Windows Azure Solutions Series: Developing and expanding search-rescue applications, saving more drowning people

In an effort to reduce the high risk of sea death in the fishing industry, Royal National Lifeboat centric signed an agreement with Active Web FX (AWS) to create an automated offshore security application. AWS has developed a location-based service infrastructure, code-named "Geopoint", which transmits location data to the central tracking and alerting system. AWS uses Geopoint to build MOB Guardian, a search-and-rescue application designed for fishing boats. To enable Geopoint to be used in more scenarios, AWS migrated to the Windows azure™ platform. By hosting Geopoint in the cloud in Microsoft's data center, AWS has gained a huge scalability, richer functionality, and lower infrastructure costs. AWS can quickly transform applications into managed services, avoiding the cost of building and managing data centers. AWS has both flexibility and scalability, allowing Geopoint to be put into larger markets.

Scene：
Fishing is a high-risk business. Authoritative statistics, the world every year 24,000 crew members drowned. Royal National Lifeboat Centric (RNLI) statistics show that 350 crew members were killed in the waters around Britain from 1996 to 2007. The data do not include drowning events caused by yachts and non-fishing vessels.

RNLI wants to create an automated alarm system to change the status quo so that boats and crews can get in touch with their services in real time. Therefore, in 2006, RNLI hired active Web FX (AWS), a Microsoft®gold certified Partner and software developers to create automated systems. AWS has created a location-based service infrastructure, code-named "Geopoint", which transmits location data to the central tracking and alerting system. Combine it with a large number of service support and other systems to make it suitable for position-aware scenarios. Using Geopoint as the basis, AWS then built the MOB Guardian in 2008, a search-and-rescue application designed for fishing boats (MOB representing "man overboard" and people drowning). British fishing has gradually begun to adopt it.

Here's how MOB Guardian works: The crew will be equipped with a personal safety device to keep in touch with a device on a fishing boat. When the crew falls overboard, radio communications are cut off, triggering alarms automatically and sending a signal to search-and-rescue services via satellite. Land-based alerts include the location and details of the drowning person, which is usually completed in 2 minutes, so emergency services will begin rescue work.

Richard Prodger, Active Web FX Technology Director: Our original architecture supports 10000 fishing boats, but the Windows Azure platform allows us to support thousands or even millions of fishing boats without any capital expenditure.

In its first operation in the 1 August, MOB Guardian has saved 9 lives. AWS signed a 10-year contract with RNLI to host the Mob guardian background infrastructure. -About 15 servers, originally distributed in 2 data centers in the UK to provide rapid recovery capabilities. As more and more people adopt MOB Guardian, the infrastructure hosted by AWS will soon reach the limit of the number of vessels being monitored.

"Our initial infrastructure can handle about 10000 fishing boats, but we hope to be able to offer the MOB Guardian to 500,000 yachts in the UK and millions of sea users worldwide," he said. Richard Anscombe explains that the Active Web FX marketing director. "Boats that can't afford MOB Guardian devices can also use mobile phones as a transmitter," he said. The background infrastructure has led to restrictions on scalability. We are a small company with only 35 employees, and we cannot afford the high cost of infrastructure mob guardian. ”

When AWS began to consider how to expand MOB Guardian, it realised that it needed to maintain an investment in existing code and the user's investment in existing MOB Guardian hardware. "We cannot reinstall the Mob Guardian device being used, nor can we modify the communication agreement between the vessel and the service." "We don't have the time and budget to rewrite desktop user interfaces, backend services, and databases," said Richard Prodger, Active Web FX technology director. In any case, expanding the solution will need to be able to support the original investment. ”

Finally, RNLI should keep prices low, encourage more crews to use mob Guardian and expand services to the yacht market.

Solution:
AWS has worked closely with Microsoft in developing Mob guardian, with the main components of the application based on Microsoft software-Windows server®2003 operating system and Microsoft SQL server®2005 database software-and Microsoft Visual studio® development system. Microsoft has informed AWS of the Windows azure™ platform, and it will be ideal for MOB Guardian and other Geopoint applications when the platform is available.

