Architecture X: End User Computing with Shadow Environment in a Provably Assured Manner

Given the volatility of the commercial markup tool market, with Microsoft and Google recently withdrawing products, and the fact that other mashup tools require mashup code and data to reside on public servers (e.g, Yahoo Pipes), we instead use a Harmonia-developed mashup tool called XpditeIt from past SBIR work that is specifically tailored to the SOA environment. We use Conforma from Harmonia’s past SBIR work to continuously audit security. Our work has two main thrusts. First, we facilitate the ability of end users of computing systems to control the way they use and aggregate content from service-oriented architecture services. We support services that include REST, RSS, SOAP, AJAX, XML, and more in a system called Architecture X. We interface with the DoD Metadata Registry (MDR), Global Combat Support System (GCSS), and/or Net Centric Enterprise Services (NCES) and we support a multiple security domain environment. Second, we use an approach that maximizes confidentiality, integrity, and availability (CIA). Architecture X segregates end users and their mashups. The segregation allows us to provide a provably assured approach, to evaluate risks of mashups that users create to CIA, and to predict threats to the assurance of DoD services prior to their utilization. BENEFIT: Our proposed solution, Architecture X, directly supports realization of a net-centric world in DoD Directive 8320.2, "Data Sharing in a Net-Centric Department of Defense.” It facilitates data interoperability in DoD, application of semantic information from meta-tagging on data made available in SOA services, and application of associated information assurance and security mechanisms surrounding use of services. Our own measurements of the effectiveness of our XpditeIt tool on benchmark problems show that the time required by a user to create mashups of data from SOA web services is 80 to 85% less compared to the time required for traditional construction of applications. This can cut the time to construct web service based applications to a range of minutes for trivial applications to under an hour for a complex application. In today’s environment of full-spectrum military operations where the Air Force is being called on to carry out operations across the globe from stability and support operations in Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom to preparation for Major Combat Operations, Architecture X will bring an unprecedented ability for analysts to gain information superiority through a rapid and flexible means of aggregating content and pinpointing data relationships needed for decisions.