Orchestration (computers)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Orchestration describes the automated arrangement, coordination, and management of complex computer systems, middleware, and services.
It is often discussed as having an inherent intelligence (trait) or even implicitly autonomic control, but those are largely aspirations or analogies rather than technical descriptions. In reality, orchestration is largely the effect of automation or systems deploying elements of control theory.
This usage of orchestration is often discussed in the context of virtualization, provisioning, and dynamic datacenter topics. It is often used as a buzzword.
A somewhat different usage relates to the process of coordinating an exchange of information through web service interactions. (See also service-oriented architecture).
[edit] Examples
- Intervoice Media Exchange contains an orchestration engine that has been designed to initiate and manage media interactions. It is the industry's first commercially available product that has implemented State Chart eXtensible Markup Language (SCXML) as the framework for building complex multi-modal interactions.
- Microsoft BizTalk Server contains an orchestration engine often used for business process management (BPM), allowing developers to quickly orchestrate complex business processes involving multiple disparate systems.
- NetBeans Enterprise Pack is an open-source SOA tool that contains BPEL visual designer and runtime that allow to easily orchestrate Web Services in a BPEL process, execute, test and debug the designed processes
