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
The project is moved to a permanent state under a new "SaaS" top-level | |
project. | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
The technology proves to be insufficient for Eclipse and the work is set | |
aside. | |
</li> | |
</ol> | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
These paths are not mutually exclusive. Some combination of some or all of | |
these paths may be the result of the work done in this project.<br id=yxif> | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
<h2>Interested Parties</h2> | |
<p> | |
<a href=http://www.ageto.de/ id=j43l title="AGETO Service GmbH">AGETO | |
Service GmbH</a>, as the | |
submitter of this proposal, welcomes interested parties to post to the | |
<a href="http://www.eclipse.org/newsportal/thread.php?group=eclipse.cloudfree" title="eclipse.cloudfree newsgroup">eclipse.cloudfree newsgroup</a> | |
and ask to be added to the list as interested parties or to | |
suggest changes to this document. | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
<b>Initial Committers</b><br> | |
<ul> | |
<li> | |
Gunnar Wagenknecht, Project Lead (AGETO Service GmbH) | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
Ronny Schmidt, Committer (AGETO Service GmbH) | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
Ralph Spickermann, Committer (AGETO Service GmbH) | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
Frank Rub, Committer (igniti GmbH) | |
</li> | |
<li> | |
Christian Günzl, Committer (igniti GmbH) | |
</li> | |
</ul> | |
</p> | |
<p> | |
<b>Interested Companies</b><br> | |
<ul> | |
<li>AGETO Service GmbH, Jena (Germany)</li> | |
<li>igniti GmbH, Jena (Germany)</li> | |
<li>TowerByte e.G., Jena (Germany)</li> | |
<li>PlanetEye Inc., Toronto (Canada)</li> | |
<li>Weigle Wilczek GmbH, Esslingen (Germany)</li> | |
</ul> | |
</p> | |
<h3>Code Contributions</h3> | |
<p> | |
Gunnar Wagenknecht is offering a CloudFree prototype as an initial codebase. | |
The prototype is built with proposed concepts in mind and will be used as a | |
potential codebase. | |
</p> | |
<h2>Tentative Plan</h2> | |
<p> | |
Development is ongoing and a first demonstrable showcase is planned for | |
November 2008. This prototype will demonstrate key concepts such as | |
extensibility and provisioning. It will be used to socialize community | |
feedback and to make a decision on the ongoing development. In case of | |
significant community interest the development continues following an | |
Eclipse iterative development approach with version 1.0 scheduled for | |
Q4/2009. | |
</p> | |
</div> | |
</div> | |
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