Workflow runtime environment with distributed control and networked service invocations having separate logical and physical endpoint identifiers

Abstract

A method is described. The method includes building a description of a workflow. The method also includes creating an embedded workflow description by embedding the description of the workflow with logical identifiers of different instances of services that are available over a network. The method also includes repeatedly performing a) and b) below to execute the embedded workflow: a) dispatching the embedded workflow to a control worker node within a pool of free control worker nodes, the control worker node referring to the embedded workflow description and issuing a job request that defines one or more next operations of the workflow upon the control worker node recognizing that execution of the next one or more operations is appropriate in view of the workflow's state, the next one or more operations including a function call to a service identified by one of the logical identifiers; b) dispatching the job request to an execution worker node within a pool of free execution worker nodes, the execution worker node executing the next one or more operations including mapping the logical identifier of the service to a physical location of the service, incorporating the physical location and the function call into a packet and sending the packet over the network.