Enterprise Application Integration

Objectives

ODS Overview EAI concepts EAI functional components

Enterprise Application Integration

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is one of the hot-button issues in Information Technology in 2000. Information Week's research survey of 300 technology managers showed nearly 75% of respondents said EAI is a planned project for their IT departments in the coming year. According to a study by Bank Boston, the market for EAI is expected to be $50 Billion USD in 2001
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Enterprise Application Integration

EAI began at Goldman Sachs in New York nearly 10 years ago, where they funded the Teknekron Information Bus (TIB) to pump stock market quotes into different systems. The programmers who wrote Teknekron then left and founded TIBCO. Many of those same developers are now with Vitria.

ODS

The operational data store (ODS) is a subjectoriented, integrated, current and volatile collection of data used to support the tactical decision-making process for the enterprise. Comparison ODS vs Data Warehouse:

ODS

The ODS retains much less data than the data warehouse ODS data ages (loses its value) very quickly typically in a few days

ODS

The focus of the ODS is current transactions. ODS data is homogenous as compared with the data warehouse

ODS

ODS data is volitile; it is constantly updated as transactions occur in operational systems

Why build an ODS

Rationale is similar to that of Data Warehouse:

Off load reporting and analysis functions from operational systems. Allow analysis of integrated data from across the enterprise: Multiple web servers Multiple order systems Provides conformed data to users Provides proper analysis tools to users Facilitates sharing of value-added information between business functions (ordering and marketing)
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Enabling the ODS

The ODS relies on the receipt of data from operational sources in near-real time. A class of information system, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) can help.

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Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)

Provides the means to share data between different applications without writing custom interfaces. Example:

Consider a company that wants to do build an eCommerce portal. Has a number of legacy applications (or even an ERP solution in place) Need build the web-based eCommerce infrastructure and link with systems that do functions like process orders, manage inventory, ship products The company decides to use a major courier service for delivery of products ordered from the web site. The company wants an ODS for analysis of transactions taking place on the site

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Example
eCom Site

Order System

Inventory

ODS

Shipping Courier

One solution custom Interfaces Issues?

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Example
eCom Site

Order System

Inventory

EAI

ODS

Shipping Courier

Alternative employ EAI solution

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Advantages of EAI

Cost effectiveness Time to market Scalability Ability to deal with complex environments

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EAI Components

Business Rule Component: to allow the applications to understand your business processes Business Logic Modules (i.e. supply planning, sales order processing. Methods for business process management.) Transformation tools (to define how to map data from one system to another)

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EAI Components

Data Acquisition Component: to allow access to the data Data Source and Target Interfaces (i.e. Siebel, SAP, PeopleSoft, ODBC, Oracle, CICS, IMS) - note that the data acquisition component is crucial to EAI success. Most vendors refer to these interfaces as "adapters" Adapters understand the data structures associated with applications and the means by which to access the data. (SAP/ABAP)
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EAI Components

System Development Component: to allow programmers to design and test custom requirements - Design tools (for business process design, debugging, and testing)

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EAI - Components

System Control Component: Should have the following features:

Management tools (for application-specific monitoring) Directory tools (for locating other applications on different platforms), particularly support for the Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Commitment control management mechanisms (for control of business-level logical units of work) Strong support for metadata management

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EAI - Components

Message Brokers (to control transactions, control security, and perform event notification. The product should also include the capability to "bridge" messages between different messaging systems Scalability for high-volume transaction throughput. It is almost impossible to know at implementation time what the data volumes will be in the future therefore, EAI must be scalable. Support for varying levels of fault tolerance, load balancing, and failover for mission-critical systems Workflow enablement is a key requirement to reduce latency between distributed processes.
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Example

Save for Later (Computer Makers Web Store)

Potential client goes to the web site and registers Client then browses through products, placing in shopping cart. If client decides not to buy at a point in time, can Save For Later keep the order for a period and come back later to purchase.

Once a SFL transaction takes place, the computer maker routes to an ODS, does some analysis.

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Example

SFL data may be used in a variety of ways

Customer may be sent an email Transactions may be routed to call center for follow up (with customer registration data email, phone, etc) offer discounts, product information, etc. try to convince the customer to purchase.

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Example

How it works:

Save for later transaction on the web causes INSERT or UPDATE in certain DB tables Trigger fires after INSERT or UPDATE and routes data to EAI queue. EAI software reads the data in the queue does some simple transformations (mapping of data in this case) and forwards to ODS based on a set of rules (some transactions are ignored, for example)

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