The task of developing and managing information systems is no longer dominated by new code development; it is dominated by the integration of new and old, custom and off-the-shelf, and internal and external systems. Organizations need to become expert in the art of integration in order to meet their business needs and compete effectively. At one time, some thought that a “silver bullet” technology would solve our integration problems without much effort. Unfortunately, integration is a much more complex subject, with as much need for processes as for technologies that can be applied to solve a problem. This book is our attempt to guide you through the world of integration—from understanding your problem, to designing your system, to selecting the most appropriate technology. Our hope is to simplify this inherent complexity and provide examples of best practices to enable your success.
Integration is not a new problem. As soon as computing moved off the mainframe, there was a need to synchronize information across systems. The advent of the network and PC further exacerbated the problem, complicating access to information. The rise of packaged application software increased the need for integration, as these packages needed to interact with other systems. In fact, integration loomed as such a large problem it began consuming up to 70% of project budgets.
Although integration technology was originally created to ease the burden of hand coding point-to-point interfaces between systems, the nature of integration problems has changed, and so has the technology. Today, integration is not merely a technical issue, and integration technology is not merely a more efficient way to solve the hand-coding problem. Integration is fast becoming a core enabler of business agility. The focus of integration solutions is starting to shift from the IT technician to the business manager. In short, integration technology provides the enabling infrastructure for the real-time enterprise. It is fast becoming essential infrastructure for many new types of business solutions: providing self-service applications for employees and customers, supply chain integration, and mobile applications; enabling a unified view of the customer for customer relationship management and call center operations; optimizing business processes and managing them in real time; and implementing packaged industry and compliance solutions.
Indeed, the reach of integration solutions is wide, but integration technology is not a one-size-fits-all proposition. Just as the business solutions are far-reaching and have different requirements, there is a myriad of integration technologies now available on the market, from hundreds of vendors.
The problem is, if companies merely view integration as a tactical solution, there is a likelihood of creating a great deal of redundancy in the infrastructure, which translates into increased operational costs. Moreover, companies will not gain the business agility they seek unless they reuse infrastructure services on new projects to implement a solution quickly and efficiently.
A significant amount of thought, discussion, and consternation went into choosing the title for this book. The topic and the terminology of integration are overloaded to the point where words no longer have clear meaning. Integration, enterprise integration, business integration, process integration, and application integration—the list of terms and marketing jargon is endless. Taken in its entirety, this book is about how good integration can have a profound effect on the business of your enterprise. This book is about how your enterprise can solve its strategic and tactical integration needs by applying the most appropriate process, architecture, and technology.
With this context in mind, we wrote this book as a guide that begins by helping to tie your integration architecture to your specific business strategies and tactical needs. This book will help companies create their enterprise integration architecture while implementing tactical solutions. Using templates, reference architectures, best practices, and case studies, this book will guide organizations through the many decisions that need to be made when implementing business solutions that use integration technology. It will help you reduce risk and increase your return on technology investments.
In Part I of this book we look at enterprise integration from the business user's perspective. The business user is interested in business strategies and tactical business needs. This book looks at the role that enterprise integration can play in supporting the business planning process.
In Part II we focus on defining the integration architecture. The role of the integration architecture is twofold: It is to balance out implementing specific near-term needs while providing a set of reusable infrastructure services to support future implementations and reduce the cost of new business solutions.
In Part III we describe the implementation of a solution, focusing on both the pattern and technology that would be used for implementation. There are four basic implementation patterns to choose from: application, information, composite, and process integration. The architecture is used to implement a specific integration pattern.
Every chapter has a template that provides a process and a context for decisions. In addition, short case studies give some idea of how others are succeeding in these areas. Finally, we discuss best practices that can help an organization build on the shoulders of giants.
We wrote this book to help business and IT managers, architects, and technical staff navigate the complexities of enterprise integration. Our belief is that the biggest benefit of enterprise integration is realized when an organization drives integration strategy and architecture directly from business strategy. When this is done effectively, it bridges a gap within the organization where the IT organization is valued as a critical component of the strategy as much as any other business process, product line, or acquisition. The case studies describe organizations that have excelled in creating this type of environment.
Readers can step into any part of the process, depending on what part of the enterprise integration life cycle they support or what specific problem they might have. The executive overviews, case studies, and best practices will help managers understand the issues and criteria for making integration decisions. The templates will help architects and technical staff design and implement integration solutions.
Finally, the book is excellent as a training guide for the organization or in any college or university setting. It is intended for use in advanced courses in systems analysis and integration. The structure of the book lends itself to a group project, starting with a business problem and leading to a design. The templates help the students structure their projects. This is especially effective as a small group project. The CD gives the instructor a leg up on course materials, as well.
Like any good guidebook, we hope this book remains a desktop reference either physically or, using the CD, digitally. Given the complexities that exist in integrating systems, we hope this will bring simplicity to your enterprise.
A book of this breadth and depth is a labor of love for the authors, who have been living with the complexity of integration for a very long time. We were fortunate to have support from a wide variety of friends, associates, and other assorted characters. We wish to thank all of them for being there at our moments of need. First and foremost are our families, who gave us the time and energy we needed over a very long year. Thanks to Ira as well as Karen, Kayla, Kristen, Katie, and Colin.
The process of writing a book requires a significant amount of support from many people. This support comes in the form of reviews, discussion, encouragement, organization, vision, and coordination. We especially want to thank Gary Voight, Deb Zelensky, Gerda Yearwood, Jim Fowler, Ruth Ann Rich, Linda Moulder, Heidi Johnson, Debra Mendes, Martin Steinhobel, Haskell Mayo, Jim Malley, Jonathan Airey, Jonathan Gamlen, Enrique Bertrand, and Markus Roser. Thanks to Les Yeamans and Rick Frey for granting time to write the book. Then there are the great people at Addison-Wesley, including Mary O'Brien, Robin O'Brien, Lynda D'Arcangelo, Elizabeth Ryan, Tyrrell Albaugh, and Brenda Mulligan. Steve Lasko and his team did a great job on the graphics and were a pleasure to work with. Finally, the folks who helped review the book, who shaped this book in ways they may not realize. Thanks to Dave Linthicum, Colin White, JP Morganthal, Marcia Robinson, Ron Zahavi, and Scott Collison.