The problem corporations still face is: how can they create a real-time data delivery infrastructure that allows them to integrate applications and data on a repeatable, consistent, enterprise-wide basis, yet with the flexibility to accommodate changes in the business as and when they happen?
Over the years, enterprise applications were bought according to departmental or divisional needs. Over time, islands of applications and data stores grew. This worked for the individual entities, but to obtain a top-level overview of the company incorporating all data in the organisation was a nightmare.
One solution was to build point-to-point integration solutions where certain applications could communicate. This allowed limited executive oversight of certain segments of the company - but the big picture was still an old picture as data had to be collated and presented to management, sometimes days after the fact.
Today, as corporate performance management (CPM) becomes the norm and management needs access to all data in the organisation at the click of a button, waiting for data to be collated and its accuracy verified is a luxury. Executives need immediate access to everything if it is to be able to make decisions, perform query and reporting functions, monitor KPIs, inform CRM initiatives or re-strategise.
The zero latency enterprise
For instant access to all the data in the organisation, a new enterprise architecture needs to be constructed that enables instant communication across applications and silos. We call this the zero-latency enterprise (ZLE).
Today, as corporate performance management becomes the norm, waiting for data to be collated and its accuracy verified is a luxury.
Julian Field, MD, CenterField Software.
A true ZLE ensures data is available as soon as a transaction is completed, not the next day. It takes the legacy batch operation, still widely in use, and changes it to real-time operations, reducing the delay between every event and transaction, as well as the business`s ability to interrogate, analyse and report on it.
Classic IT vendor solutions for the new architecture would consist of selling the customer a "total solution" to replace all diverse applications - an expensive option that leads to vendor lock-in.
A different option that avoids replacing everything is a strategic infrastructure separate from all the existing applications and systems in the organisation. This mechanism allows individual applications to function as their owners want, but also permits data to flow freely and seamlessly between islands.
A central integration bus needs to be created with the sole purpose of integrating data at the speed and frequency of the applications. No pauses, no delays waiting for things to happen, just a connection to transfer information as required.
Unlike the point-to-point model, a bus architecture provides a communications link between any applications within the enterprise - and there is no reason to limit this to within the enterprise. Applications do not need to know where to send requests or data: they all connect to the bus, a standard interface that dictates communication syntax and protocol for the enterprise.
Service-oriented architecture
The bus architecture forms the core of what is becoming known as a service-oriented architecture (SOA). It acts as an enabling middleware component responsible for brokering enterprise-wide communications across a continuum of time constraints, application suites, interface protocols and integration technologies. It becomes an SOA-enabling data integration service where the same data transformation rules can be applied consistently across analytical, application, portal and business process integration environments.
Although there are many benefits of this type of infrastructure, possibly the best one in this tight economy is the fact that applications do not need to be replaced and there is no requirement for costly middleware programming to make it work.
Other features and benefits of the bus architecture include:
* Any-to-any connectivity through data source and target independence. Data transformation, standardisation, matching and legacy data access capabilities are invoked through SOA-enabled conduits where and when needed. In an open solution, this will be achieved via Web services, Enterprise Java Beans or Java Messaging Service interface bindings.
* Plug-compatible business process tool integration will ensure the data contained in business process events (or initiated from a portal or enterprise application) are correctly transformed, standardised and matched across an enterprise`s applications, partners, suppliers and customers.
* Systematic creation of a single set of data transformation rules across analytical and enterprise applications, business activity monitoring, federated data access and business process integration environments, resulting in shorter development cycles, lower costs, repeatability and a reduction in the manual coding required by other integration technologies.
Far from vapourware, the bus architecture is a reality today as companies gear up for a wave of enterprise integration projects over the next few years. Technologies such as J2EE or Web services do not negate the need for this solution, but merely add to its cross-platform, cross-application utility, speeding the flow of information in real-time without reinventing the entire corporate application landscape.
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