Abstracts of Magazine FUJITSU 2006-3 (VOL.57, NO.2)

Special Issue 1: Middleware

• Approaches for Strong Enterprise Systems Based on SOA

To cope with the rapidly and drastically changing business environment, enterprises must be able to quickly and rapidly adapt the IT systems they use for routine business activities. In addition, the IT systems that top management use to make their decisions must provide the latest information. Fujitsu's Interstage provides the following SOA/BPM-based middleware components as a foundation for building strong enterprise systems: Enterprise Service Bus, Business Process Monitoring, and Enterprise Information Integration. This paper describes a customer's system that uses two of these components and Fujitsu's approach regarding middleware for constructing strong and flexible systems.

• Infrastructure for Security Compliance Management System

The Japanese Act on the Protection of Personal Information was enacted in April 2005. In addition, when the Japanese version of the SOX law is enacted, affected companies will have to continuously audit and improve their general information security measures. To help such companies, Fujitsu is developing an infrastructure for the security compliance management system (SCMS). SCMS will enable a company to satisfy company-wide information security criteria based on the company's policies and rules. Therefore, it strengthens the information security governance of a whole company and reduces the TCO of security compliance measures. In this paper, we introduce our infrastructure model for SCMS and explain the computer virus inspection technology, thin client, and security audit trail management as elements of the infrastructure.

• Short-term Construction of Mission-critical Systems

Today's stronger competition, looser regulations, diversification of customer needs, and greater workloads are encouraging enterprises to make their mission-critical systems distributed and increase the scale and complexity of these systems. As a result, system construction and operation requirements such as improved efficiency, faster processing, better system stability and flexibility, and lower TCO have become the most important issues for information system departments. Fujitsu's Interstage Business Application Server (mission-critical system framework) solution for enterprise mission-critical systems reduces development periods and adds greater flexibility to enterprise systems. This paper describes this system.

• Symfoware Disaster Recovery

The demands for stable operation of corporate information systems continue to grow, and in recent years, there has been an urgent demand for protection against natural disasters, terrorisms, and other destabilizing events. To meet these demands, Fujitsu offers its Symfoware Disaster Recovery system, which is based on the Symfoware high-reliability database and incorporates Fujitsu's expertise in mainframes, new hardware, and other core technology areas. When a disaster occurs at a customer's main center, this system switches operation to a previously prepared remote standby center. By using this system, customers can protect their data and quickly resume business activities when a disaster occurs. This paper describes the Symfoware Disaster Recovery system.

• AsIs Data Searching Using Database Engine "Shunsaku Data Manager"

Conventionally, when new systems are constructed, it is common to pre-design the data construction and pre-define the search requirements. However, these tasks have recently become difficult because systems and system requirements are changing and diversifying and also because systems need to be constructed faster than before. To cope with this trend when conventional pre-design models are insufficient, it becomes necessary to store data as is and be able to search data in whatever manner is preferred. Fujitsu has used the term "AsIs" to describe this concept of data storage and searching. Interstage Shunsaku Data Manager is an innovative database engine based on the AsIs concept and has some unconventional features such as "no-schema" and "no-index." This paper describes some of the practical benefits that Shunsaku Data Manager has provided and gives an overview of its technologies. It then describes the evolution of Shunsaku Data Manager.

• Practical Application of Autonomic Infrastructure for IT Systems "Systemwalker Resource Coordinator"

Autonomic computing is a new technology that is expected to reduce the operation load of complex, large-scale IT systems and ensure they operate stably. However, there is currently insufficient understanding of how this technology can be applied to actual systems and what benefits it will provide. One of the examples of the progress Fujitsu is making in this area is a product for realizing virtualization and automation we have developed called Systemwalker Resource Coordinator. This paper describes how Systemwalker Resource Coordinator reduces the workload of system administrators by providing tools for virtualization, visualization, and optimization of resource allocation (provisioning) and repurposing. It also describes some practical applications of Systemwalker Resource Coordinator.

• Achieving Security and Efficiency in Electronic Business Documentation

Ledger sheets are used to visualize business information and are indispensable for accomplishing business tasks such as providing over-the-counter customer services and order placement/acceptance. Businesses are making rapid progress in IT, and various laws concerning IT are being introduced. Also, there has been a rapid move toward electronic documentation in recent years. The main purpose for using electronic ledger sheets was to reduce costs. However, since the April 2005 enactment of the Japanese Act on the Protection of Personal Information, the emphasis has shifted to keeping ledger and other business information secure and establishing internal data security controls. To meet these new goals, requests for operation and management controls that computerize ledger sheets and keep them secure are rapidly increasing. Fujitsu' Interstage List Works is a ledger sheet solution for computerizing ledger sheets and making them secure. It also enables ledger sheets to be used for other purposes and improves documentation efficiency, which conflicts with document security. This paper describes Fujitsu's approach to electronic business documentation and its future development.

• Service Integration Platform Combining Communication and Information Services: Interstage SIPnet

With the growth of VoIP use, communication services such as telephone communication and teleconferencing services are now being offered on IP networks in the same way as information services. As a result, the need for carriers and other enterprises to provide new enterprise services that combine communication services with information services is increasing. Fujitsu developed its Interstage SIPnet based on the concepts of innovating work styles and improving work efficiency through the use of integrated services. Interstage SIPnet provides an environment for seamless integration of communication services and information services. It also provides a voice communication infrastructure that enables voice services to be introduced to conventional enterprises and provides multi-function clients for supporting diversified enterprise activities. This paper introduces Fujitsu's activities for realizing integrated services and Interstage SIPnet.

