Orchestration (computing)

Template:Short description In system administration, orchestration is the automated configuration, coordination,<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> deployment, development, and management of computer systems and software.<ref name="Erl">Template:Cite book</ref> Many tools exist to automate server configuration and management.

Usage

Orchestration is often discussed in the context of service-oriented architecture, virtualization, provisioning, converged infrastructure and dynamic data center topics. Orchestration in this sense is about aligning the business request with the applications, data, and infrastructure.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

In the context of cloud computing, the main difference between workflow automation and orchestration is that workflows are processed and completed as processes within a single domain for automation purposes, whereas orchestration includes a workflow and provides a directed action towards larger goals and objectives.<ref name="Erl" />

In this context, and with the overall aim to achieve specific goals and objectives (described through the quality of service parameters), for example, meet application performance goals using minimized cost<ref name="sc2011workflow">Template:Cite book</ref> and maximize application performance within budget constraints,<ref name="ipdps2013scaling">Template:Cite book</ref> cloud management solutions also encompass frameworks for workflow mapping and management. In the context of application programming interfaces (APIs), API orchestration refers to the process of integrating multiple APIs into a unified system in order to streamline workflows and enhance user experience. The approach coordinates the flow of data, the execution sequence, and the dependencies among different APIs to achieve a defined business objective. API orchestration is commonly applied in environments that utilize microservices architectures or legacy systems, where the interaction of several APIs is required to complete a task. <ref>Template:Cite web</ref>

See also

• Job Control Language
• System management
• Web service choreography
• Configuration management
• Infrastructure as code
• Server provisioning
• Service-oriented architecture
• Kubernetes
• Job scheduler
• List of orchestration software