Integration Servers

Integration servers represent the nirvana of application integration-enabled middleware. At least, the potential of integration servers represents that nirvana. Integration servers can facilitate information movement between two or more resources (source or target applications), and can account for differences in application semantics and platforms. As such, they are a perfect match for application integration (see Figure 6.14).

Figure 6.14. Integration servers are able to share information with a multitude of systems using an asynchronous, event-driven-type mechanism.

Integration servers can also join many applications by using common rules and routing engines. They can transform the schema and content of the information as it flows between various applications and databases.

Integration servers, as we have already discussed in previous chapters, are servers that broker messages between two or more source or target applications. In addition to brokering messages, they transform message schemas and alter the content of the messages. They may, indeed, have many additional functions, including a process integration engine and interface, as well as a management mechanism.

The importance of integration servers is a function of their place within the enterprise. In general, integration servers are not an application development-enabling technology. Rather, they are a technology that allows many applications to communicate with one another without any application necessarily understanding anything about the other applications it shares information with. In short, integration servers "broker" information between applications and databases. By doing so, they broker information between the various source and target systems.