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December 29, 2002
Thoughts about application routing
I have recently read several pieces on a new approach to software integration, called Application Layer Internetworking or Layer 7 routing. I won't rehash what is already discussed on those links, so I would highly recommend that you read through them.
ALIN will have major impact on the network, application development, and the way we think of network services and who participates in and develops network services. Microsoft is already making a huge and aggressive investment in distributed object computing with their .NET strategy. IBM has committed $10B to grid computing, which is a closely-related technology. Developments in other distributed computing technologies (consumer peer-to-peer, SIP, etc) may also lead to some interesting technologies when combined with ALIN.
One of the most interesting areas of ALIN deployment will be with security, in several ways. The biggest frustration with ALIN will probably be with securing distributed components. It's been difficult to secure applications when they're inside the corporate environment; extending application components outside the corporate network using ALIN will present a new set of security requirements and challenges.
I think ALIN will provide more powerful methods to secure applications and the underlying infrastructure. ALIN provides standard methods of open communications between applications, and also provides visibility into those applications. If the lower-layer infrastructure could have more information to distinguish a legitimate transaction from a malicious one, or know the importance of one transaction from another, all 7 layers could coordinate to properly handle ALIN transport.
ALIN could provide a significant improvement over today's strict layered approach, with little or no information-sharing between the network and applications, which has grown increasingly ineffective at protecting both the network and applications.
Posted by pete at December 29, 2002 03:42 PM
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