August 7, 2003 BITS C461/IS C341 Software Engineering1 Infrastructure for Software Service Provider Last Update: August 6, 2003 Aditya Mathur

August 7, 2003 BITS C461/IS C341 Software Engineering2 Current paradigm for software distribution Commercial software is distributed as: Updates are sent on media or directly on-line. Shrink wrap. We buy this from a physical or an online shop. Embedded software comes with the device purchased. Updates are via the network or manually installed by specialists.

August 7, 2003 BITS C461/IS C341 Software Engineering3 Implications of the current paradigm [1] Usually, a customer buys the entire application that may have thousands of features. A user generally uses a small fraction of the entire application feature set, but pays for all! A new release is usually purchased at an additional cost. Sharing of data produced by an application becomes difficult or impossible if new release is not purchased.

August 7, 2003 BITS C461/IS C341 Software Engineering4 Implications of the current paradigm [2] All features of an application are usually constructed and maintained by one company. If an application binary requires X amount of memory and Y number of users buy it then the total disk space used is XY. Switching from an application from one manufacturer to another application with the same feature set but by a different manufacturer, incurs additional cost. User’s are forced to buy more memory, primary and disk space, to load an entire application even when they do not use most of it.

August 7, 2003 BITS C461/IS C341 Software Engineering5 Set of dynamically composable applications App 3 App 2 App 1 An alternate paradigm: Capsules and SSP Capsule

August 7, 2003 BITS C461/IS C341 Software Engineering6 User’s view Set of dynamically composable applications App 3 App 2 App 1 Capsule User Subscribes to SSP (LFAM) LFAM: Library and Financial Accounts Manager Begins using the application (CS) CS: Capsule Server Selects an app (LMI) LMI: Library Management Interface Pays for use. Never needs to buy an application (LFAM).

August 7, 2003 BITS C461/IS C341 Software Engineering7 Developer’s view Set of dynamically composable applications App 3 App 2 App 1 Capsule Developer Browses capsule specifications (CSV) CSV: Capsule Specification and Validation Submits capsule (CSV) Selects capsule(s) for development Gets paid depending on Capsule use (LFAM).

August 7, 2003 BITS C461/IS C341 Software Engineering8 Your tasks Understand the problem well. Perform requirement analysis. Make good use of information and components already available to you. Design SSP infrastructure components. Give careful thought to various component interfaces and features. Prototype the SSP infrastructure components and show that this is a feasible concept. Be a pioneer! Do something different! Something useful!