System Integration Concepts

System Integration Concepts

• An enterprise can be a single enterprise, an extended enterprise, or part of a larger enterprise.

• The scope of enterprises has grown dramatically.

• An enterprise has specific missions, goals, and objectives.

• The enterprise provides a service or product.

• Enterprise Architecture (EA) is an important tool for understanding and designing an enterprise

• An EA defines the scope of an enterprise.

• EA defines enterprise structure.

• It defines the relationship between the enterprise and its environment.

• The concept of EA helps enterprises complete missions and achieve their goals and objectives.

• It allows enterprises to meet strategic and organizational challenges.

Concept of Systems Integration

• Systems integration aims to ensure individual system elements function properly as a whole
• The elements should satisfy the design properties or characteristics of the system.
• System integration consists of an iterative process that combines implemented system elements
• The process creates full or partial system configurations to build a product or service.
• Used recursively for succesive levels of system hierarchy.
• The system integration process extends to any product system, service system, and enterprise system.
• Purpose of system integration: to completely assemble the implemented elements.
• Ensure that the integrated elements are compatible with each other.
• Demonstrate that aggregates of implemented elements perform the expected functions.
• Aggregates meet measures of performance and effectiveness.
• Detect defects or faults related to design and assembly activities.
• Submit the aggregates to focused verification and validation (V&V) actions.

Integration Scenarios in Enterprises

• Integration has broad applications.
• Common integration scenarios in enterprises include:
• Information portals
• Data replication
• Shared business functions
• Service-oriented architectures
• Distributed business processes
• Business-to-business integration

Information Portal

• An information portal accesses information from diverse systems.
• It can aggregate information.
• It presents aggregated informaiton in a single view.

Data Replication

• Many organizations define policies for continual data synchronization and replication.
• Synchronization happens at regular intervals.
• Ensures data is up to date on all systems.

Shared Business Function

• Leads to redundancy of data if same set of data is stored in multiple systems
• Shared business functions can replace redundant data.

Redundant Data vs Shared Business Function

• Trade-off between redundant data and shared business functions depends on criteria.
• The amount of control over the systems where the data is present factors in.
• Invoking a shared function could be more intensive than loading data into the database.
• The rate of change of data under consideration matters.
  • A customer address may be needed frequently but change infrequently.

Service-Oriented Architecture

• Shared business functions are commonly referred to as services.

• A Service is a well-defined function.

• Sevice is universally available to perform a specific operation.

• Services are made available for use by other systems that act as service consumers.

• Once a set of services are created, ensure they are maintained and made available to other systems.

• Important aspects of service management include:

• Service discovery

• Service negotiation

• Service discovery: All services are made available in a centralized service directory

• Through this, other applications can discover them.

• Service negotiation: Each service must describe its interface

  • Describe it in a way that other applications in the enterprise can negotiate and set up a communication contract.

• Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is a mechanism for application integration.

• Blurs the line between integration and distributed applications.

• Important aspect of SOA is enterprise service bus (ESB).

  • Provides connectivity between the sender and receiver components of the SOA in a loosely coupled manner.

Distributed Business Process Management

• A single business function can be spread across applications in an enterprise.
• Ensue coordination between the various applications .
• Done by implementing a business process management system.

Business-to-Business Integration

• Present-day enterprises must interact with external components.
• i.e., customers and partners
• External elements need access to many applications that are part of the enterprise.