Overview on Integration Technologies

1. Overview on Integration Technologies By Sayed Ahmed Just ETC

2. Some of My Work in the Area of Application Integration • Used RMI to write a distributed reservation system • Along with wrote a flow controller to distribute the request to the associated server or database • Used Java middleware such as OSGi and Knoplerfish to integrate a location service to outer world • Was part of a research team working on the topmost level of application integration using SOA and developing/defining service composition framework • Wrote prototype software integrating Offline Airlines Reservation Systems with Airlines GDS systems • Wrote scripts to provide integrating among systems such as telecommunication billing software, telecommunications helpdesk software, and resources such as domain and hosting management software • Wrote SOAP applications to list items in Ebay. • Used SOAP to grab product list from Commission Junction • Integrated Moneris Payment Processing System in SAP-Webshop • Integration of Mira-Serv Payment processing (based on Web-Services) into web-applications

3. What is Application Integration? • It’s a strategic approach for binding many information systems together. The binding can be at the service level and/or the information level. Integration makes it possible that the associated applications can exchange information and leverage processes in real time. • Forms of Integration • Internal Application Integration • Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) • External Application Integration • Business to Business Application Integration • However, inter- and intra company integration solutions share many common patterns

4. Is Application Integration a New Concept? • Not really, as businesses always tried to interchange information among multiple systems and software • However, the need for integration has risen along with the technologies to integrate have improved and changed over the time • What is new? • “understanding the need for application integration solutions to support strategic business initiatives going forward” • Moving from information oriented integration to service oriented integration • Service oriented integration is also not a new concept but the way it is being implemented or utilized is new (such as UDDI) • Downside: (SOA) Change the source and target applications or create new ones

5. What is the concept behind integration Technologies? • Types of Application Integration • Information Oriented • Service Oriented • Business Process Integration Oriented • Portal Oriented

6. Information-Oriented • Argument: Integration should occur between the databases • Primary points of Integration: • Databases • Information Producing APIs • Approaches • Data Replication • Data Federation • Interface Processing

7. Data Replication • Move data between two or more databases • May need infrastructure to exchange data • Data Federation • Integration of multiple databases and database models into a single unified view of the databases • Places a layer on top of all associated databases • Unlike replication, this solution does not require changes to the source or target applications • Interface Processing • Focuses APIs to integrate both custom and packaged applications • Need and interest in ERP software integration have made this the most exciting integration sector

8. Interface Integration • Tools from Brokers • Provide Adaptors • Interface processing makes it possible to integrate SAP and Oracle application easily by counting the differences between schema, content, and application semantics • Downside: Little regard for business logic and methods. • Hence, service oriented solutions probably make better choice

9. Business Process Integration-Oriented • Provides a layer consisting of a set of easily defined and centrally managed processes on top of existing sets of processes • It’s the science and mechanism of managing the movement of data and execute the right process at the right event

10. Service-Oriented • Allows applications to share common business logic and methods • Accomplishment: • Define methods that can be shared • Provide infrastructure so that such methods can be shared i.e. web-services • Methods can be shared by keeping them in a central server, accessing among inter applications through distributed objects, or through standard web-services

11. Portal Oriented • Allows us to view multiple applications both internal and external through a single user interface or application • It adapts the user interface of each system to a common user interface

12. Some Notes • Packaged application interfaces are primarily information oriented (IOAI) • SAP uses hybrid integration– Information+service oriented • Most Application integrations usually leverage information-oriented integration • IOAI can also be integrated with other types. Eventually, most application integration usually leverage all types of integration mechanisms • Integration is being happening in this way for about 30 years • Challenges • Architects and developers need to understand all the systems involved clearly

13. IOAI Notes • IOAI allows data movement between sources and target systems. • The data can come from anywhere • Databases, API (SAP-BAPI)s, or an Embedded Device • In IOAI, the application may not be required to be changed, however – IOAI is not simple. • When the systems are pretty different, it can get tricky • “IOAI makes sense for more complex problem domains as well, domains such as moving data between traditional mainframe, file-oriented databases and more modern, relational databases; relational databases to object databases; multidimensional databases to mainframe databases; or any combination of these”

14. IOAI Implementation • IOAI considers Data Producers and Data Consumers • The producers and consumers can be • Database • Application • User Interface • Embedded Device • Databases are the natural points of integration • SAP, PeopleSoft, Oracle, and Siebel have implemented IOAI integration concepts • Approaching IOAI • Identify the data • Catalog the data • Build the enterprise metadata model • When to update/move data among systems • Real Time • Near Time • One Time • Metadata Model • Logical • Physical

