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| Chapter 8: EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) and BPM |
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Traditionally enterprises grew their systems and IT infrastructure out of
necessity as the business grew and connected the various IT applications with
minimum planning. Stove pipe applications were pretty much the norm. These
applications were connected in a point to point manner with no clear indication
of process flow. But as the pace of business change accelerated connecting
systems became a major roadblock. Back in Chapter 2 I wrote about the
disadvantages of stove pipe applications and point to point integrations. Then
in the late 1990’s EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) emerged as a
planned way to integrate the array of IT applications. EAI became a top
priority in many enterprises. With the internet and the creation of the
extended enterprise – B2B (Business to Business) integration became possible.
.... EAI (Enterprises Application Integration) Sophisticated EAI suites like BizTalk, Tibco etc came to the market. However despite increasingly sophisticated EAI applications, enterprise application integration remains difficult and does not meet business objectives. Enterprise integration has to deal with multiple heterogeneous applications running in different locations. Figure 8.3 shows a typical EAI architecture within an enterprise. Using publish and subscribe technology the EAI system senses any data change in the source system and updates the destination systems. Also scheduled batch jobs are used to transfer data. Figure 8.4 shows a B2B (Business-to-business) integration architecture. However EAI failed to deliver its promise and some of the below business issues still persisted + Low visibility of business operational performance. + EAI is data centric and not process centric. + EAI could not keep up with business process change. + EAI does not address the business process. + EAI solutions are technically very complex, need specialized skills and are very expensive to maintain. Basically EAI addressed the problem of connecting applications and transferring data. EAI is not going away. With BPM the focal point is going to be the process and not data. BPM will leverage the investment made by corporations. .... EAI in BPM ... .... Web Services The internet has created universal connectivity. The extended enterprise uses the internet to connect to its customers, partners and suppliers. Web services have forever changed the way we think about enterprise application and architectures. Web services allow language, platform and location independent connectivity using open universal standards like HTTP. Web services allow heterogeneous applications to talk to each other without expensive EAI software. Web services enable existing application to be exposed as services. SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) is a collection of loosely coupled web services that communicate with one another. SOA where business logic and business processes are exposed to other processes and software through standard services. .... BPM and Web Services – a powerful combination BPM and web services will dominate the next few years. This combination creates a rich matrix of process possibilities which if I where to describe in a few words I would say “process everywhere”. BPM and web services facilitate a new breed of process automation and innovation in the extended enterprise. |
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