2. • Integrative programming deals with an integration
approaches and techniques that connect different
components of IT infrastructure-people, applications,
platforms and databases to enable a secure,
intra and inter application collaboration.
• Integrative solutions enable an organization to integrate
business processes internally and externally with business
partners to create dynamic environments that supports
current and evolving business requirements, thereby
creating a global organization.
3. • Integration is the process of connecting multiple,
independently developed applications using
incompatible technologies into a single organization
wide system with information flowing seamlessly
among the integrated systems or components.
4. • Integration of multiple, independently developed, managed and maintained applications
components that may normally use incompatible technologies and heterogeneous
platforms” enables transmission of information between applications, automates flow of
data between applications that make up the business process flow.
• Integration is the process of combining separate applications into cooperating collections
of application.
5. OVERVIEW OF INTER SYSTEM
COMMUNICATION
• Inter-system communication is the
communication between a set of
heterogeneous systems that are integrated
together. These integrated systems which
put together many heterogeneous set of
subsystems and the produced objects are
extremely different, yet should contribute
to the same process.
6. Software integration includes one or
more of the following.
• System integration
• Functional integration or technology integration
• Incremental engineering
• Modification
7. Software integration includes one or
more of the following.
System integration
• Given two or more systems, subsystems or
components, each of which function properly
(satisfying their requirement within their
environment). The problem is to integrate them into
one larger system satisfying the combined
requirements within the newly formed environment
8. Software integration includes one or
more of the following.
Functional integration or technology integration
Given a software system, this may have been functioning
properly in the field for a significant period. The problem is
to integrate a new function or a new technology within the
system. The integrated system should provide the new
functionality or use the new technology, while preserving
the original system functionality.
9. Software integration includes one or
more of the following.
Incremental engineering
A software system can be developed and delivered using
available technologies and with less functionality than it is
intended to finally provide. New technologies and or more
functions then can be integrated within the system. The
problem is to design the system with such future
integration in mind.
10. Applications originally intended to operate
separately, later on are required to
interoperate with others. Some of the reasons
for integration are the following;
Technology change affects all layers; legacy does not go away so easily.
The architecture of the organization information system depends on
constraints related to the technology but also to the organization.
Within an enterprise, each department may have its own IT infrastructure,
systems and databases which are maintained independently. Integrating them
may bring additional value to the company.
Integration assists in formation of Zero Latency organization - when all
functions within the organization work with the same up-to-date information,
latency between applications is eliminated/ reduced.
Updating and integrating of applications is possible whenever required. New
applications can be created by integrating real time data from different parts
of the enterprise
11. Integration model defines how applications will be integrated by
defining the nature of and mechanisms for integration. Some of the
methods used for application integration are discussed in the
following section. These models include;
1) Presentation integration model allows the integration of new
software through the existing presentations of the legacy software.
This is typically used to create a new user interface but may be used
to integrate with other applications.
2) Data integration model allows the integration of software through
access to the data that is created, managed and stored by the
software typically for the purposes of reusing or synchronizing data
across applications.
3) Functional integration model allows the integration of software for
the purpose of invoking existing functionality from other new or
existing applications. The integration is done through interfaces to
the software.
12. All integration solutions have to deal with a few fundamental
challenges: some of the challenges of integration are;
Network unreliability
Distributed systems
Slow networks and
Heterogeneity
Modification complexity
Editor's Notes
Most of organizations consist of more than one department, running department specific applications and those applications interact with each other to achieve the overall objective of the organizations. Information systems change overtime by growing in their size, incorporating functionality of the existing standalone systems
Most of organizations consist of more than one department, running department specific applications and those applications interact with each other to achieve the overall objective of the organizations. Information systems change overtime by growing in their size, incorporating functionality of the existing standalone systems
To support common business processes and data sharing across applications, these applications need to be integrated. Application integration needs to provide efficient, reliable and secure data exchange between multiple enterprises applications.
A lot of the problems to be addressed in Organizations Application Integration system from having to integrate standalone applications which have been developed independently, operate autonomously, and were not originally indented to be integrated with one another.
Integration of applications, developed by different languages and running on different computing platforms is not an easy task. By definition, integration has to deal with multiple applications running on multiple platforms in different locations, making the term ‘simple integration’ pretty much difficult. Software vendors offer application integration suites that provide cross-platform, cross-language integration as well as the ability to interface with many popular packaged business applications. However, this technical infrastructure presents only a small portion of the integration complexities. The true challenges of integration span far across business and technical issues. All integration solutions have to deal with a few fundamental challenges: some of the challenges of integration are;
