Who Should Read This Guide

This guide is written for technical decision makers and architects of organizations that are trying to determine whether they require application integration capabilities, that have already determined that they require application integration, or that want to improve their current application integration environment.

The guide does not provide a detailed analysis of how Microsoft products and services provide application integration; rather it discusses the issues at a more abstract and architectural level that applies to the products and services provided by any company. This guide does discuss, generally, how Microsoft can help you provide an application integration solution, but for more detail, you should examine the information available with each product.

Organizations of almost any scale may require application integration. Although application integration problems are usually more urgent in larger organizations, this guide makes no specific assumptions about the size of organization involved, or about the particular types of applications and services involved.

Prerequisites

This guide does not require knowledge about any particular programming languages or products. To gain the most benefit from this guide, however, you should understand the issues and problems associated with designing and maintaining applications in an enterprise environment.