Merely half a dozen years ago, most integration was done by hand-coding interfaces
between systems, point-to-point. This solution was extremely expensive, time
consuming, and non-adaptable. Adding or changing a system required changes in
several other systems. Today there is a plethora of available integration technologies
from over a hundred vendors. The question is, which technology offers the right
solution for you?
A reader recently asked whether Microsoft
BizTalk or WebSphere Application Server was a better solution for aggregating
back-end data for an integrated customer portal. Future plans were for an employee
portal. The answer is that neither is the best solution. (To find out the best
solution, see below).
The problem now is that there are so many vendors and solutions to choose from,
it's very confusing. Even knowing where to begin is challenging. As you will
see shortly, the buyer above did not have the right short list. That could be
an extremely costly mistake. How do you know which solution is right for the
business problem you're trying to solve?
To help integration buyers navigate the confusing integration market, ebizQ
created the ebizQ Integration Buyer's Guide. It begins with the "Integration
Services Map." The Map defines different types of integration solutions,
and the integration technologies that can be utilized to implement each. Each
solution may be delivered by one or more integration-related technologies. The
solution categories listed on the map are:
- Application Integration includes all technologies that might be used
to connect disparate applications both inside and outside the firewall, from
Message Brokers, Enterprise Service Buses, and Application Adapters, to Legacy
Integration, B2B Integration, Portals, Mobile, and Application Routers. The
last is a new hardware/software integration solution similar to the old network
protocol converters - a black box that you plug into the network, and which
converts and routes messages.
- Information Integration provides a way to consolidate information
from multiple sources into a single interface, as if all the information came
from a single database. The technologies that provide information integration
include Enterprise Information Integration (EII) solutions, Enterprise Content
Management (ECM) systems, and metadata repositories (which can be part of
the previous two solutions).
- Composite Applications are most appropriate when you need to implement
new business functionality from a combination of new and existing services.
Composite applications are also best suited to the service oriented architecture
(SOA) model. The technologies to implement composite applications include
Web services, application platforms, and orchestration tools which can graphically
depict, then generate the code to orchestrate the flow of messages across
systems.
- Business Process Monitoring and Management provides a business-level
approach to integration. Companies seeking to optimize business processes,
reduce operational costs, and gain real-time visibility into key performance
indicators will be interested in Business Process Management (BPM) software,
Business Activity Monitoring (BAM) and collaboration software (also called
groupware).
- Compliance and Industry Solutions created on integration platforms
provide productized solutions. This means they may provide anywhere from 50-90%
of the business solution. However, it should be noted that the solutions bring
with them the integration technology infrastructure, which should be utilized
for further integration solutions rather than bringing in redundant technology.
Companies focused on compliance or specific industry initiatives that require
integration should look at the vendors in this category.
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