System Factory: integrating tools for system integration

Large-scale distributed systems such as global enterprise systems, e-commerce and e-service systems are critical for businesses and complex to build and run. Their design requires an advanced technology of system integration that guarantees satisfaction of various customer requirements. This paper advocates a holistic approach to system integration that supports an end-to-end systematic design: Business Process/spl rarr/Workload Pattern/spl rarr/Virtual System/spl rarr/Configuration/spl rarr/Data and Application Deployment. This approach is implemented as a System Factory, an integrated environment that incorporates and consolidates matching system analysis techniques. The functionality and structure of a System Factory prototype that is under development at HP Laboratories is described in the paper. The center of the factory is a repository that accumulates system solutions, patterns, and templates for specific business segments. Specialized shops with a common modeling and analysis base provide convenient means to find customized solutions.