SOA-based cloud computing PAAs platform in the logistics field

1. The dilemma of enterprises in logistics field

In the competition of many logistics enterprises, whether the enterprise can stand out, depends on how quickly and efficiently adapt to the change of the market. A company that wants to be able to adapt quickly to change needs a flexible system that maximizes proximity to customers, responds to customer dynamic needs, and helps companies seize dynamic business opportunities. Therefore, the business processing of enterprises must go out of their own scope, with multiple customers and partners to coordinate. For example. The business of an international freight forwarding company, usually across the boundaries of the enterprise, its role in addition to internal operations, documents, customer service, finance, sales, managers, but also includes the entire supply chain upstream and downstream enterprises, such as shippers, peers, convoys, customs broker, overseas agents, consignee and so on. In traditional it mode, it is not possible to automate services in these business across the enterprise. Customers must manually send orders, check inventory, and send email or phone calls to suppliers, all of which are well implemented automatically under the Cloud computing platform. From the perspective of business people, cloud computing is not an Enterprise Portal system, not a supply chain management system, but a business circle and value-added chain, is a business with customers, enterprises and cooperative enterprise social network.

In the traditional logistics industry, people implement the logistics information management system. Logistics distribution system, invoicing and inventory management system. Most are built in the form of an internal system. At the same time, deploying these applications is a very complex, expensive and risky business. You need to assemble the hardware, the operating system, for each application. Database。 Middleware, Web servers, and other software. Each logistics enterprise needs to train a team of experts including network, database, System management to ensure the normal operation of the application software. Once the new business needs to change the original application system, a long development process begins again and again.

2. Cloud computing in the field of logistics applications

Logistics in the field of cloud computing, can let the logistics enterprises according to their actual size and demand, dynamically from the cloud of the Internet to choose the corresponding visualization of resources and services to meet the enterprise in the day-to-day operation of the various IT services needs.

IBM's intelligent "logistics cloud" presents a similar concept. It provides an intelligent logistics solution based on cloud computing technology, which can be used in the field of logistics, and will comprehensively improve the intelligence level of cargo handling, transportation, warehousing, overhaul and customs clearance, and realize efficient, fast, intensive and transparent logistics industry, and save management cost. Improve the management level. As a platform for cloud software services and applications development (Platform as a serice), it provides a platform for building and running software services while, on the other hand, manages all hardware and software resources, providing customers on demand via the Internet, web-based Software Solutions.

PAAs provides all the required running applications in the Internet infrastructure. Users simply "Turn on the tap" to get the service, they don't have to worry about the complexity behind the scenes. PAAs is based on subscription mode, so users only need to pay for the features he uses. With PAAs, independent software developers and enterprise IT departments can focus more on innovation than on complex infrastructure. Logistics companies can devote more of their budgets to places where they can provide real business value, rather than the purchase and maintenance of basic equipment.

3. Cloud computing system and Platform development status

At present, cloud computing infrastructure or cloud computing platform, open source organization and academia have put forward many cloud computing systems or platform solutions from Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, Sun and other companies.

3.1 Google's cloud infrastructure

Google's cloud computing infrastructure is progressively expanded on the basis of initial service offerings for search applications, mainly Distributed file systems (Googlefile system (GFS), large scale distributed database BigTable, programming mode Mapreduee, The distributed locking mechanism is composed of several independent and tightly chubby systems.

3.2 IBM "Blue Cloud" computing platform

IBM's Blue Cloud computing platform is made up of a data center, IBM Tivoli Monitoring Software (Tivoli monitoring), IBMDB2 database, IBM Tivoli Deployment Management software (Tivoli provi-sioning Manager), IBM WebSphere Application Server, and open source virtualization software together with some open-source information processing software.

3.3 Sun's cloud infrastructure

The cloud infrastructure architecture proposed by Sun includes 6 levels of services, applications, middleware, operating systems, virtual servers, physical servers, and offers the idea that cloud computing can describe services delivered at any traditional level from hardware to applications.

3.4 Microsoft's Azure cloud Platform

Microsoft's Azure Cloud Platform consists of 4 tiers at the bottom of Microsoft's Global Foundation Service,gfs, consisting of a fourth generation of data centers across the globe: Cloud infrastructure services (cloud infrastructure Service, with Windows Azure operating system as the core, primarily engaged in virtualized computing resource management and Intelligent task assignment: On top of Windows Azure is an application service platform that plays the role of a component (building block), To provide users with a range of services.

3.5 Amazon's Elastic computing cloud

Amazon is one of the first companies to provide cloud computing services. The company's flexible computing Cloud (elastic compute CLOUD,EC2) platform is built on a large scale of computer and server clusters within the company, providing users with the various virtual machine instances (instance) that the network interface operates in "cloud" operation.

(Responsible editor: The good of the Legacy)