The High Performance On Demand Solutions (HiPODS) team develops innovative solutions to challenging
on demand business issues, with an emphasis on optimizing IT resources and helping IBM customers evolve
into on demand businesses. The HiPODS team is committed to sharing its work through a variety of white papers
describing best practices, lessons learned, and technology case studies. This page presents the HiPODS papers.
Creating a platform for innovation by leveraging the
IBM Idea Factory solution (March 2008)
This paper describes a generic approach to creating an innovation platform and the specific solution developed by IBM called IBM Idea Factory.
The benefits of the solution are illustrated by the innovation life cycle, which is a common process that IBM has observed across
a wide variety of customers and industries. The goal of the solution is to provide a flexible and dynamic platform for innovators
to collaborate on ideas and create Web sites for interacting with interested users. (PDF file)
To receive information about future workshops and seminars about this proposed solution, send an
email to hipods@us.ibm.com.
Cloud Computing (October 2007)
This paper describes cloud computing, a computing platform for the next generation of the internet.
The paper defines clouds, explains the business benefits of cloud computing, and outlines cloud architecture and its major components.
Readers will discover how a business can use cloud computing to
foster innovation and reduce IT costs. IBM's implementation of cloud computing is described. (PDF file)
To receive information about future workshops and seminars about this proposed solution, send an
email to hipods@us.ibm.com.
Introducing HiGIG:
The HiPODS Global Innovation Grid (August 2006)
This paper describes the High Performance On Demand Solutions (HiPODS) global innovation grid (HiGIG).
The HiGIG solution, used in production by the HiPODS team, is based on a composite service-oriented architecture
pattern and provides IT infrastructure management services for multiple, globally distributed IT infrastructures.
HiGIG also includes a service grid component that can integrate with service catalogs and be used for discovering
and managing globally distributed services, and a collaborative grid environment that includes wikis, blogs, and
social networking tools. (PDF file)
Virtualization and Automation: Best Practices for a WebSphere Application Server Environment / An update (April 2005)
This paper is an update to the July 2003 paper Architecture for Virtualization with WebSphere Application Server Version 5. It explores the topic of providing virtual application server environments for the JavaTM 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EETM) applications by using the best practices and technologies for virtualization and automation. The High Performance On Demand Solutions (HiPODS) organization has developed best practices through many customer engagements. This paper reviews these best practices and tools, and considerations for using them.
Provisioning
Provisioning Web Applications with
IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager (June 2007)
This paper reviews the findings from a project that used IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager to automate the
construction of the development environment for a major Japanese manufacturer. It also describes how IBM
Tivoli Provisioning Manager was customized to fit the customer environment, and how the project team
solved the challenges of the customer environment.
Techniques to Configure IBM Tivoli Intelligent Orchestrator to Manage IBM pSeries Servers (April 2006)
This paper describes the HiPODS team's experience of configuring the IBM Tivoli Intelligent Orchestrator and Tivoli Provisioning Manager to manage IBM pSeries servers. It provides examples that illustrate, clarify, and, in some cases, give supplemental information to facilitate and accelerate the set-up and configuration processes.
Provisioning for On Demand Data Centers (May 2004)
This paper introduces an end-to-end automated provisioning solution called Rapid Provisioning for IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager. It describes architecture, trade-offs, and lessons learned during proofs of concept for IBM customers. For a demonstration of the Rapid provisioning solution, see Rapid Provisioning Demo.
Provisioning Best Practices for On Demand Data Centers (June 2004)
This paper describes identified best practices for implementing an end-to-end automated provisioning solution. It describes architecture, trade-offs, lessons learned and best practices derived from experiences during proofs of concept for IBM customers. The paper complements the Rapid Provisioning solution and can be used as a starting point for implementing automated provisioning.
Provisioning Case Study: pSeries and AIX LPARS (November 2004)
This paper is a case study for setting up a system to provision and service pSeries AIX logical partitions (LPARs) using IBM Tivoli Intelligent ThinkDynamic Orchestrator. It assumes knowledge of configuration and build methodologies for IBM pSeries and Tivoli provisioning. The information is based on the experiences of the HiPODS team with large IBM customers.
