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Unit 6: Source Integration

Sounds great, doesn’t it? The downside might give you pause, however. This “great-sounding” notes
application integration solution also confronts us with the most invasive level of application
integration, thus the most costly. This is no small matter if you’re considering Web services,
distributed objects, or transactional frameworks.
While IOAI generally does not require changes to either the source or target applications, SOAI
requires that most, if not all, enterprise applications be changed in order to take advantage of the
paradigm. Clearly, this downside makes SOAI a tough sell. However, it is applicable in many
problem domains. You just need to make sure you leverage SOAI only when you need it.
Changing applications is a very expensive proposition. In addition to changing application logic,
there is the need to test, integrate, and redeploy the application within the enterprise a process
that often causes costs to spiral upward. This seems to be the case, no matter if you’re approaching
SOAI with older technologies such as Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA), or
new technologies such as .NET, the latest service-based architecture to come down the road.
Before embracing the invasiveness and expense of SOAI, enterprises must clearly understand both
its opportunities and its risks. Only then can its value be evaluated objectively. The opportunity
to share application services that are common to many applications and therefore making it
possible to integrate those applications represents a tremendous benefit. However, that benefit
comes with the very real risk that the expense of implementing SOAI will outpace its value.

Task “The EAI solution works at both data level and business process level and
assists in sharing data of different applications.” Discuss.

6.7 service-oriented architecture

Business needs

IT organization fulfills two major business needs:
1. Automating internal business processes. Here, the focus is not providing the automation to
the clients (users), rather it allows the clients to initiate a paperless transaction. Examples
are web-based applications for customers and business partners.
2. Providing B2B e-commerce so that business partners can integrate their systems with the
systems of their clients.
importance of eai

Typically, a business process involves interactions among various organizational units, which
translates into a business process automation requiring interactions with the various applications
in an organization. The major challenges faced by the IT organization when integrating these
applications relate to the integration of different domains, architecture and technologies. These
challenges necessitate a well planned EAI strategy and architecture. There are two main forms
of EAI. The first one integrates applications within a company (intra-EAI) and serves the first
business need. The second form (inter-EAI) relates to B2B integration and serves the second
business need.
There are several strategies available for EAI. They are listed below.
1. Data Level Integration: Data are shared or moved among the applications.
2. Applications Interface Integration: One application can share some functionality residing
in other applications. It allows sharing application components.

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