Enterprise Application Integration

Enterprise Application Integration

An architecture for integration

Example of a business process: purchase order process …

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Purchase and payment process

• 1: Presales activity– Determine requirements and complete purchase

requisition.

– Generate the purchase requisition based on:• quantity on-hand,

• quantity-on-order, a

• expected demand.

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• 2: Prepare and record purchase order.– Assists the buyer in identifying sources of supply for

the requested item, analyzing vendor quotes,– comparing vendor prices, terms, and past

performance

• 3. Receive and record goods.– Compare quantity ordered to quantity received. – Routes goods to the function that requested them or

directs them the warehouse for immediate sale. It also records vendor performance data.

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• 4: Receive vendor invoice, match with purchase order and receiving report; record payable.– If the three-way match fails, the enterprise system

notifies the proper personnel to ensure timely reconciliation of differences.

• 5. Prepare and record cash payment and update accounts.– Uses vendor and account payment data to schedule

payments in accordance with terms of sales agreement.

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IT reality – Islands of Computing

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Purchased Application Package(s) .

New Web-based

application(s)

Legacy Application System(s)

Program Program

Program

Program Program

Program

Program Program

Program

Enterprise IT reflects the structure and history of each enterprise not the business processes required. Departments have their own IT systems Legacy systems are left in place and new systems built

separately.

Problems with island of computing (functional) based applications:

• Sharing of data between systems– Data duplication– Data inconsistency

• Applications that don’t talk to one another– Limited or lack of integrated information– Isolated decisions lead to overall inefficiencies– Increased expenses

Tactical approach to integrating the Business information systems

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ProgramProgram

Program

ProgramProgram

Program

ProgramProgram

Program

LoadProgram

ExtractProgram

ExtractProgram

LoadProgram

ExtractProgram Load

ProgramScreenScrape

Database Replicator

DownloadFile

DownloadFile

TransactionFile

MessageQueue

DownloadFile

TransactionFile

MessageQueue

ApplicationSystem B

ApplicationSystem A

ApplicationSystem C

Each requirement is addressed with a point to point solution Typically consisting of a data transfer mechanism and a

format converter.

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• Strengths• Focused on getting the job done• Each individual solution can be created quickly

• Technical Weaknesses• Numerous Point-to-Point Interfaces• Sharing of data between systems

• Data duplication• Data inconsistency

• Inconsistent Qualities of Service: Limited or lack of integrated information

• Business Weaknesses• Inconsistent Business Processes solutions as they are not

integrated. • Others include:

• Cost of maintenance• Requirement to retain knowledge of the solution in-house.• Potential security or loss of service/process failure due to

inconsistencies.

Strengths and weaknesses of tactical “integration” approach

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Enterprise integration requirement Unrestricted sharing of data and business processes

throughout the networked applications or data sources in an organization

The Linking of Data, Business Processes and Applications to automate business processes

While ensuring that there are consistent qualities of service (security, reliability etc)

Reduce the on-going cost of maintenance and reduce the cost of rolling out new systems.

Solution: Devised ways to efficiently reuse legacy and existing apps and add new ones : Enterprise Application Integration

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Layers of an EAI Stack

EAI

Data Transformation

Business Activity Monitoring

Message Storage & Routing

Business ProcessOrchestration

AdapterAdapter

Provides real-time and historical data on performanceof processes and assists in making decisions.

Manages and tracks business transactions that mightspan multiple systems and last minutes to days.

Ensures the data is the correct format for delivery to The next system.

Provides “open” connectivity into data sources: programs that interact with the underlying business application

Ensures the reliability of data delivery between systems.

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Adapters

Data Transformation



Also known as “Connectors”, “Translators”, “Wrappers” or “Bridges”

Provide seamless connectivity to the underlying application or data

Convert “applications” information and events into data that can be utilized by the infrastructure

AdapterAdapter


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Reliable messaging Connect applications running on different

systems by sending and receiving application data as messages

Message storage Central repository for temporary storage of

transactions until they can be delivered Also called “Message Warehousing”

Message queuing and routing Asynchronous communications Set of tools that route messages between

sources and destination based on pre-defined “business” rules. (consider the business process referred to earlier)

Message storage and routing

EAI

Data Transformation


AdapterAdapter



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Data Transformation Transformation to and from formats used by

Different Systems

Handling simple or complex data structures

GUI Configuration tools to help define the transformations

Data Transformation

EAI

Data Transformation


AdapterAdapter



Data Transformation

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EAI typically converts the source data into an intermediate “standard” format and then convert its into the target format .

