Services and Systems

1
Services and Systems
2
Services and Systems

• This is an outline of the technical resources and
  process available to you as a Technical Project
  Manager to build, host and support your
  products/3rd party products on bbc.co.uk
• It is divided into 2 sections
• Services what we can provide for you to build
  your applications
• Hosting where your services will live
• Help Documents and Contacts to help you

3
Services - Introduction

• Our technical partner Siemens hosts a large
  architecture to deliver bbc.co.uk. Together the
  the range of applications developed and
  maintained within the BBC it provides a set of
  services which can be used to deliver your
  products.
• This section outlines these services, what they
  are and relevant documentation. Generally if the
  BBC provides a service dont re-implement it
  within your own application without approval
• Note next to a service means may require
  setup ( configuration or build before use )

4
Services Limitations

• Most services require setup with will need to be
  arranged with Siemens
• Applications must be installed and security
  checked this requires internal planning and must
  be accounted for in your project plan
• All Services here are subject to the Standards on
  http//www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/newmedia/
• Capacity requirements and variations on these
  services must be discussed up front
• Some services have issues or bugs

5
Services Streaming/Downloads

• What on offer
• Clip Streaming Windows/Real/Flash Format
• Live Streaming Windows/Real Format
• Downloads MP3, FLA, Podcasting Other formats
  on request
• Clip Creation/Encoding from Desktop or live
  sources
• Live Encoding from live sources
• Can Limit above to UK only serving for rights
  reasons
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/newmedia/technical
  /a_v_streaming.shtml
• Fiona Batson

6
Services HTTP Delivery

• What on offer
• HTTPS/SSL secure page delivery from Apache
• HTTP serving from Apache features include SSI,
  .htaccess, rewrite rules, password/IP restriction
• BBC-UID user identifying cookie
• Geo-IP Content delivery based on country
• RSS, polled file delivery
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines ( HTML, RSS,
  Barley, Cookies )
• Nick Holmes

7
Services Applications

• What on offer
• Solaris/Apache/Modperl/Perl 5.6 redundant
  Application Servers
• Development environment replicates above and
  open to 3rd parties to build applications on
• Staging Environment pre-live environment used
  for UAT and pre-live testing
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/newmedia/restricte
  d/technical/app_dev.shtml
• NM Tech Forum WG - Application Development

8
Services Database

• What on offer
• MySQL 4.1 Single and Master/Slave Servers
• Oracle 9i Single Servers / non-clustered
• SQL Server - Clustered
• Development available MySQL Instance
• Staging Environment Contains MySQL and Oracle
  Instances
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/newmedia/technical
  /databases.shtml
• Mike Hilton

9
Services Community

• What on offer
• Live Chat Event based IRC. Can be used for
  Interviews and other moderated QA sessions
• DNA Message Boards In-House message board
  system
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/newmedia/interacti
  vity/communities.shtml
• Dan Dixon

10
Services Sync Services

• What on offer
• custom software to do large scale real-time
  communication to Flash Clients. Includes
• LiveText Display Real Team text to Client
• LiveChat Flash based Chatrooms
• Gameshows/Quizzes
• Mark.Hewis_at_bbc.co.uk

11
Services Mobile

• What on offer
• SMS bulk deals in place for SMS send, link
  Send and inbound
• Streaming 3GP streaming to mobiles
• Phone type detection
• Chris.Yanda

12
Services Backstage

• What on offer
• Feeds Many BBC data-sources and APIs available
  here for testing and trialing on a non-commerical
  basis
• User community to discuss use of above and
  interesting applications based on them
• New services Blogs and Wikis
• http//backstage.bbc.co.uk
• Ben Metcalfe
• Notes Is an open community and a less supported
  service than the main site

13
Services Email

• What on offer
• Majordomo Email List sending
• Application Email ability to send emails out
  from within your applications using SendMail
• Bulk Email Sending Dedicated servers for bulk
  email send
• Damion Yates

14
Services Content Upload

• What on offer
• Ability to send content by a single FTP account
  to
• Web Servers
• Application Servers
• Clip Streaming Servers
• Download servers
• Mechanism ensures content is distributed across
  all servers
• http//support.bbc.co.uk/operations/requests.shtml
  
• Caroline Yates

15
Services Content Production

• What on offer
• Dedicated servers to create and upload content
• External Content Production Servers - which can
  see Live Databases and Content can run
  Perl/CGI/Crontab applications
• Internal Content Production Servers - which
  cannot see Live Environment but can upload to
  it and can see internal BBC Production Services
  
