Integration Solutions

Now that we understand how middleware and XML coexist, we can turn our attention to XML-enabled solutions that include the available technology and approaches. In doing so, let's consider the macro problem domains: B2B application integration and application integration.

Within the domain of application integration, XML plays a lesser role, but its role is becoming more important. This somewhat-convoluted observation is based on the fact that most systems within an enterprise come under central control. As a result, the integration solutions run deeper and may not benefit from converting information to XML for movement to other applications. Typically, standard information-exchange mechanisms, such as XML, take a back seat to native points of integration and binary messages as a simple matter of efficiency when we consider application integration. However, as information becomes less centrally controlled, XML will become more important.

Let us look, for example, at a situation in which an enterprise needs to exchange information between its PeopleSoft packaged application, its older COBOL/ISAM application running on the mainframe, and its new data warehouse. Although there are many ways to approach this problem, most enterprises would use some type of message broker to exchange information between the systems in real time, using whatever native interface the source or target applications provide. Although there is always the opportunity to convert the data moving between the applications into XML, binary messages typically provide better efficiency, as we noted earlier.

Although native interfaces currently dominate application integration solutions, we are rapidly moving to a world where most applications and databases will be XML-aware. Therefore, XML will become a common point of integration rather than the hodgepodge of proprietary and complex native interfaces in use today. Taking this reality into account, we recognize that XML is becoming a more prominent player in application integration. Many packaged applications, including PeopleSoft and SAP, are going to leverage XML as the preferred native interface to their systems. Indeed, PeopleSoft has already defined its Open Integration Framework (OIF) and has outlined how information will move into and out of the PeopleSoft application using XML. SAP is not far behind.

Even as developers build interfaces to new and existing custom applications, XML is becoming the mechanism of choice for producing and consuming information within those systems. Moreover, most database vendors, including Oracle, Sybase, and Informix, are providing mechanisms within their database engines to allow them to read and write XML directly from the database.

XML provides the most value within the domain of B2B application integration. Here we typically integrate applications that are not under centralized control and thus difficult to change. As we have explained, XML provides a reasonably good format for information exchange. Perhaps most important, the majority of businesses can agree upon XML as the way information moves into and out of enterprises. XML standards provide additional value by including common metadata layers that may exist between one or more trading partners and even standard transformation mechanisms such as XSLT.

As we look ahead, the ultimate application integration solution will be some hybrid of enterprise application integration and B2B application integration, providing integration within and between enterprises by using a similar, compatible infrastructure. Getting to this "glorious future" will be accomplished in stages. Enterprises will first learn to integrate their own applications, including understanding everything about the source and target systems that they own, and then will learn to integrate their applications with their trading partners' applications. XML belongs in this mix, but the majority of work in getting to the solution is associated with exploring both problem domains, understanding the requirements, and mapping the correct technology to the solution. In reality, most organizations have just begun the journey down this rather long and expensive road.



Next Generation Application Integration(c) From Simple Information to Web Services
Next Generation Application Integration: From Simple Information to Web Services
ISBN: 0201844567
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2005
Pages: 220

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