Provisioning Case Study: WebSphere Application Server Version 5 (November 2004)
Seamless server provisioning to a Java2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) application server environment involves installing the operating system software, configuring the network, installing the required middleware, and finally deploying and enabling the applications to process requests. These tasks consume time and labor and are often error-prone. This paper describes a solution that uses the IBM Tivoli Provisioning Manager component of the IBM Tivoli Intelligent ThinkDynamic Orchestrator to provision servers to WebSphere Application Server Version 5 environments. The solution is based on the experiences and best practices that have emerged from several successful proofs of concept provided by HiPODS for large IBM customers.
Orchestration
Orchestration for On Demand Data Centers (May 2004)
This paper introduces an end-to-end integration scenario that shows cross-tier management of service level objectives for WebSphere and DB2 using the IBM Tivoli Intelligent ThinkDynamic Orchestrator. The paper describes the architecture and customer scenarios useful for understanding and implementing this new technology. The solution showcases new hierarchical autonomic control loop functions. For a demonstration of the orchestration solution, see Orchestration Demo
Orchestration Case Study: Integrating WebSphere and DB2 Orchestration with Enterprise Workload Manager (October 2004)
This paper describes a technology proof of concept led by IBM's HiPODS team to demonstrate that the IBM Enterprise Workload Manager (EWLM) can be integrated with the IBM WebSphere and DB2 Orchestration solution to leverage EWLM's performance monitoring functions and to extend the orchestration solution with the response time metrics that EWLM aggregates.
Implementing Multiple Network Deployment Managers on a Single Node (October 2004)
This paper describes how to implement multiple instances of WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Version 5 on a single node and how this configuration helps optimize the use of corporate resources and isolate critical applications.
Business-driven IT
Case Study: SOA-based On Demand Service Delivery Solution at Star Technology Services Ltd. (March 2006)
This paper describes a proof of concept implementation of an automated service delivery solution built on a service-oriented framework. The solution is an integration of assets and products using Web services interfaces. The core solution addresses IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL) processes and is a standards-based framework of technologies, assets, and products fulfilling customer requirements.
On Demand Service Delivery for SOA Environments (May 2005)
This paper describes a self-service delivery solution that is built on a service-oriented framework. The proposed solution is an integration of assets and products based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA) and Web services interfaces. It supports the full life cycle of a service delivery from order placement through final reporting and billing.
Automating to Become an On Demand Business (December 2004)
An on demand business is flexible and reacts quickly to changing business conditions. This paper introduces how a business could achieve more flexibility when it automates the communication between the processes of making business decisions and maintaining the IT infrastructure. It describes what transformations are required to enable such automation, and the benefits achieved. It concludes with the steps you can take to start your business on its journey towards improved flexibility and automation.
Smart Card Transaction Processing,
A Case Study: Applying best practices to improve performance (February 2008)
The IBM High Performance On Demand Solutions India team
helped a major IBM client upgrade their smart card online transaction processing application to achieve high performance. This paper summarizes the
tuning methodology and Java2 Enterprise Edition (J2EE) best practices
that were key to the performance improvements that exceeded the customer requirements.
Testing and Analyzing Performance from
the User's Perspective: Analyzing Performance for e-business (September 2006)
Many tests are available to help understand and improve the performance of a Web site. Tests that are performed from a user's point of view have their benefits and limitations. This paper reviews tests from the user side that are useful in analyzing Web site performance; it includes a detailed discussion of the data that needs to be collected and analyzed, as well as available tools.
Case Study: Performance Testing a Financial Application using WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation (February 2006)
IBM conducted tests to provide a major financial services company with tuning and capacity planning recommendations for the WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation component of their Enterprise Services Management (ESM) environment by testing selected ESM business processes. This paper summarizes the methodology and results of performance testing completed by IBM's High Performance On Demand Solutions (HiPODS) team. The test results demonstrated that WebSphere Business Integration Server Foundation successfully scaled and performed to meet the customer's performance target.
