Patterns: Broker Interactions for Intra- and Inter-enterprise

34 Broker Interactions for Intra- and Inter-enterprise

3.1 Using the pattern

Within the context of Patterns for e-business, Application Integration patterns are

used at two different levels:

򐂰 To design complex solutions by combining more than one Business pattern.

An example might be creating an e-commerce site by combining Self-Service

and Information Aggregation patterns.

򐂰 To support the implementation of a given Business pattern. For example, it is

hard to imagine the Self-Service::Decomposition application pattern without

leveraging the Application Integration best practices. Similarly, all the

Application patterns for Extended Enterprise are in one sense the

implementation of Application Integration across organizational boundaries.

Typically, the requirements that drive application integration call for the seamless

execution of multiple applications and access to their respective data in order to

automate a complex, new business function. Reliable integration of applications -

be they legacy stovepipe applications, packaged software applications, or

custom applications - requires the use of proven, repeatable patterns. At its

highest level, application integration can be divided into two essentially different

approaches:

򐂰 Process-focused integration: The integration of the functional flow of

processing between the applications.

򐂰 Data-focused Integration: The logical integration of the information used by

applications.

Neither approach is necessarily better than the other. Rather, specific integration

requirements dictate which approach best solves a given business problem. For

example, the integration of an e-commerce application with an Enterprise

Resource Planning (ERP) system for a newly created sales order would most

definitely be a Process-focused integration activity. However, in the same

solution, the master data synchronization of the product catalog between the

ERP system and the e-commerce system would be a Data-focused integration

activity.

What's next

Enterprise Application Integration is a complicated undertaking. It requires, first,

a thorough understanding of the individual applications being integrated, and

also the possible methods that can be used to interconnect them.

Note: Certain types of integration between applications can be accomplished

at the user interface level as well, as covered in the Access Integration

pattern.