1. Enterprise Applications Integration (EAI) – An Overview
EAI Goals
EAI should provide seamless
integration of Enterprise/Business Systems for sharing and exchanging data between
systems, and conducting business electronically. The successful implementation
of EAI requires a Broad Experience with
- Networking
- Administration
- Project Management
- Tools
- Multiple Software Products,
Operating Systems and Hardware Platforms
- Software Development for Multiple
Platforms
- Across multiple industries
Requirements for Data Sharing
- Concurrency – allowing multiple
applications or users accessing and updating the same set of data
- Security – need-to-know based,
control list
- Extensibility – self-describing
data
Requirements for Exchanging Data
- Preset Agreement
- Definite data exchange format
with assumption elimination
Features of Enterprise Architecture
- Service-Oriented Architectures
- Legacy System Migration
- Web-based
- Application Integration
- Datacentric Architecture
EAI Enabled Virtual Applications
- Data-Centric
- Loosely coupled integration
- Many-to-many systems
- Allow only pure data objects
to enter and leave systems
- Implementations can change
without affecting systems
- Interface-Centric
- Tightly coupled integration
- Point-to-point
Emphasize
- Service Access and Mode of Delivery
- Service Platforms and Infrastructure
- Service Interface and Integration
- Process Automation Services
- Real-time
- Adaptive
EAI Infrastructures (from Enterprise Application Integration with XML and
JAVA, JP Morgenthal and Bill La Force, Prentice Hall, 2001)
- Communication Layers (Horizontal
layers)
- HTTP, FTP, SMTP, DBMS, DCOM,
Queues, CORBA, Java, RMI, EJB, TCP/IP 3270, 5250, X/A, LDAP
- Open Database Connectivity
(ODBC) for interacting with SQL-based databases
- Message-Oriented Middleware
services (MOM) via TCP/IP
- Legacy Application Mining
- Object Request Broking (ORBs)
- Routing & Broking Layer
& Functions
- Aggregation
- Transformation
- Metadata brokering
- Object request brokering
- Message routing
- Event handling
- Business/Enterprise Intelligence
Layer
- Security
- Data security and integrity
- Management
- Remote management of each
layer
- Most needed data
- Auditing, logging, and alert
management
- Message Routing
- Windows Messaging System
- Java Method Calls
- Asynchronous Messaging
- Interprocess communications
(pipes, queues, Microsoft COM)
- Distributed object computing
(Microsoft DCOM and CORBA)
- Metadata and Rule Repository
Example 1: A Typical Java-based Web Server and Applications
Example 2: An EAI Infrastructure Build on Java Technology
Example 3: EAI Infrastructure Using IIS Web Server
Some Examples of Enterprise/Business Solutions
- Customer Relationship Management
(CRM)
- Enterprise Resource Planning
(ERP)
- Supply Chain Management (SCM)
- Portal
- E-Business and E-Commerce
- Business Intelligent Management
Example 4: Components of a CRM
Example 5: A CRM Designed for A Medical Device Manufacturing Company
Examples of Enterprise Applications Integration
- Company portal
- Integration Broker and Enterprise Data Warehousing
- Business Intelligence (decision making)
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
- Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP)
- Supply Chain Management (SCM)
- Global Consolidations - enables the consolidation of general-ledger information
that is spread across disparate systems
- Sales Incentive Management (SIM)
- Gather information from variety of applications - for example, human resources,
financials, CRM, and ERP
- Perform sets of calculations that determine a rate of sales incentive
compensation, based on a variety factors
Example 6: An Example of Enterprise Applications Integration
Web Site References