High Volume Performance Testing: Best Practices for WebSphere Applications (October 2005)
This paper describes best practices for benchmarking the performance of WebSphere applications in Java™ 2 Platform Enterprise Edition environments characterized by high volumes and complex back ends. These techniques are the product of IBM's experience working with customers seeking to improve the performance and availability of some of the world's largest Web sites.
Best Practices for Deploying Applications to Highly Available Web-Based Systems (September 2005)
This paper summarizes the methodology and results of a test of automated deployment of online applications. The methodology demonstrated the application of WebSphere Application Server's cloning facility to enable a major online customer to maintain high availability of Web-based applications, while maintaining application performance during application deployment.
Case studies
IBM BlogCentral Version 2: Architecting for Performance (November 2006)
BlogCentral is an intranet blogging platform that allows IBM employees around the world to share opinions
on work-related topics.
The office of the IBM CIO asked the HiPODS team to study BlogCentral performance and implement changes to
improve response times and throughput.
This paper describes the HiPODS effort to develop and deploy BlogCentral Version 2 with significantly improved
performance. It includes a description of the lessons learned, particularly in the areas of database tuning, and
options for further performance improvements.
Case Study:
Best Practices for Testing and Tuning the Performance of a High-Volume Stock Exchange EAI Messaging System (September 2006)
IBM conducted tests to help a major stock exchange customer assess its message exchange system and evaluate a solution to improve performance using WebSphere Business Integration components. The tests demonstrated that WebSphere's middleware offerings can scale and perform to meet the customer's objectives. This paper summarizes the methods used to tune the EAI system's performance, the results, and the best practices involved in the tuning work.
Advanced Query Management
for Optimizing Data Warehouse
Performance (August 2006)
This paper describes a case study--the first in Japan--of the implementation of IBM DB2 Query Patroller Version 8.2 in a development project for a data warehouse system. It describes the issues the client, a major Japanese manufacturer, had in their environment, and how the issues were addressed and solved. It provides key information for readers who want to know how to monitor, manage, and control queries on DB2 Universal Database.
Case Study on the Performance of
WebSphere Workloads on 64-bit Systems (July 2006)
IBM HiPODS evaluated an application for a major US customer using the IBM 64-bit solutions. The objective was to meet the customers objective of migrating from 32-bit to 64-bit systems without degrading application performance or using more memory. This paper highlights the project results and demonstrates that IBM 64-bit solutions, including hardware, operating system, and middleware, provided superior performance and total cost of ownership.
Case study: Reduce Web Site Bandwidth Demand through Workload Analysis (June 2006)
This paper describes a case study for a customer seeking to reduce bandwidth in order to reduce costs. The study analyzes bandwidth demand and identifies which components use the most bandwidth and which factors contribute most to bandwidth use. The site and application studied primarily transfer text, so there are several choices for optimization. These methods do not change application functionality and do not require changes to the application. You can achieve major reductions in bandwidth use by selectively using the methods described here.
A Retail Data Warehouse Solution using DB2 for Linux (November 2004)
This paper describes the results of a proof of concept IBM completed for a major retailer with a large data warehouse. HiPODs demonstrated its capacity for creating a representative customer environment and proving how IBM's products meet customer requirements. The key requirements for this PoC were the database extract/transform/load process, scalability and performance of DB2 queries when multidimensional clusters are implemented on the Linux platform, and database provisioning.
Case Study: Performance Test on Financial Information System using WebSphere Business Integration (October 2004)
IBM conducted tests to help a major financial customer assess its middleware environment and evaluate a solution to improve performance using WebSphere Business Integration components. The tests demonstrated that WebSphere's middleware offerings can scale and perform to meet the customer's objectives.
WebSphere
A Methodology for Migrating from Axis to WebSphere Web Services (April 2005)
This paper describes a methodology to migrate a Web services application from Apache Axis Web services to WebSphere Web services. It includes examples of some code changes that might be required. The actual code changes required to migrate depend on the features and APIs that the application uses.