Windows Azure platform, a cloud computing services platform hosted by Microsoft's Data center, provides computing, storage, communication, and authentication services to create scalable, Pay-as-you-go Internet services. It includes Windows Azure, a cloud service operating system, Microsoft SQL azure™ Cloud database service, service bus and Access Control service components, and online table and blob storage.

Cloud based Systems
When Microsoft released an earlier version of the Windows Azure platform in August 2008, AWS built a Location-based infrastructure prototype on Windows Azure. Later in 2009, AWS completed the Windows azure– hosted Geopoint as a location-based service for any type of search-rescue environment.

Geopoint runs on the Windows Azure platform of Microsoft Data Center, rather than running on a windows-based server in the previous iteration version. In response, emergency alerts are no longer transmitted via satellite to the physical servers of AWS, but are transmitted to the satellite via simple Mail transmits Kyoto (SMTP), which is then posted to the message queue. Multiple service instances read information queues, process information, and transfer data to Windows Azure table storage. The emergency alert is then relayed via service bus to the end-user monitoring application located in the search-rescue center.

AWS managers also use service bus to manage Windows Azure services from a central network system (NMS). They can easily see which services are running, current service performance, and how many instances of each service is running. Performance improvements simply provide additional Windows Azure computing power through an NMS, and then simply look at the elevated level of service performance.

AWS uses another Windows Azure Platform Developer Service, Access Control Service, which provides high security communication between Geopoint and a large number of non-cloud applications while debugging and monitoring. Access Control Service provides an easy way to manage authentication and authorization of applications and services through a standardized certification provider. Authorization decisions can be drawn from the application and placed in a set of rules that transform the incoming security declaration into a declaration that the application understands.

Geopoint a location-based service platform to use service bus to deliver a warning

Migrate quickly to the clouds
For AWS, implementing Geopoint is primarily a migration effort. Developers need only a small amount of code and the ability to translate the existing skills of the service-oriented architecture into the Windows Azure platform. "With a few simple instructions and the use of Microsoft development tools, the body of the application is migrated from our data center to the Windows Azure platform within a few weeks." "Prodger said" the transformation from the original schema to the Windows Azure platform includes only some network configuration changes that are used to route information to service bus. ”

Foreground applications do not need to change
An important advantage of Service bus is the need to modify desktop applications (to RNLI search-rescue operations teams can interact with Geopoint). In the original plan, the client application uses a background server to see if there is a current warning. With the migration to the Windows Azure platform, AWS wants to replace push messages with a smart client, but this requires redesigning the application and many development efforts. "Using service bus to replace the original solution, we were able to route the information directly from the Windoss Azure platform to the client application, avoiding the technical difficulties of pushing information across firewalls," Prodger explained. ”

Connecting to non-cloud databases across firewalls
The second advantage of using service bus is to connect cloud-based Geopoint and non cloud databases without exposing the data on the Internet. For example, the fishing crew's authentication information is kept in a high-security and confidential database and can only be accessed by search-and-rescue operations. To make the data available for Geopoint security, AWS has developed an add-on named Socketshifter. It automates the connection between arbitrary TCP/IP endpoints and handles any incoming and outgoing data between firewalls. This mechanism makes it possible to access non cloud SQL Server databases from the cloud.

Deep diagnosis
The third big advantage of Service bus is the ability to build sophisticated and sophisticated diagnostic tools for the applications it hosts. "Once your application is running in Microsoft Data Center rather than your own data, it is extremely difficult to detect at the granularity level." "Prodger said. "We need a mechanism to give us that level of control." ”

In the Microsoft. NET Framework, these goals are achieved by using the. NET TraceListener attribute. Tracing is a form of debugging that enables developers to track the operation of an application. A tracking listener collects, stores, and routes tracking information. AWS uses service bus and Access Control service to build TraceListener in the cloud and to monitor and diagnose Geopoint infrastructure transactions. If something goes wrong with a geopoint server in Microsoft Data Center, AWS can know exactly where the problem is.

