Middleware Connectors for Legacy Cloud Deployment
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Solution Overview
Problem
Legacy software applications are not natively adapted for cloud environments, making it difficult for enterprises to migrate these applications to the cloud, as existing solutions require custom implementations for each application, lacking a unified approach to provide cloud services.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of uniform application programming interfaces (APIs) and connectors that expose non-cloud applications as if they were designed for the cloud, using middleware to manage tenancy and routing, allowing for pseudo-tenancy support across various application types, including non-tenant, single-tenant, many-tenant, and multi-tenant applications.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Adaptability or versatility
If custom implementations are used for each legacy application to provide cloud services, then each application can be deployed in the cloud, but the system complexity and deployment effort increase significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal connector framework that provides a standardized interface for deploying multiple legacy applications in the cloud. Instead of creating custom implementations for each application, the system uses a single connector architecture that can adapt to different application types (non-tenant, single-tenant, many-tenant, and multi-tenant applications), thereby reducing implementation complexity while maintaining cloud deployment capability across diverse applications.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent introduces connectors as intermediary components that sit between legacy applications and the cloud environment. These connectors translate and adapt application-specific protocols and data formats into a unified cloud interface, eliminating the need for custom implementations for each application while enabling seamless cloud deployment.
2Productivity
If legacy applications are migrated to the cloud without native cloud adaptation, then existing applications can be deployed quickly, but they lack unified cloud tenancy support and consistent cloud experience
Solution Approach 1:
The patent introduces connectors as intermediary components that sit between legacy applications and the cloud environment. These connectors translate and adapt application-specific protocols and data formats into a unified cloud interface, eliminating the need for custom implementations for each application while enabling seamless cloud deployment.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent segments the cloud deployment architecture into distinct layers: the legacy application layer, the connector layer, and the cloud service layer. This segmentation allows legacy applications to be deployed quickly without native cloud adaptation while the connector layer handles the complexity of cloud tenancy support and unified interface provision.
3Adaptability or versatility
If different API abstraction layers are used for various application types, then each application can maintain its specific interface requirements, but upgrading and maintaining consistency across applications becomes difficult
Solution Approach 1:
The patent implements a universal connector framework that provides a standardized interface for deploying multiple legacy applications in the cloud. Instead of creating custom implementations for each application, the system uses a single connector architecture that can adapt to different application types (non-tenant, single-tenant, many-tenant, and multi-tenant applications), thereby reducing implementation complexity while maintaining cloud deployment capability across diverse applications.
Data Source
AI summary
A system, method, apparatus and computer program product is described to provide a plurality of connectors, the connectors configured to support one or more applications in at least one configuration selected from a group of configurations including: i) a non-tenant, and non-tenant aware, application, ii) a non-tenant, but tenant aware, application, iii) a many tenant application, iv) a multi-tenant application, and v) a native multi-tenant application. Also provided are one or more application programming interfaces (APIs) to the connectors, the one or more APIs providing a substantially uniform interface to applications supported by the connectors. In one embodiment, a governance layer provides the APIs, and the governance layer communicates with the connectors, so that an application's tenancy support is obfuscated.