InformationWeek

March 26, 2001

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EAI Users Go With The Flow

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By Eric Sanchez and Joe Fenner

More on EAI:

sidebar: Integration Servers: How They Compare

Java Draws Corporate Converts

TechWeb: Software Tool Gives New Life To Legacy Data

internetWeek: Shared Vision For Data

The server also handles the translation and flow of data among systems at run time. Integration servers provide three discrete run-time layers: a transaction layer that ensures data integrity, a messaging layer that handles the data transport, and a transformation layer that performs the required data translation.

The transaction layer acts as the processing monitor for all transactions that flow through the integration server. This layer ensures the integrity of transactions across disparate systems. Some integration servers can ensure two-phase commits, rolling back transactions between systems that don't successfully complete a process.

For example, if a debit is taken from an account and the transaction fails before the credit is posted to another account, the entire transaction rolls back. Integration servers can also keep sending requests to a down system, waiting for it to be restored before completing the transaction.

In many environments, transactions between XA-compliant data stores, such as relational databases, are monitored by dedicated transaction processing monitors such as BEA Systems' Tuxedo. Integration servers allow transaction monitoring across data stores that aren't XA-compliant, such as ERP systems.

Transaction-processing monitors are best for real-time, synchronous transactions such as stock trades and banking applications. Integration server engines are better for asynchronous transaction processing between loosely coupled systems that may not be available at all times, which covers most Web applications.

In many back-office environments, when systems are busy conducting other transactions, requests should ideally be queued until the system is available. Integration servers can guarantee that the transaction will execute without requiring the systems to wait for each other to complete their processing.

Integration servers also include a messaging layer to provide a communication mechanism between systems and transporting data. Integration servers support different delivery methods; some are better for performance, and some are better for integrity. For example, in the fire-and-forget model, the host system sends out data but doesn't receive a notification back to validate that the message was received. This is the fastest but least secure messaging method.

The broadcast or multicast model has the host system send data out to a large number of targets, even if they haven't requested it. In the publish-and-subscribe model, a host system publishes data, and other systems can subscribe to it and notify the host to ensure that the message has been received. This is the most secure method, but also the most resource-intensive.

The transformation layer acts as the data-translation engine that takes data from one system, parses it, and reformats it into a layout that can be understood by another system. Without an integration server, reformatting data requires the use of third-party extraction and translation tools, which must be customized for point-to-point integration between specific systems. Such a model doesn't scale and doesn't provide the benefits of transaction and message integrity.

In production environments, one of an integration server's most important characteristics is its scalability when handling the processing loads and throughput of large-scale E-business operations. Most integration servers support clustering and can run in distributed or federated mode on multiple machines to enable scalability.

Integration servers can balance across queues to ensure that processing loads are evenly distributed, but they still lack the more advanced capabilities found in load-balancing utilities and some application servers.

Most integration servers got their start by focusing on helping companies tie their own systems together, as opposed to integrating with external systems. In fact, we advocate that companies follow the same approach: Integrate your own systems before moving outside to integrate with your business partners' systems.

Selected Enterprise Integration Products

Vendor	Product
Actional Mountain View, Calif. 650-254-4100 www.actional.com	Actional Control Broker: Software that resides on an application server to provide integration between applications by performing data translations and conversions to native formats
BEA Systems San Jose, Calif. 408-570-8000 www.bea.com	BEA eLink Integration Server: Server software that includes application and database adapters, data integration, and business-process options
CrossWorlds Software Burlingame, Calif. 650-685-9000 www.crossworlds.com	CrossWorlds: Integration platform that includes packaged business-process-integration modules, business objects, prebuilt connectivity to leading applications, and a toolset for integration and customization
IBM Armonk, N.Y. 914-499-1900 www.ibm.com	IBM MQSeries: Middleware platform that includes components for integration, process automation, messaging and queuing, and application adapters
iPlanet Mountain View, Calif. 650-254-1900 www.iplanet.com	Forté Fusion: EAI framework that provides extensive integration and process management capabilities with little programming required
New Era of Networks (NEON) Englewood, Colo. 800-815-6366 www.neonsoft.com	NEON e-Biz Integrator: Server software that links applications with application servers or other servers. Includes components for data transformation message queuing, data routing, and graphical integration design and process modeling
SeeBeyond Monrovia, Calif. 800-425-0541 www.seebeyond.com	EBusiness Integration Suite: Software with a distributed bus architecture to integrate disparate legacy systems, databases, packaged applications, and middleware
Tibco Palo Alto, Calif. 650-846-1000 www.tibco.com	Active Enterprise: Suite of infrastructure products built on a process automation, messaging, message brokering, system monitoring, and adapters
Vitria Technology Sunnyvale, Calif. 408-212-2700 www.vitria.com	BusinessWare: Integration server that includes a single graphical interface for creating business-process models, connection models for application integration, communication links, and real-time views of the information passing through the platform
webMethods Fairfax, Va. 703-460-2500 www.webmethods.com	WebMethods Enterprise: Standards-based integration server built around the webMethods Enterprise Broker, which manages business-process events and provides the central control and storage point for enterprise integration
WRQ Seattle 206-217-7100 www.wrq.com	WRQ Verastream: Software based on a hub-and-spoke architecture for consolidating host applications, legacy systems, and other data

Still, business-to-business integration is definitely in the sights of many integration server vendors. Interorganizational integration carries additional complexities such as security, transaction integrity, and routing issues that are easier to control in an intraorganization scenario.

The evolution of B-to-B integration means an increased vendor focus on XML and Java standards. On the data translation side, XML will be critical as a standard mechanism to enable companies to exchange data.

On the architecture side, we expect to see integration server vendors move to Java-based models and support the Java 2 Enterprise Edition specification. J2EE compliance will let integration servers take logic and integration objects (even those developed outside the integration server) and re-use them in various integration scenarios between different systems.

Expect to see a continued shakeout in the crowded integration server market over the next year. The market is crowded and a fair number of players will dissolve or be acquired by other integration server or infrastructure vendors. We're already seeing signs of market convergence. For example, webMethods, a B-to-B integration vendor, recently acquired Active Software, letting the company expand its product set to handle integration behind and beyond the firewall.

There's also convergence in the application server and integration server markets. For example, Sybase Inc. plans to acquire integration server vendor New Era of Networks Inc. BEA Systems now offers an application server and an integration server, plus its Tuxedo transaction-processing software.

For companies looking at integration servers, realize that the landscape is changing and the technology bets you place today will have ramifi-cations on your future infrastructure.

Eric Sanchez is a senior analyst and Joe Fenner is a senior technical editor with Doculabs, an E-business research and advisory firm.You can reach them at info@doculabs.com
Illustration by Michael Waraska

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