The increasing heterogeneity of information systems has prompted companies to develop in-house integration solutions or to choose the more costly option of integration broker tools. The new Sun Microsystems standard, J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA), will give rise to a change in the integration broker market, which until now has been dominated by proprietary tools. The interoperability requirements brought about by e-business will accelerate this change, and tomorrow's range of EAI technologies will become clearer.

Complex Information Systems Must Be Heterogeneous

Today's information systems are made up of several applications that respond to precise functional requirements. Some of these applications are the result of specific developments, while others are packaged solutions (e.g., ERP, CRM solutions). Generally, these require considerable investment, generate profit, offer competitive advantages and play an essential role in the day-to-day running of a company.

The resulting information systems are often heterogeneous; company takeovers, mergers and reorganizations are factors that add to this trend. This heterogeneity is unavoidable and is something that IT managers must come to terms with.

Integrating Applications Using a Point-to-Point Approach

Information systems that have reached a certain level of complexity are confronted with a traditional problem: how can applications be integrated with one another? For example, sales applications require data from ERP, and the business process of order management requires data from Oracle, Sybase and Siebel databases.

Point-to-Point Integration

One solution involves developing specific integration solutions that can quickly meet integration requirements. These solutions are generally based on traditional client/server tools (e.g., Delphi, stored procedures, ORB, file transfer) and on various communication middleware. This approach is inexpensive and is quickly implemented, although the number of point-to-point integrations increases exponentially when new systems need to be integrated, and administration and maintenance become complicated, with the risk of error increasing significantly.

Integrating Applications Using the Integration Broker Approach

The second approach uses a central negotiator that manages interactions between applications. The central node provides a very useful uncoupling function: using an intermediate communication format prevents having to integrate an application several times with several other applications, and simply carries out one integration on the central node. The central node then handles communication with other applications.

Integration Broker Approach

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