Source TargetF. name: denisL. name: manleyAffiliation: DIT, Dublin,Ireland

Name: Denis ManleyCompany: DITCity: DublinCountry: Ireland

Intermediate common

(standard) format

Issues in data transformation

• Challenge 1: Coping with software from different vendors– Oracle vs. SQL Server

• Challenge 2: Coping with different formats– Relational vs. XML

• Challenge 3: Coping with different data models (schemas)– Solvable for the smaller scale cases

• one person understands all the schemas– As the complexity and scale of the data models increases it becomes

harder and harder

• Challenge 4: Coping with data from new sources such as new systems, suppliers, customers

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Process Modeling Describing the flow of information in the

context of business processes

Process Brokering Execution of discrete steps within a

business process Ability to recover from failed steps

Process Management Monitor business processes Correlate metrics to specific business

process steps

Business Process OrchestrationEAI

Data Transformation


AdapterAdapter



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EAI

Data Transformation


AdapterAdapter


Business Activity Monitoring is using your data assets (sales figures/procurement costs) to make better decisions

BAM is used to gather information about what is occurring in the EAI deployment Status of current processes Identification of problem areas

E.g. Spotting applications that are not responding (maybe not correctly integrated)

Monitoring of unusual activity E.g. Unusually large orders

The collected information is displayed for operators or managers to diagnose and determine the solution


Potential EAI benefits

• Lower costs– Integration is simpler because systems are more loosely coupled. – Integration is done more quickly– corresponding cost savings reachieved sooner

• Lower maintenance effort– adapters extract the interaction with external systems– significant advantage from the software engineering point of view

• Increased Information sharing:– reduces data duplication and data inconsistencies; e.g. Only some systems

not need to collect the data which is shared with others in the system• Increased integration of business processes

– increase business agility; responding to shifts in the supply chain (maybe acquire a new supplier)

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Potential EAI Challenges

• Architecture concentrates all of the processing into a single server/cluster.– Often became hard to maintain and evolve efficiently– Hard to extend to integrate 3rd parties on other technology platforms

• The data transformation model introduces an intermediary step– Added complexity and additional processing effort

• EAI products typified by– Heavy customisation required to implement the solution– Lock-In: Often built using proprietary technology (specific to a vendor) and

required specialist skills

• Requires organisations to be ready or prepared to adapt EAI

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What is EAI readiness? Much of the challenge associated with adopting EAI is not

related to the technology but to how prepared the organisation is to implementing it.

EAI readiness is a state of business maturity in which the enterprise’s:

1. Business processes, 2. employees,3. Technology (systems) 4. structure, 5. and culture,

are prepared for the successful introduction of both EAI technology and the business disciplines that drive its introduction.

All five of these factors must be properly situated and aligned before an EAI implementation can succeed.

Business process readiness Business strategic goals for project (i.e. process efficiency,

customer satisfaction, supply-chain optimization) clearly defined and agreed upon by company executive leadership.

Desired business processes designed, documented, and valuated.

Gap between current and desired business processes well understood.

Employee readiness Staff accustomed to using information technology in their

day-to-day work.

Staff accustomed to adaptation of new roles, responsibilities, processes, and knowledge … ; i.e. to business change.

Staff have broad understanding of the business and their contribution to it.

Executives understand the nature of investing time, staff and budgets into the business infrastructure in order to reap future returns. (financial v strategic)

Technology readiness No systems are to be integrated using EAI tools that will be

retired/ decommissioning soon. There is no point integrating with a system which will soon be

removed

Applications portfolio has been evaluated for semantic compatibility. Check it is possible to transform from 1 data model to the other

Implementation of EAI is not defined as the purpose of the effort. The project should be about the business objective, not about the

technology

Structural readiness

Keep it simple by ensuring that the EAI system involves as few departments/ organisations as possible. Each organisation involved adds to the complexity of the

project as more people have to be engaged with and there are potentially greater variety of technologies and architectures.

Stakeholder analysis performed to determine overall potential for business resistance to the planned change. EAI projects change the way that each

department/organisation works. Therefore, EAI projects need the cooperation of each department/organisations.

Business “steering” committee is established and ready to provide leadership to the business change.

Cultural readiness Corporate culture embraces the importance of well-defined

business processes.

Staff accustomed to adaptation of new roles, responsibilities, processes, and knowledge ….

Individuals and departments willing to change the way the applications and data is defined.

Questions• Briefly describe a business process and the different areas of an

organisation that are involved in the process (9 marks)

• Describe four of the five steps of the enterprise application integration solution (12 marks)

• Explain, using a suitable example, why E.A.I. is preferred to the to the “islands of computing” approach to developing enterprise I.T. systems.(9 marks)

• What are the main technical problems with implementing the E.A.I. solution. (9 marks)

• What are three of the non technological issues with the implementation of an E.A.I. (9 marks)

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Enterprise Application Integration

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