Then, to fix this problem, you need to control the Geopoint application that is running in the Microsoft Data Center, and AWS builds a custom simple receptacle Management Kyoto (SNMP) agent. This agent connects to an AWS management interface through service bus, where AWS administrators can monitor and manage Windows Azure based applications. "I can do it in my office chair, use the existing network management tools to view the situation in the cloud, or control our applications." "Prodger said. "If you don't have a service bus, it becomes more difficult and requires more money, and service bus provides a way to route information and go through the firewall." Because this agent is based on SNMP standards, we can use any network management tool to monitor our applications. ”

Soon, AWS plans to create a custom Microsoft System Center Operations Manager 2007 Management Pack for Geopoint, which can use the familiar System Center Operations Manager, Like her central monitoring console.

Benefits：
AWS has removed market growth restrictions by transforming ocean-safe applications from non-cloud infrastructure, which is limited by physical servers, to Internet services. -and provides several new features. AWS avoids the need to invest millions of of dollars in data servers, eliminating 3-6 months of deployment time by using service bus. With a highly scalable platform, AWS can deliver superior performance, regardless of how many people and fishing boats the system is monitoring.

Richard prodger,active Web FX Technical Director: I can do it in my office chair, use the existing network management tools to view the situation in the cloud, or control our application. If there is no service bus, it will become more difficult and require more money.

Great extensibility
The most valuable benefit to AWS and RNLI is the ease with which applications can be extended by migrating geopoint to the Windows Azure platform. "Our original architecture supports 10000 fishing boats, but the Windows Azure platform allows us to support thousands or even millions of fishing boats without any capital outlay," he said. "To expand Applications, we simply provide more computing power through Windows Azure platform ports, and increase information queues," Prodger said. ”

In fact, with the Windows Azure platform and developer service, AWS has been able to turn the mob Guardian application for fishing boats into a wider geographic positioning service platform. It has many extended functions and can attract many users.

"If someone crashes in the North Pacific, or if a Colorado, Grand Canyon climber encounters an avalanche, Geopoint can immediately route the alert information to the appropriate search-and-rescue agency." "Prodger said. "Through Service bus, we can handle various requests and information." ”

New Market Opportunities
AWS can put technology into yachts and other markets. For example, AWS plans to build a Web application that allows boat people to interact with geopoint during vacations, making the journey safer. Sailors and speedboats, for example, may visit Geopoint via Facebook to see where they are on the map, or to record their voyage. Of course, if they fall overboard, Geopoint will also generate rescue information, but AWS can provide additional services. "With access control Service, for such a scenario, we don't have to force the user to create another set of authentication credentials." "Prodger said. "We can use Facebook vouchers as their geopoint IDs." ”

Lower infrastructure and management costs
Windows Azure,aws avoids the high capital outlay needed to expand physical, non-cloud infrastructure. "We don't have to worry about buying, managing, and upgrading servers, so we have a larger server infrastructure." "Prodger said. "We need to invest 1 million dollars to expand our physical infrastructure to make our program a global solution," he said. ”

Since the server Management task has been managed by Microsoft, the company also eliminates the high cost of IT staff. "Microsoft has handled all operating system updates and upgrades without downtime." "Prodger said.

AWS also saves the cost of ISPs, and how much it costs to use only a few Windows Azure platform resources. In this context, AWS has been able to turn the infrastructure into a variable cost, thereby improving profitability. "We're going to change the fixed monthly hosting fee to a variable-use cost," Anscombe said, "And now we just pay for the CPU, storage, and network resources we use." "In contrast, by reducing internal costs, AWS provides lower user fees for those who are price-sensitive, while ensuring profitability."

Faster time to market
AWS cuts development costs through Windows Azure Platform Developer Services. "Using service bus and Access Control Service eliminates our deployment time of 3-6 months." "More importantly, without these services, we can't build a solution that is so resilient," Prodger said. ”

While enhancing Geopoint, the company continues to save on development costs and achieve faster time-to-market. "A unified and flexible communication and validation framework eliminates the need to build a large number of point-to-point solutions for each scenario." Prodger added.

Performance improvement
With Windows Azure platform, the geopoint of AWS has tremendous scalability. "The performance of the application is limited by a number of factors," Prodger said. "If the information load increases, we will create a new application instance." Windows Azure platform dynamically deals with these expansion changes, which are hard to do on other platforms. ”

This article translates from:

http://www.microsoft.com/casestudies/Case_Study_Detail.aspx?CaseStudyID=4000005892

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