Enterprise Integration Technical Foundation

Abstract

In an organization, its business changes in a variety of ways over time, and so do its underlying supportive IT systems. For example, the changes required at Malvern iStore were clearly shown in last chapter; one positive change that would make a significant impact on the growth of business at Malvern iStore is to conduct effective enterprise integration. Note that the underlying distributed applications and the corresponding business and operational needs vary from organization to organization, and there is surely no one-size-fits-all solution to integrating distributed applications to meet a variety of needs across organizations. As discussed in last chapter, a solution might be technically optimal, but it might not be viable financially or due to other restrictions like human capitals and time constraints. However, for organizations, no matter which approach and technology will be applied in conducting enterprise integration, in a small or large scale fashion, the ultimate goal should be the same – improving the business’s competitiveness. This chapter starts with the discussion of the foundation of enterprise integration, focusing on the basic integration mechanisms, patterns, and technologies that have been applied in integrating distributed applications over the years. Different methods of sharing data and functionality between applications will be first introduced. Certain explorations on the differences between sharing data and functionality will be presented. As socket communications, remote procedure calls, and remote invocation methods are the foundation of the middleware technology and state-of-the-art service computing, numerous relevant examples are provided.