Overview of Integration Servers

Six key components comprise an integration server:

1. Packaged adapters/connectors: Integration servers provide prebuilt adapters, or connectors, to applications a company is likely to have implemented. Because the connectors are prebuilt, they allow applications to be connected quickly, requiring minimal development. Most integration servers provide packaged adapters for many different enterprise systems, including major databases and leading enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems such as those from Oracle, PeopleSoft and SAP, as well as bridges to major mainframe and host platforms. Note that vendors continue to enhance their integration servers by adding packaged adapters for more systems to address the needs of a broader range of IT architectures.

2. Connector developer toolkit: Such toolkits provide a consistent framework that developers can use to build connectors to systems for which the EAI product does not provide connectors or adapters out of the box.

3. Transformation and translation services: These capabilities enable users to define the data-mapping and conversion parameters between systems, which is essential to the integration of specialized applications.

4. Communication/transport service: This component consists of an engine or service that facilitates the communication between interconnected applications through the implementation of one of various messaging models, which can be publish/subscribe and request/reply, among others.

5. Transaction coordination service: This component ensures all transactions are processed and completed to the fullest extent. In the event of system failure or exception, notifications are disseminated accordingly in order to rectify the problem(s).

6. Business-process designer: This component allows a business user to create process flows using a GUI. Organizations typically follow manual processes that can involve multiple departments and back-end systems, even for simple processes such as handling an order from an e-commerce site. With integration servers, business users can define sophisticated process flows that span multiple systems. Many integration servers provide graphical utilities for developing process flows with business logic automatically generated, without the need for programming. Note that the business-process automation capabilities of the current offerings in the integration server space vary widely; this is an area that several vendors are enhancing through the addition of workflow technology.

Ideally, these components are well-integrated and straightforward for developers to use. For example, most integration servers include a graphical environment that makes using the packaged connectors a point-and-click exercise. With these tools, developers specify the source application or system, add the connector or adapter, and can then begin introspecting the data source,exposing the data and the data layout in a visual representation or view. From there, the developer can map the data into a data definition, specifying the translation parameters that are executed at run-time. Data translation and transformation is the key to allowing disparate systems to talk to each other, facilitating integration among systems as diverse as relational databases, ERP systems, CRM systems and legacy mainframe systems.

Architectural Approaches To Integration
Further Considerations
EAI or B2Bi?
Taking the Next Steps