Information Builders` iWay integration software goes for brokerless

Software integration is becoming a key issue within medium and large organisations. Until recently, suppliers have claimed that for successful integration, a hub or "broker" is necessary to handle messaging and queuing.

No, says ICL, distributor of Information Builders` iWay integration software. There is a less expensive solution known as "brokerless" integration.

In line with this, ICL has launched Brokerless Integration, an emerging class of business solutions that support an alternative to traditional broker-based enterprise software integration techniques and tools.

Brokerless integration from iWay Software uses a lightweight transformation engine with plug-and-play adapters to rapidly integrate information systems. It eliminates the extensive deployment, training and maintenance costs of traditional brokered solutions.

With brokerless integration, less programming is required, allowing users to focus on the business environment rather than the complexity of the application integration process.

"By avoiding the excessive infrastructure, proprietary technologies and intrusive methods of broker suites, the brokerless strategy provides the desired flexibility and return on investment of integration with less investment in money and time," explained ICL marketing manager, Systems Integration Tony Cross.

"Companies can spend millions over the course of the integration process before the software becomes operational," he said. "The main costs are in software licensing, training specialised skill sets and consulting, which often cannot be justified.

"For the vast majority of integration challenges, the brokerless solution provides all the functionality needed at a quarter of the cost," explained Cross. "Integration brokers undoubtedly have a place in integration architectures being built to address large-scale, systematic integration challenges. But these environments often require lengthy planning and implementation cycles, and are huge investments. There are clearly times when a broker-based solution makes sense, but often an alternative solution is a more cost-efficient route to enterprise integration," added Cross.

Brokerless integration focuses on solving the most difficult aspects of enterprise application integration (EAI) projects, namely, the connectivity to applications and data and the work necessary to integrate these systems to one another. iWay Software`s approach involves XML, Web services and intelligent adapters, which provide a universal translator between applications that do not require all the infrastructure usually included in integration broker suites.

Cross said XML is the data format of choice for many organisations facing integration challenges. iWay Software`s brokerless integration approach allows any application to be accessed through XML documents. As a result, tools such as iWay`s XML Transformation Engine can simply map from one XML document to another instead of writing custom transformation code on non-XML-based application programming interfaces (APIs).

Even non-standard systems such as legacy databases and ERP applications can interact with standardised XML documents.

Cross said Web services have taken centre stage in the minds of many organisations because of their standardised approach to using XML over the Internet. iWay`s brokerless integration technology applies its XML capabilities to conform to the latest standards for SOAP and WSDL without requiring commitments to specific implementations in J2EE or .Net. This allows users of current or legacy technologies to immediately migrate them to Web services without significant changes to their architectures, high-cost consulting or retraining.

"More and more, customers are finding that a brokerless strategy is best suited to their needs," he said. "They are able to connect systems using existing skill sets, thereby investing less money up front. The implementations are fast, so they see their return on that investment quickly. Brokerless solutions can be used in other integration projects, enabling the customer to extract as much value out of the original architecture as possible meaning that integration applications can be replicated," noted Cross.

iWay`s intelligent adapters provide immediate technical connectivity to virtually any information system, including packaged applications such as SAP and Siebel, legacy data such as IMS and VSAM, and transaction systems such as CICS and IMS/TM. The iWay adapters also validate and transform business-to business documents such as EDI and XML, including specific industry formats such as HIPAA, HL7, SWIFT, and FIX, into XML documents. Because iWay has focused on brokerless integration technologies, the adapters use far less code than those made by any broker vendor in the market.