• Andrew Macinnes

16
Services Stats

• What on offer
• Log Files based analysis offers
• Processing for previous days results
• Reports via Internal Facing Web-site only
• Limited access to raw log files
• Must ensure stats team know about new services
• Danny Freedman

17
Services Shared Applications

• What on offer
• Single Sign On Site Wide User
  login/registration
• Polling Voting and Rating System
• log2results high volume user data collation
  and voting system
• http//technet.wc.bbc.co.uk great resource of
  shared applications
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/newmedia/infrastru
  cture/supported_software.shtml
• Robin Doran, John Alden

18
Services Shared Applications

• What on offer
• Cgiemail form to internal email application for
  feedback
• Postcard send templated email to another user
• Whatson search, include BBC Program schedules
• Search Site search and web search
• Navigation Barley standard templating system
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/newmedia/restricte
  d/technical/barley_implemen.shtml
• http//technet.wc.bbc.co.uk, Andrew Macinnes,
  Nick Holmes

19
UPDATE - New services coming soon

• Borg2 faster distribution Available
• Multicast Live Streaming - Available
• News - real time stats/logging Available
• Jabberd - Available
• Capacity upgrade database, web, application,
  CPS Q4 2006
• Perl 5.8 Available
• MySQL 5.0 Q1 2007
• Av Upgrade downloads, streaming, Flash
  Streaming - Done
• Storage Management Caching, AV, Web, downloads
  - Done
• Database access from bbc.co.uk to internal Q2
  2007
• Training/Docs Q2 2007
• iPlayer!!!!!
• Blogs, open.bbc.co.uk and backstage ( developer
  API )
• Mark.hewis_at_bbc.co.uk for more information

20
Issues with Current Architecture

• GROWTH!! Users, Bandwidths and complexity
• Load capacity on CPS, Application layer, Email
  Lists
• Build up to date, in sync
• Environments Development, Staging
• Process what, when and how
• Other languages/frameworks Ruby or Java??
• Database clean up
• Connectivity BBC to bbc.co.uk, FTP, Upload,
  Database
• User Generated Content Picture of Britain
• Complex AV Chain and reliability

21
Hosting Options - Introduction

• As outlined we have a large variety of services
  and environment ready to use. But for certain
  services and applications this may be applicable.
  Be aware of the following options available to
  you and issues with them
• Shared Hosting
• Point Hosting
• External Hosting
• http//www.bbc.co.uk/guidelines/newmedia/infrastru
  cture/third_party.shtml

22
Hosting Options - Shared

• Using the existing Modperl Application
  Environment to host your application
• Pro No additional cost for hosting incurred by
  the project ( centrally funded )
• Pro 1st/2nd Line Support included and centrally
  funded
• Pro Capacity and growth handled as part of
  gernal upgrade
• Pro Well understood environment by support team
• Con restrictions on the language and type of
  services developed

23
Hosting Options - Point

• Custom Servers managed and hosted by Siemens on
  the application behalf
• Pro Almost full control of the environment you
  need to host your application
• Pro Can make use of Network and other Services
  listed here
• Con Full cost including support needs to be
  included in Project Cost
• Con Environment must still pass Security and
  other BBC Standards
• Con Requires more setup time and Contract for
  Support

24
Hosting Options - External

• 3rd party provides Hosting, Support and Setup
  or existing Web Service
• Pro Full control of the environment you need to
  host your application
• Pro If existing Service provided to many other
  users can be very cost effective
• Con Full cost including support needs to be
  included in Project Cost
• Con Environment must still pass Security and
  other BBC Standards
• Con Limited access to BBC Services

25
Help - Documents

• Training Website has links to the following docs
• Standard Software Contract
• Standards and Guidelines
• Sample Request for Quote
• Guidelines for Commissioners
• These training Presentations
• Internal Wikis and resources
• http//connect.bu.bbc.co.uk/infra/TrainingDays

26
Help - People

• For each service listed here there is a contact
  name plus the below
• Mark Hewis any issues or queries about
  architecture or technical variation from
  standards. Any concerns over load, volumes or
  issues during implementation. Advice on contracts
• Andrew Macinnes relationships with Red Bee and
  Siemens, problems with dates, service setup. Has
  resource for some development and integration
  work
• Richard Cooper Major changes to architecture
  triage for critical deadlines

27
The Future BBC 2.0

• New Languages beyond perl
• Playground!!!
• User Generated Content Management
• More Help for Indies guide to BBC
• Training Courses
• Components and Services
• What else do you need?

28
BBC 2.0 New Services
29
(No Transcript)
30
The Future BBC 2.0 needs you

• Build components
• Experiment
• Use the services we provide
• Feedback

31
The Future BBC 2.0

• What else do you need?