A technique for monitoring WebSphere Application Server workload management (March 2004)
This article describes a technique for using standard Web server directives to log workload management activity in the WebSphere Application Server cluster, and a mechanism for summarizing the behavior of WebSphere Application Server workload management in real time.
Systems Administration and Scalability of Application Server JVMs with WebSphere Application Server, Version 5 (October 2004)
This paper discusses the architectural considerations for administering systems and scaling application server Java virtual machines (JVMs) for WebSphere installations. It explains the setup of a laboratory environment and the results of tests conducted to explore different issues. The report should be useful to those architecting solutions for large-scale deployment environments using infrastructure components such as shared storage.
Miscellaneous
Using VMware ESX Server
with IBM WebSphere Application Server (July 2006)
This paper looks at the best practices when running VMware ESX Server and IBM WebSphere Application Server on a large symmetric multiprocessor (SMP) server to achieve the best application performance (throughput and response time). Our tests concluded that the use of VMware software is an excellent option for those wanting to run WebSphere Application Server in a virtualized SMP environment.
(PDF file)
VMware ESX Server 2: Performance and Scalability Evaluation (January 2004)
Representatives of VMware and IBM's High Performance On Demand Solutions team conducted joint tests to evaluate VMware's ESX Server 2 in terms of overhead, scalability, and priority handling. ESX Server 2 proved to be an effective virtualization technology. This paper summarizes the test configuration and results. (PDF file)
Sonoma:
Web Service for Estimating Capacity and Performance of Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) Workloads (October 2006)
This paper describes Sonoma, a Web service for estimating the performance and capacity of service-oriented architecture (SOA) workloads.
Sonoma is built using the IBM-developed technology of the On Demand Performance Advisor (OPERA).
OPERA is a time-tested capacity planning tool that employs queuing theory, advanced autonomic algorithms,
and extensive measurements with IBM customers. Sonoma provides IT architects with performance modeling and
hardware configuration recommendations by sizing four SOA workloads based on common usage scenarios such
as travel booking, banking, and insurance claims handling.
Case studies
HVWS Simulator: An eBay Case Study (February 2004)
This paper describes how IBM's HVWS Performance Simulator for WebSphere was used to analyze the capacity of the code supporting one of eBay's high-volume and revenue-earning features. The objective of the analysis was to assess whether eBay's IT architecture could support current transaction throughput rates and meet future growth needs.
HiPODS Model: An eBay Case Study (June 2004)
This presentation to the IBM Academy describes how IBM's HVWS Performance Simulator for WebSphere, now referred to as OPERA, was used to analyze the capacity of the code supporting one of eBay's high-volume and revenue-earning features. The objective of the analysis was to assess whether eBay's IT architecture could support current transaction throughput rates and meet future growth needs. This presentation corresponds to the paper listed above, "HVWS Simulator: An eBay Case Study."
Extreme Availability with WebSphere and DB2 (November 2004)
The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has extraordinary availability requirements. It relies on the Securities Industries Automation Corporation (SIAC) to ensure those requirements are met. SIAC chose IBM to provide the hardware and software infrastructure for a new trading floor application. This paper describes this unique challenge, the resulting availability partnership and solution that began a successful deployment in April 2004, and enhancements to IBM software that demonstrate IBM's strengths in the realm of extreme availability.
Web 2.0 -- Advanced AJAX Applications with the
Google Web Toolkit (February 2007)
This paper is a guide to using the Google Web Toolkit (GWT) to integrate rich user interface components with remote services. It includes examples showing
how to create a paged table with editable fields and a personalized dialog box.
It discusses the management of events and service calls for data access, as well as peculiar aspects of the API and tips about its use.
GWT improves productivity when developing AJAX applications for the Web. (PDF file).
IBM Tivoli Access Manager for e-business / Quick Prototyping with Version 5.1 (October 2005)
This article is a quick guide to installing and specifying a basic configuration for IBM Tivoli Access Manager for e-business Version 5.1. It illustrates the product's basic functions with two examples: securing access to several Web applications and single sign-on. The goal of this article is to assist users with prototyping and quickly deploying Tivoli Access Manager in conjunction with the more comprehensive information that accompanies the product. (PDF file)
