3.5 Data-focused Application patterns

< Day Day Up >

When applications need to share information rather than coordinate processing, data-focused application integration is more appropriate than a process-focused approach. Note, however, that when the frequency of data update is extremely high (for example, when integrating an order entry system with a back-end ERP system), process integration is the best solution. When this is not the case, however, integration of (application) data repositories is handled outside of any specific application request.

In delineating Data-focused Application Integration patterns, two key environmental questions should be asked:

Is the enterprise data topology centralized or decentralized?
- Centralized: This integration effort will bring about centralized access to all or a subset of the enterprise data model.
- Decentralized: Applications will retain their isolated repositories but now with cohesion based on data integration.
What is the database affinity type?
- Homogeneous: All repositories are of the same type.
- Multi-vender Relational: All repositories are relational with ODBC/JDBC support for interoperability but are from different vendors.
- Heterogeneous Structured: repositories are not all relational, but all have a structured layout.
- Structured/Non-Structured: The need to integrate non-structured (for example, free-form text) with structured data sources.

Refer to the IBM Patterns for e-business Web site for further details:

http://www.ibm.com/developerWorks/patterns

< Day Day Up >