Abstracts of Magazine FUJITSU 2005-1 (VOL.56, NO.1)

Special Issue : TRIOLE

• IT Investment Management for Accelerating Management Innovation

In today's fierce business environment, an increasing number of companies are improving their business performance through the strategic use of information technology (IT). Meanwhile, IT-based management innovation is gradually shifting its focus from efficiency-oriented activities aimed at reducing costs and improving productivity, to effectiveness-oriented activities to gain more business opportunities and develop appropriate corporate strategies. As a result, it is becoming more difficult, but also more important, to accurately measure the results of IT investment. To accelerate IT-based management innovation, this paper proposes the following three effective approaches of IT investment management: Innovation Program Management to ensure the expected results of investments in individual projects, Application Portfolio Management (APM) to maximize investment performance from a corporate-wide viewpoint, and Human Resource and Organizational Management to enable a company to acquire the capability of continuous innovation. We believe that the introduction of these three methods will achieve the intended results of IT investment.

• IT Infrastructure That Bolsters Business: TRIOLE

Business environments are changing drastically, and companies are adapting for survival by improving their management efficiency and creating new businesses. To outpace the competition, companies must be flexible and reliable enough to quickly start business operations in response to unpredictable changes in the market. Advanced IT systems, therefore, are critical tools that enable companies to carry out their corporate strategies. TRIOLE is Fujitsu's strategy for optimized IT offering infrastructure based on Grid-incorporated technology and an original Fujitsu methodology. It bolsters a company's strengths such as business agility, business efficiency, and business continuity according to changes in the business environment and thereby enables IT systems to support business operations. This paper introduces the TRIOLE.

• Platform Integration by TRIOLE Template

Best-of-breed systems have been gaining popularity in the open-based IT systems area. However, due to lack of compatibility between products, much of the cost and labor associated with building and maintaining these systems has become uneconomical. Fujitsu's TRIOLE offers TRIOLE Template as a verified IT base. By utilizing TRIOLE Template, a stable, high-quality base can be provided from the design phase through to the operational phase of a system's lifecycle. TRIOLE Template adopts modern and proven products, many of which come from the open-source domain, including Fujitsu's outside products. TRIOLE Template will continue to expand through technological improvement and in response to customers' changing needs. This paper gives an overview of TRIOLE Template. It also describes how it can be used to solve various problems that are encountered in open systems, the advantages of using TRIOLE Template, and its future potential.

• System Construction Platform for High-Speed Age

Frameworks have proven effective for reducing the time needed to construct a system and also improving productivity and reliability. In the development of large-scale systems, frameworks have become indispensable for improving program usability by making the construction style uniform and improving quality and maintainability independent of the system developers. Fujitsu has positioned such frameworks as part of the TRIOLE IT platform to reduce application modifications due to changes in the low-level infrastructure and make the mechanism of system operation common throughout. Fujitsu's B².S framework has been further extended with higher features and a wider application range for handling mission-critical applications. We have now added a client product called Client J Framework and extended the functions of Interstage Application Framework Suite. We have also added various mission-critical functions. This paper introduces these added functions.

• Autonomous Control Technology for IT Systems

Information systems allow enterprises to enhance their competitive edge by using information technology in business management. Information systems have become extensive and complex, and are needed to reduce human intervention and decisions to be made on advanced autonomous operation. Fujitsu's Systemwalker (management software for integrated system operation) enables flexible changes in system configuration to recover from trouble, optimize resource allocation, and maintain stable system operation while ensuring operation security. It also reduces the total cost of ownership (TCO) by assisting system administrators in their administrative work throughout the life cycle of the system. To implement the solution above, Fujitsu provides Systemwalker Resource Coordinator (resource control software) and Systemwalker Service Quality Coordinator (service management software) as core products of the virtual, autonomous system platform for Fujitsu's information technology (IT) infrastructure known as TRIOLE. This paper describes the functions that enable the autonomous control feature of the virtual, autonomous system platform.

• Fujitsu's Server Development Directions and Advantages

Now that the age of ubiquitous computing has begun, demands for flexible features that enable data centers to handle large fluctuations in load and non-stop, year-round capabilities for mission-critical applications are increasing. At the same time, data centers are becoming more complicated and face higher operational and management costs due to more complicated system deployments and longer verification times. To address these challenges, Fujitsu develops its server systems with three keywords in mind: open, mission-critical, and global expansion. Pursuing open systems with major global players maximizes our customers' freedom of choice among software and solution stacks. We set ourselves apart from competitors, focusing on mission-critical features acquired through our mainframe business, and develop and deliver servers that are competitive across the globe. This paper discusses Fujitsu's development principles and the advantages of implementing them.

