Organizations that are able to integrate their applications and data sources have a distinct competitive advantage: strategic utilization of company data and technology for greater efficiency and profit. But IT managers attempting integration face daunting challenges--disparate legacy systems; a hodgepodge of hardware, operating systems, and networking technology; proprietary packaged applications; and more.
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) offers a solution to this increasingly urgent business need. It encompasses technologies that enable business processes and data to speak to one another across applications, integrating many individual systems into a seamless whole.
Enterprise Application Integration provides a comprehensive examination of EAI. You will find an overview of EAI goals and approaches, a review of the technologies that support it, and a roadmap to implementing an EAI solution. You will also find an in-depth explanation of the four major types of EAI: data-level, application interface-level, method-level, and user interface-level. The book describes in detail the middleware models and technologies that support these different approaches, including:
- Application servers, including the use of Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) and ActiveX
- Message-oriented middleware (MOM) and remote procedure calls (RPCs)
- Distributed objects, looking at CORBA and COM
- Database-oriented middleware and standards, including ODBC, JDBC, and OLE DB
- Java middleware standards
- Message brokers
- New process automation and workflow technology
This practical guide to implementing an EAI solution leads you through all the major steps, including identifying sources of data, building the enterprise metadata model, process integration, identifying application interfaces, mapping information movement, selecting and applying the technologies, testing, and maintenance. Other key topics include integrating packaged applications such as SAP R/3 and PeopleSoft, integrating the supply chain using EAI, the role of XML, and process automation. Comprehensive, practical, and clearly written, this essential resource will help anyone involved in this important business area understand the nature of EAI, its tools and techniques, and how to apply it for a significant business advantage.
0201615835B04062001
An industry guru demystifies enterprise application integration and shows readers how to define strategies and compare technologies for integrating the entire enterprise, also covering packaged applications, distributed architectures, and more.
This book is a must-read for anyone interested in bringing the power of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) to their enterprise. As corporate dependence on technology has grown more complex and far-reaching, the great promise of EAI has emerged as an important solution for IT management. EAI meets the new need for a method of integrating disparate applications into a unified set of business processes. Renowned EAI expert David Linthicum demystifies the key concepts, teaches the critical techniques, and outlines relevant enabling technologies, allowing IT professionals to unlock the massive potential of EAI.
With this book as your guide, you will gain:
x The skills to achieve the greatest ROI on an IT investment
x The knowledge necessary to categorize and evaluate a wide variety of integration technologies
x Techniques and tools required to EAI-enable your enterprise including state-of-the-art message brokers and application servers
x The ability to develop a road map for your next EAI project
x The knowledge of key EAI concepts, including the future direction of EAI
Acknowledgments.
1. Defining EAI.
What is EAI?
Applying Technology.
How Did Things Get This Bad?
Chaos Today, Order Tomorrow.
Evolution of Stovepipes.
Traditional Systems.
Microcomputer Systems.
Distributed Systems.
Packaged Applications.
Making the Business Case for EAI.
The Virtual System.
e-Business.
Types of EAI.
Middleware and EAI.
2. Data-Level EAI.
Going for the Data.
Data-Level EAI by Example.
Database-to-Database EAI.
Federated Database EAI.
Consider the Data Source.
Relational Data.
Object-Oriented.
Multidimensional.
Other Data Storage Models.
Working with Data-Level EAI.
3. Application Interface-Level EAI.
Application Interfaces.
What’s an API?
Interface by Example.
Approaching Application Interfaces.
The Interface Tradeoff.
Packaged Applications.
Packaged Application Technology Architecture.
Packaged Application APIs.
Other Interfaces.
Custom Applications.
Rolling Your Own API.
Application Wrapping.
Using Application Interfaces.
4. Method-Level EAI.
Method-Level Example.
What’s a Process?
Scenarios.
Rules.
Logic.
Data.
Objects.
Method Warehousing.
Leveraging Frameworks for EAI.
The Value of Frameworks.
Framework Functionality.
Framework Types.
Framework Categories.
Enabling Technology.
Application or Transaction Servers.
Message Brokers.
Distributed Objects.
Sharing Methods to Bind Your Enterprise.
5. User Interface-Level EAI.
Leveraging User Interface-Level EAI.
Going to the User Interface.
Understanding the Application.
Creating the Screen Catalog.
Mapping Screens.
Approaches.
Enabling Technology.
6. The EAI Process—Methodology or Madness?
Applying a Procedure/Methodology.
Step 1: Understanding the Enterprise and Problem Domain.
Step 2: Making Sense of the Data.
Identifying the Data.
Step 3: Making Sense of the Processes.
Process Integration.
The Common Business Model.
Leveraging Patterns for Method-Level EAI.
Step 4: Identifying Application Interfaces.
Application Interface Directory.
Step 5: Identifying the Business Events.
