Architectural Approaches To Integration
Traditional integration servers typically use a messaging engine to communicate between interconnected applications. Vendors in this market space include SeeBeyond, TIBCO, Vitria and webMethods. These integration servers are designed for high-transaction volumes and complex integrations; they provide both rich functionality and robust platforms.
Another breed of vendors are those whose heritage is in the application-server market. Those vendors have begun to move beyond providing back-end services and development tools, expanding the value of their application servers to provide a broader range of capabilities in a single platform. Market leaders such as BEA, IBM, iPlanet and Microsoft now offer integration capabilities, either as part of their application-server platforms or as add-ons designed to work within those environments. The idea is to offer integration capabilities as part of an all-in-one solution set.
Application servers, however, largely rely on XML for performing integration,an approach that does not provide the same level of performance and scalability that can be achieved with traditional integration servers. Nor do application servers with integration components typically provide the business-process automation and transaction-processing capabilities found in traditional integration servers.
Finally, the newest approach to integration technology, BPMi, is based on a business-process management engine. BPMi solutions focus on process management, and, thus, generally do not offer the level of integration that traditional integration servers and application-server-based solutions do. The integration is primarily at the user interface level, rather than the function/method level. Vendors in this category include Fuego, Staffware and others.
In our judgment, the ability of application servers and BPMi solutions to handle sophisticated, high-volume integration needs remains largely unproven. Thus, these types of solutions are best used for basic integration of a more limited number of applications,preferably in environments that do not involve extremely high-transaction volumes.
Which architecture is best for your organization? At Doculabs, we advise our clients to base their decisions on their application mix, usage and available resources. These solutions are architected very differently, and as such will offer varying levels of performance, scalability and integration. To ensure maximum benefits, organizations should define their business and functional requirements for an integration solution to provide a basis for evaluating solutions prior to making a purchase.