Special Issue 2: Education Solutions

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• System for Subject Registration in Web Environment

Recently, to make students' campus lives more convenient, systems that enable a university's Internet portal to be used to perform administrative procedures have become very popular. These systems make it possible, for example, for university administrators to cancel lectures, contact students, register students' address changes, and help students apply for scholarships, all via a network. Universities are especially promoting the introduction of Internet-based class-subject registration systems, which significantly improve student services by improving student's school lives and reducing the workload of office personnel, thereby improving office efficiency and reducing costs. This paper describes the subject registration function of Fujitsu's Campusmate-J Integrated Business Application for Universities and its application at Osaka Sangyo University.

• Introduction of IT in Universities and Fujitsu's Campusmate/CourseNavig Solution for Course Management

Many universities have their own IT infrastructure system composed of a network, Internet servers, and personal computers. These systems have mainly been used for teaching students how to write computer programs and use word processing software to write documents. However, an increasing number of universities are using these systems to improve the quality of their courses and make them more efficient. Because of the falling revenues due to declining numbers of students, administrators are trying to make their institutions more attractive to students, students' families, and stakeholders. They are focusing on how to provide more attractive courses and expand the range of their students' abilities. In this paper, we describe the process of introducing IT to higher education by looking at the changes in university management, national policies, and examples of American higher education. We then describe our "Campusmate/CourseNavig" solution for improving course management at universities.

• Identity Management in University-Wide Computer Environments

In recent years, widespread use of integrated authentication based on Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) has increased the demand for identity management systems that enable integrated management of user information. In addition, universities, which often have multi-vendor networks, require integrated management so they can better handle their user information and streamline their management. Identity management systems have several benefits, but they also have many problems, for example, they are expensive. In this paper, we describe some of the difficulties with identity management systems. Then, we describe the Campusmate/ICAssist Identity Management package we have developed for universities to overcome these difficulties.

• Fujitsu's Approach to Digital Archive Systems

The digital-library and digital-museum information systems that are used in libraries, public archives, museums, academic institutions, and cultural faculties, are now also being applied as digital archive systems. It is hoped that these digital archive systems will enable the public to digitally access valuable archives and also contribute to the publication of information and archive reuse. Fujitsu has made an important contribution in this area by developing a digital archive solution for managing digital archive content ranging from ancient cultural heritages to recent academic papers. This paper describes the recent trends in digital archive systems and introduces Fujitsu's digital archive solution.

• Integrated Library Information System - Java: iLiswave-J

To respond to the changing needs and challenges surrounding university libraries, Fujitsu provides the ILIS (Integrated Library Information System) series for university libraries. Since its release in 1998, Fujitsu's iLiswave (ILIS on Window Access Virtual Environment) has been widely appreciated due to its compatibility with the cataloging services provided by the National Institute of Informatics (previously the NACSIS) and abundant functions that can be widely applied in numerous libraries. The rapid progress of Web-based technologies has promoted widespread use of Web-based services, and Web-based applications focused on customer services have become mainstream in various fields, including university libraries. iLiswave-J, the next-generation ILIS package, has inherited functionalities from iLiswave and uses Web-technologies and Java applets to improve its operation and management processes. This paper introduces iLiswave-J.

• Fujitsu's New Library Solution

In the e-Japan Policy, public libraries are regarded as important information centers for local regions and are expected to expand the services they provide. To increase the value of public libraries as information centers, Fujitsu offers the iLiswing 21 series of library package systems and proposes a new solution for expanding their use. In this paper, we describe three examples of improving library services: 1) the expansion of services by cooperation between a public library and school library, 2) efficiency improvement and expansion of services by using RFIDs, and 3) expansion of services by cooperation between public libraries using general catalogues that can be commonly used in all cooperating libraries. Many libraries are introducing these services, and we explain these as advanced examples of new library services.

• Information Infrastructure for Board of Education

In Japan, we have approximately 34,000 primary schools and junior high schools governed by 2,000 boards of education working in local governments. The amount of basic information about these schools, for example, students' names and annual school accounts, is becoming huge. However, there is practically no effective infrastructure for this information. Instead, it is processed on paper or, at best, on PCs using office software such as spreadsheets and word processors. To ease this situation, Fujitsu has provided many information infrastructure solutions such as database systems for schools' general affairs. All our solutions are built using our common basic application framework, which is based on the J2EE Java environment. Our framework-based applications enable local boards of education and teachers to effectively and easily manage their information. In this paper, we introduce our information infrastructure for boards of education and schools' general affairs.

• IT Safety Solution for Schools

There has been a recent increase in the number of violent crimes against children. Despite measures taken by schools (e.g., security sensors, surveillance cameras, security officers) and communities, this type of crime is becoming more frequent and the demand for IT technology that protects children is becoming stronger. To protect children, it is important to determine their location as quickly as possible, and as a minimum requirement, school administrators need to know when their students are commuting to and from school. Also, speedy transmission of information about intruders and local areas from the school side is an important means of protecting children. This paper describes the installation and operation of "commuting to and from school information service" based on radio frequency identification (RFID) tags and "school communication network service" sent by e-mails.