Case
Fibia
Novataris has delivered an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) to Fibia
Scalable Integration Solution Through An Enterprise Service Bus
Novataris has delivered an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) to Fibia and integrated multiple of their external systems.
What we did
Enterprise Service Bus
Performance Overview
Circuit Breakers
Scalable architecture
Novataris has delivered a scalable integration solution, that makes it possible for Fibia to integrate all their systems through an Enterprise Service Bus, which gives them several advantages:
Novataris has added a layer of logging, which ensures, that all calls and actions are being logged. All communication and transformation of data and protocols are secreted from Fibia’s various systems and handled by the ESB. When Fibia’s system calls an external system, the ESB writes it down, and gathers metrics such as response time and processing. This means, that now Fibia has integrated monitoring in their architecture, and they can easily follow all calls between individual systems, and thereby how all systems perform.
With the opportunity to follow operation closely and get notifications, in case any operational challenges occur, Fibia can see the problems, before they happen. If there is an “issue”, Fibia will be notified with an alarm, which contains all the relevant data. This means that Fibia can easily contact their external partners, locate the issue and quickly fix it. Thereby, Fibia can fix operation-issues in advance and always make sure that the services demanded by the customers are available.
With the implementation of the ESB, Fibia assures, that their systems are more operational stable and robust. In this way they can minimise risk of a system crash.With ’Circuit breakers’ – a ‘software design pattern’, which is used to register errors – Fibia is now able to ensure, that the backend systems do not get overloaded, when exposed to extra pressure. In case that an issue occurs in the process of a system calling another system through the ESB, it is recognised by the ‘circuit breakers’, which will ensure, that the calls will be set on hold. This means, that if an underlying system gets overloaded, it will be paused until it is ready to go again.
A ‘retry pattern’, a process of error handling, is moreover part of ensuring that Fibia’s systems are resistant to transient errors. The ESB ensures to reproduce an earlier try on an operation, if it should fail.
Moreover the ‘thread pools’ ensure that the integrations do not overload the backend-systems. For instance, if a backend-system can handle 10 calls at a time as a maximum, the Thread Pool will be set to 10, and if the maximum is 1000 calls at a time, the Thread Pool will be installed to 1000. In this way, it is ensured, that the ESB will prevent overload of internal and external systems.
With the integration of the ESB, Fibia has an architecture, which is more flexible than before. It is easy for Fibia to replace systems, as Fibia only needs to integrate systems in one place (to the ESB) to ensure that it automatically interacts with the rest of the systems.
About Fibia:
The fiber network company Fibia is owned by NRGi (one of Denmark’s biggest energy companies that counts more than 1,100 employees and around 210,000 shareholders) and ANDEL (Denmark’s biggest shareholder energy and fiber network concern with 400,000 customers and shareholders). Fibia is among Denmark’s largest, and has added fiber nets in big parts of Zealand, the islands and in eastern Jutland. The company supplies more than 300,000 houses and companies with fiber networks and has more than 160,000 customers.
The challenge
With an increase in the number of external systems and protocols, as well as many different integration patterns, Fibia had an increased need to monitor integrations, make business processes visible and measure performance.
Moreover, Fibia needed a more flexible architecture with the ability to easily replace systems.
The solution
Fibia now has a solution, where all components communicate and are integrated through an ESB.
Novataris has centralised logging and monitoring of performance of servers and components in a monitoring tool. All errors, security threats and unexpected usage patterns are monitored, which means that Fibia will be alarmed, if anything requires immediate action.
The ESB’s implementation of ’Circuit breakers’ and ‘retry patterns’, as well as the setup of ‘thread pools’, ensures Fibia, that their systems are operating in a more stable and robust manner with regards to any problems, internally as well as externally.
The Value
With the integration of the ESB it is now easy for Fibia to replace systems, as they only need to integrate them in one place, and the system automatically communicates to the rest of the company’s systems.
With the integrated monitoring in their architecture, Fibia has the right conditions to ensure constant stability in their operation.
Fibia no longer needs to spend time searching for data manually. In other words, Fibia can quickly and easily prevent operational issues and always ensure their customers that the demanded services are available.
With a robust integration solution, the risk of a system crash is minimised.
Fibia Needed to Monitor Their Various External Systems
As Fibia has merged, and experienced a marked growth, they have got more and more external systems and protocols with different integration patterns. Fibia wanted an architecture, which gives them the opportunity to easily view all their calls and business processes.
Thereby they can achieve full overview of their performance. Moreover, Fibia wanted a business, that was easy to scale. Fibia also had a need for a more flexible architecture with the possibility of easily replacing systems.
”The collaboration with Novataris has meant that we now have an Enterprise Service Bus that enables us to easily and quickly integrate new systems into our business, ensuring stable and efficient processes. We feel Novataris understands our business, focuses on the solution and provides proactive advice. We now have a strong foundation to execute our business strategy."
— Carsten Nielsen Enterprise Architect, Fibia
THE DIFFERENCE WE MADE