Enterprise Application Integration

Enterprise Application Integration ( EAI ), or enterprise application integration ( UAI ) is a concept for enterprise-wide integration of business functions along the value chain that are spread across different applications on different platforms, and can be connected in the sense of data and business process integration. The goal is an integrated transaction processing through a network of internal company applications from different generations and architectures.

The different methods

  • Data Integration, Enterprise Bus,
  • Application integration, Message Broker and
  • Process integration, process management tool

Build on each other.

Definition of Terms

EAI involves planning, the methods and the software to heterogeneous, autonomous application systems - to integrate process-oriented - possibly with the involvement of external application systems. EAI is thus the process-oriented integration of application systems in heterogeneous IT application architectures.

Unlike other integration techniques such as functional integration or data integration, the implementations of the individual business functions are not changed when EAI approach. All the functional interfaces are abstracted by means of adapters ( interface converter ).

On the connecting bus business (also known as EAI backbone integration bus or integration platform called ) provide dynamically evaluated rules and process descriptions that the data of a business case in the proper sequence to the individual functions passed and the results are forwarded.

It is essential for this type of integration, which can also coupled as loose (English loosely coupled ), is the strict separation of business process logic and business functions. The individual business processes are decomposed into macro and micro processes. The micro- processes are partly integrated in the functions, as a carve-out is not possible, particularly in the use of standard software.

In contrast to pure interface adaptation by classical EAI middleware also provides the ability to map business process logic. However, this is in many modern middleware products by integrating a Business Process Engine also possible.

Due to the process-oriented integration EAI provides not only a technical integration platform that but - at least the conceptual claim - also an integration component between the organizational architecture of the structures and business processes and the IT architecture of a business.

Procedure

For the implementation of similar tasks of Enterprise Application Integration patterns have been proposed. A collection of such patterns can be found in the book Enterprise Integration Patterns by Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Wolf.

Demarcation to SOA

EAI can be seen as predecessors of the Service Oriented Architecture ( SOA). The technological concepts of the connection of the application landscape to a central communication component, the Message Broker are similar. SOA, however, requires that the connected applications follow the service paradigm, whereas they can remain untouched in the EAI scenario.

Applications

EAI found in almost all areas of process integration, especially in e-business and portal application, as it is a prerequisite for the necessary straight-through processing. In addition, EAI replaced classical middleware products in many large organizations with complex IT environments and is becoming a major IT architecture element.

Species

In practice, a distinction is made

  • Application to application integration ( A2A ): The system level integration. It can be used a hub -spoke architecture (hub and spoke) or a bus architecture. The classical peer-to -peer architecture is no integration in the sense of enterprise application integration but rather what one wants to avoid by EAI.
  • Person to system integration ( P2S ): Providing multiple applications with a common user interface.
  • Business to Business (B2B) integration: The integration of applications across organizational boundaries.
  • Total Business Integration ( TBI ): The summary of all the types of integration.
Enterprise Service Bus Electronic business Enterprise-Content-Management
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