• Storage Supporting Safe, Flexible Operation of Data as Management Resources: ETERNUS and Softek

A storage system is a mission-critical platform needed to construct very reliable and accessible corporate information systems in combination with servers and network equipment. Fujitsu's ETERNUS provides a comprehensive lineup of hardware products ranging from disk arrays, network storage servers, tape libraries, and fiber channel switches to archive storage and virtual disk libraries that can be used to build such corporate information systems. Moreover, Fujitsu's Softek provides the software products to integratedly manage the storage hardware. These hardware and software products fully enable a customer to establish an autonomous storage environment. As core products of TRIOLE, these products are designed to construct storage systems that can guarantee services meeting customer business requirements and reduce system operation costs. This paper describes Fujitsu's storage system concept and its products used to implement said concept.

• Simple High-Reliability Network Servers

To keep up with the rapidly changing business environment, the IT systems of companies need to use broadband networks services such as the Internet, wide-area Ethernet services, and IP-VPN services. To efficiently use these new services, the front tiers of company systems, which are located between an external network and the companies' servers, are becoming more and more complex, leading to an increase in the total cost of ownership. This paper discusses current problems regarding the front tiers of company systems. Then, it introduces the Network Server IPCOM S Series, which implements the TRIOLE Platform Integration Concept, and gives some examples of its use.

• Introduction of Interstage Shunsaku to Search Engine of International Nucleotide Sequence Database

The Center for Information Biology and DNA Data Bank of Japan at the National Institute of Genetics has constructed the International Nucleotide Sequence Database (INSD) and made its database search engine accessible to researchers on the Internet. Thanks to the recent progress in biotechnology, this database is continuing to grow. However, this growth has caused a reduction in the search engine's performance and an increase in the system maintenance cost and other costs. To solve these problems, we applied a high-speed XML type database engine called Interstage Shunsaku Data Manager that Fujitsu developed to the search engine of the INSD. As a result, we achieved a retrieval response of within 10 seconds regardless of the search conditions. By using the existing IT assets of Fujitsu's TRIOLE, we have realized a flexible system. This paper describes some common problems with database search engines, some examples of how to implement Interstage Shunsaku, the effects of its introduction, and its future use and development.

• Application of TRIOLE at National Robot Camera Monitoring System of Japan Broadcasting Corporation

The Tokyo Broadcasting System center of the Japan Broadcasting Corporation (NHK) collects images over the broadband network from fixed-point robot cameras located around the country. This enables the center to quickly send images of disasters and other incidents to its branch offices, which then transmit them to television viewers. By using this system, NHK was able to transmit images of Chuetsu city in Nigata prefecture immediately after it was hit by a big earthquake in October 2004. This system achieves quick delivery and high reliability by combining "TRIOLE" front-end integrated platforms with the "Broadsight" broadband image solution and PRIMERGY, ETERNUS, and Systemwalker Centric Manager. This system is expected to grow with the spread of the Internet. This paper describes the construction of a large-scale image collection and distribution system that uses the TRIOLE IT infrastructure.

• Goals of TRIOLE Technology

IT systems are becoming much bigger and need to operate non-stop to support 24-hour, 365-day business operations. This has caused the operation costs of these IT systems to increase year by year. In TRIOLE, to realize high-reliability, high-operability IT systems, we studied the mechanisms by which living organisms stably control themselves to adapt to changes in the external environment and the death of their cells. We also continued research to implement a suitable autonomic control mechanism and virtualization architecture in computing systems. As a result, we can meet the requirements for non-stop operation of large-scale, high-reliability, high-operability IT systems and a reduction of the operators' burden. This paper introduces our research to implement these mechanisms in TRIOLE and our future goals for developing new technologies.

• Organic Computing

Over the past few years, commodity computer components have become progressively faster and cheaper. Unfortunately, we cannot build large IT systems that have high performance, high reliability and high usability by simply combining these components as is. Moreover, even if this could be achieved, there would be many other difficulties and high management costs because such systems would be too big and complicated to be maintained by a human administrator. Organic computing is a technology to construct, manage, and operate such systems using commodity components. The use of special components is minimized by carefully combining them, and a self-optimization function and means to ease replacement of components are provided at the software level. This paper explains the concept of organic computing and describes several organic-computing functions.

• Technologies for Virtual, Autonomous Systems

Virtual, autonomous mechanisms are expected to serve as a foundation for solid, reliable IT systems that can support social and economic activities. This paper describes a policy-controlled architecture that can become core technology for the autonomous operation of IT systems based on business and system operation requirements. Policy refers to the consolidated information about various decisions, which have conventionally been made by individuals who administrate and maintain IT systems. This paper also proposes a new hierarchical structure that classifies types of policy into four levels, with business requirements ranked first. Moreover, this paper outlines an analysis technology for the application of advanced virtual, autonomous mechanisms. This analysis technology enables us to support the most economical IT system operations based on estimated future requirements for services. These technologies are likely to be further developed for the emerging ubiquitous-networking society.