Step 6: Identifying the Schema and Content Transformation Scenarios.
Step 7: Mapping Information Movement.
Step 8: Applying Technology.
Step 9: Testing, Testing, Testing.
Step 10: Considering Performance.
Step 11: Defining the Value.
Step 12: Creating Maintenance Procedures.
Method or Madness?
7. An Introduction to EAI and Middleware.
Middleware: The Engine of EAI.
What’s Middleware?
Types of Middleware.
Middleware Models.
One-to-One versus Many-to-Many.
Synchronous versus Asynchronous.
Connection-Oriented and Connectionless.
Direct Communications.
Queued Communications.
Publish/Subscribe.
Request Response.
Fire and Forget.
Conversational-Mode.
Tough Choices.
8. Transactional Middleware and EAI.
Notion of a Transaction.
The ACIDTest.
Scalable Development.
Database Multiplexing.
Load Balancing.
Fault Tolerance.
Communications.
XA and X/Open.
Building Transactions.
Application Servers.
Evolving Transactions.
Future of Transactional Middleware.
9. RPCs, Messaging, and EAI.
RPCs.
DCE.
Message-Oriented Middleware (MOM).
MSMQ.
IBM MQSeries.
Getting the Message.
10. Distributed Objects and EAI.
What Works.
What’s So Difficult?
What’s So Easy?
What’s a Distributed Object?
The General Idea.
CORBA.
Shortfalls.
CORBA Internals.
COM.
OLE Automation.
Moving to DCOM.
The Realities.
11. Database-Oriented Middleware and EAI.
What’s Database-Oriented Middleware?
Types of Database-Oriented Middleware.
ODBC.
JDBC.
OLEDB.
Going Native.
Database Gateways.
Ready for Prime Time.
12. Java Middleware and EAI.
Categories of Java Middleware Standards.
Database-Oriented.
Interprocess.
Message Oriented.
Application-Hosting.
Distributed Objects.
The Future of Java and Middleware.
13. Implementing and Integrating Packaged Applications—The General Idea.
Why Packaged Applications?
Installing Packaged Applications.
Business Drivers.
Architectures Drive Success.
Testing What Has Already Been Tested.
Implementing Specific Packages.
Packaged Application Tools.
Database Issues.
Web Enablement.
The Opportunity.
Web-Enabled Selling and EAI.
Integrating the Supply Chain.
Applying EAI to Packaged Applications.
Our Packaged Future.
14. Integrating SAP R/3.
The Basic Problem.
SAP Architecture.
The SAPRepository.
The SAPPresentation Layer.
The SAPApplication Server Layer.
The SAPDatabase Layer.
SAP Middleware.
ALE.
IDOC.
BAPI.
Using the Repository.
SAP and EAI.
15. Integrating Peoplesoft.
PeopleSoft Architecture.
Data Level.
Data Mover.
SQRs and Moving Data.
Workflow and Moving Data.
Application Interfaces.
Screen Scraping.
EDI.
Workflow.
Workstation.
What’s Best?
16. Supply Chain Integration: Inter-Enterprise Application Integration.
Defining Your Supply Chain.
Extending EAI outside the Enterprise.
Binding the Home System to a Stranger’s.
The Process.
Supply Chain Technology.
ERPs and the Supply Chain.
Supply Chains Organize.
17. XML and EAI.
The Rise of XML.
What’s XML?
Data Structures.
DTDs.
XML Parsers.
XML Metadata.
XML and Middleware.
Persistent XML.
RDF and EAI.
XSL and EAI.
XML and EAI.
18. Message Brokers—The Preferred EAI Engine.
Integration, not Perspiration.
Why a New Direction?
Considering the Source (and Target).
Message Translation Layer.
Schema Conversions.
Data Conversion.
Intelligent Routing.
Rules Processing.
Message Warehousing.
Repository Services.
Graphical User Interface.
Directory Services.
Management.
Adapters.
Thin Adapters.
Thick Adapters.
Static and Dynamic Adapters.
Using an API.
Topologies.
The Future of EAI and Brokers.
19. Process Automation and EAI.
What is Process Automation?
Process Automation and EAILevels.
Implementing Process Automation.
Documenting Processes.
Defining Processes.
Executing Processes.
Tools and Approaches.
Workflow Standards.
Process Automation and EAI.
20. EAI Moving Forward.
Problem Domains Change.
Moving from Intra- to Inter-Enterprise Application Integration.
Moving from Data-Level to Application-Level Integration.
Loose Ends.
Vendor Approaches.
Data-Oriented.
Application Integration-Oriented.
Process Automation-Oriented.
Transaction-Oriented.
Distributed Object-Oriented.
Technologies Join Forces.
Future Directions.
Importance of the Architecture.
Importance of Application Design.
EAI and the Modern Enterprise.
Glossary.
Bibliography.
Index. 0201615835T04062001