15. IOAI Implementation • Logical • creating an architecture for all data stores that are independent of a physical database model, development tool, or particular DBMS • At the heart of the logical model is the Entity Relationship Diagram • Strategy • Integrate two or three databases and make the integration to be successful, then move to integrate other databases

16. Application Integration Technologies • Middleware • Point to point Middleware • Many to many Middleware • Connection oriented Middleware • Connectionless Middleware • Request response middleware • RPCs, MOM, Distributed Objects, Database oriented middleware, Transactional Middleware (TP Monitors, Application Servers), Integration Servers • RPCs are synchronous • Message Oriented Middleware • Distributed Objects • Database oriented • Call Level Interface • Native Database Middleware

17. Integration Technologies • RPCs are slow, but their blocking nature provides the best data integrity control • Most users typically never see middleware plumbing, as they do application development and database products.

18. Middleware and Integration • Transactional middleware • A good match for application integration • Provides a centralized server capable of processing information from many different resources, such as databases and applications • Provides scalability, fault tolerance, and an architecture that centralizes application processing • Message Oriented • Message brokers or traditional message-oriented middleware are better tools for the simple sharing of information between applications.

19. Application Servers • Ideal for Portal-Oriented Application Integration • Application servers take many existing enterprise systems and expose them through a single user interface, typically a Web browser • For example, application servers can easily externalize information contained in mainframes, ERP applications, and even middleware without a user interface • As a result, developers can gain all the application development capabilities they require, including a programming language and an integrated development environment. This makes application servers ideal for Portal-Oriented Application Integration.

20. Enterprise JavaBeans and COM+ • Enterprise JavaBeans • Nearly every application server that uses transactional component-type architecture looks to employ EJB as the enabling standard • Transactional COM+ (Using App Center) • In a strategy similar to the one employed with EJBs, Microsoft plans to support transactionality through COM+ and App Center • The sophisticated application server architecture of Windows XP is a notable plus, as are the hundreds of application development tools available for the Windows 2000 platform. • However, this may very well be a comment more about what runs on Windows XP than how well something runs.

21. Transactional COM+ • Component-Dynamic Load Balancing within Windows 2000 supports up to eight connected application servers (nodes). • This enables application developers to process one or many COM+ components across a cluster using App Center Server. • An App Center Server is a Microsoft Transaction Server for transaction support and a Microsoft Message Queue (MSMQ) server for message queuing support all rolled into a single distributed COM+ processing environment. • App Center acts as a router, using server response time to find the least-busy server to create COM+ components for processing. • As a result, it balances the load.

22. Message-Oriented Middleware • In Situations • When bandwidth that can support RPCs is absent, • Or in a situation where a server cannot be depended upon to always be up and running • Message-oriented middleware may be the better choice for an application integration project

23. Distributed Objects • What Works? Distributed objects work best in application integration problem domains where a distributed computing model is in use and a large number of common methods need to be shared • For example, an enterprise may have the following major applications: • Customer tracking system (Company A) • Logistics system (Company A) • Failed distributed object projects outnumber the successes. That's the reality. No hype.

24. What is Database-Oriented Middleware? • Going Native • In addition to ODBC, JDBC, and other database translation interfaces, many other native database oriented middleware products exist. • These are APIs provided by a database vendor or some third party with access to a particular database

25. Database Gateways • Database Gateways • Database gateways (also known as SQL gateways) are APIs that use a single interface to provide access to most databases that reside on many different types of platforms . • They are similar to virtual database middleware products, providing developers with access to any number of databases residing in environments typically difficult to access, such as a mainframe. • For example, using an ODBC interface and a database gateway, developers can access data that resides in a DB2 database on a mainframe, in an Oracle database running on a minicomputer, and in a Sybase database running on a UNIX server. • The developer simply makes an API call, and the database gateway does all the work

26. Database Gateway • EDA/SQLEDA/SQL is a wonderful general-purpose database gateway for several reasons • Among them is its ability to work with most database servers and platforms • bridging many enterprises where dozens of servers might be running on dozens of different platforms, all needing to be accessed from a single application—a perfect fit for application integration

27. Java-Based Middleware Standards and Application Integration • Will create another presentation on this.

28. References • Next Generation Application Integration: From Simple Information to Web Services • By: David S. Linthicum • Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional • Pub. Date: August 15, 2003 • Print ISBN-10: 0-201-84456-7 • Print ISBN-13: 978-0-201-84456-6 • Pages in Print Edition: 512