Application Integration in Intranets and Extranets Antti Kiviluoto

Application Integration in Intranets and Extranets Antti Kiviluoto 16. 3. 2004

Heterogeneous infrastructure • Today, companies have distributed their businesscritical applications to several different systems – everything cannot be done within one system (e. g. ERP) • Critical business processes require communication between these systems and information sharing will increase in future • These systems are not necessarily located inside the company, but business processes may require communication between companies

EAI and B 2 Bi • EAI – Enterprise Application Integration • B 2 Bi – Business-to-Business Integration • Two different acronyms, same needs – To speed up and automate business processes – To reduce costs and improve service • Differ from each other e. g. by – Security needs (encryption, authentication…) – Used protocols (in-house, EDI, Rosetta. Net, eb. XML etc. )

EAI Layer Model

Two ways to integrate • It is relatively easy to make two applications communicate with each other – just link them with appropriate interfaces and conversions • What if there are more than two applications? Point-to-point integration Centralized integration

Two ways to integrate • Making more than two systems communicate with each other using point-to-point links will result in ”spaghetti integration” Point-to-point integration Centralized integration • Maintenance of integration is a nightmare – change in one system reflects all over the architecture • What if these applications are located in different companies?

Two ways to integrate • Using a centralized integration hub easies maintenance dramatically and reduces the total cost of ownership • If one of the system changes, there is one link that requires reconfiguration – easier change management Point-to-point integration Centralized integration

EAI and B 2 Bi

Integration Market and Products • Product license revenue 1, 37 billion USD (23% of the middleware segment) [Gartner] • Consolidation going on among integration vendors • IBM nro. 1 in the integration broker market, market share 19, 1% • Other strong vendors: Microsoft, BEA and Web. Methods

Integration Challenges Technology • Standardization • Quick-Fix solutions • Point-to-point model Business • Internal personnel & organizational issues • Product variety • Mergers & Acquisitions

Integration Opportunities Technology • Reusability • Change Management • Error handling • monitoring Business • Automation • ROI & TCO • Dynamic business relations

Future • Convergence of EAI and B 2 Bi • Leading software vendors include integration module within their product (ERP, CRM etc. ) • Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) raises • Standards come and go

THANK YOU! Questions?