. EAI A2A EAI Overview and recommendations Jerome CAPIROSSI Abstract Since customers or corporate users get various terminals (Phone, PDAs, Web, Workstation, ) and therefore various channels for connecting to their business applications, Application to Client (A2C) EAI has become a widely praised business enabler. Yet Application to Application EAIs even though they are expected to solve complex challenges for Information systems, often raises more questions to organisations than solutions. Business Process Performance Management Business Process Management Information processor : data mapping transforming routing EAI What are A2A Enterprise Application Integration challenges? During 90s, Middlewares have enabled distributed applications to communicate with efficiency. Middlewares helped developers to put off communication logic from their applications and to stay focused on business. Middlewares helped technical people as well, for saving CPU time as asynchronous paradigm spread up, and for providing a cornerstone to monitor data flows. When EAI arrived, the issue was not only to carry data from one point to another, but to process information whilst being exchanged across applications. Common EAI operation is data mapping, which means syntactic and semantic data analysis for extracting information. Then EAI is able to transform and to route information across information systems. All this means that EAI contains business logic and therefore regards business people as well as technical people. Whilst organisations have spent significant effort to create organic entities according to their expertise areas, they are driven soon by new economy toward business process. Business processes are cross entities activities that require cross knowledge skills. EAI applications are all that help to automate and control business processes. As soon as technical people set up that EAI improve data communication management, Business people reply they do not wish to bear such a cost which does not fit into their ROI. As soon as Business people make requirements that would lead to set up a new Business Process, other business Data Transport people are keen to argue since they find themselves to be affected. As soon as business people make requirements that would lead to implement an specific EAI system, technical people reply they do not wish to manage too many different EAI systems. A2A Integration should address both Technical and Business issues, since both are required for sponsoring and implementing such a system. What are A2A Enterprise Application Integration systems? As Information systems span networks and distributed applications, so they need to be glued in such a manner that meets organisation strategy alignment. Business competition requires organisations to be able to change swiftly the way they are doing business. Mergers and Acquisitions, outsourcing, new Market activities, Corporate reengineering like Customer Relationship Management or Supply Chain Management, force companies to be agile to reshape their information systems in accordance. A2A EAI is a particular application designed to deal with cross entities and cross application processes. When a Business process is changing, change need to be reported at EAI application level instead of affecting individually each business application. 1
A2A EAI systems are dedicated information systems for helping Process Managers in process supervision and change management. Usually A2A EAI systems encompass following architecture layers: Data Transport which cover technical interfaces and Middlewares Information processors or message brokers which provide syntactic and semantic data analysis, information transformation, routing Business Process Management which provides operations sequencing, business events, business transactions, transaction source consolidation, Business Process Performance Management which provides process supervision for KPI and Business Risks follow-up. Since organisations are looking more and more for off-theshelf applications, specific adapters are required for capturing information under proprietary format. Core engine is responsible for controlling and sequencing adapter operations, and for monitoring inter-adapter exchanges. Information processing and business process management harness metadata for handling syntax and semantic aspects of data exchanged. Even though XML comes to be overwhelmingly used as a standard of information presentation, it allows too many different dialects to be used. Then, it is sound to define a pivotal format to streamline integration operations. All A2A EAI components may be located either on a central platform, or be distributed partly across application platforms. A2A EAI systems help to implement architecture patterns which combination provides solutions regarding integration issues. As A2A integration comes always in asynchronous mode, the following outline main applicable patterns. For data transport layer: Point to point as one to one communication Core engine Hub and spokes as few to one and one to few communications Publish and subscribe as only one to many communications For information processing layer: Then, logical A2A EAI architecture comes usually: with logical adapters, which contain all logic needed to capture packaged products information, with a core engine in charge of processing information and managing business processes. Logical adapters contain technical connectors with middlewares, formatting rules and event rules for managing interfaces. Technical connectors have to be provided for various protocols: RPC, Corba, MQSeries, TIBCO, FTP, HTTP, ODBC Specific adapters are provided for ERP such as SAP, JDEWARDS, SIEBEL,. Message broker as centralised information router Mediator as information translator between applications Façade as an information aggregator For business process management: Process Automation as information processors controller As standardisation move forward, it is expected to simplify integration and therefore EAI systems implementation. Along XML working groups, Web services initiative as an effort for standardising interfaces architecture is carrying good hopes for future integration simplification. Yet, A2A EAI security remains an important issue. Even though security solutions at communication level are now mature, A2A EAI systems are mainly based on message 2
broker pattern which creates a breach into end to end security chain. Thus, for each integration project, specific security solutions need to be duly designed and implemented with respect of specific risks. What business processes are enabled by A2A EAI systems? Supply chain is the process which encompasses purchasing of productions goods and production planning. Customer Relationship Management is the process which encompasses marketing, sales, and services activity. Business Intelligence is the process which collects, crunches and consolidates information from all front end applications. Straight Through Processing is the process where back-office operations are run in a real time oriented mode providing a continuous up-to-date financial picture. As an example, let us focusing on STP case of Bank backoffices. As banks are required to cover operational risks with freezing capital assets, it is vital for them that their back-offices provide a real time picture of ongoing operations. This is the rationale of STP process. Basically, for implementing STP, integration systems should be able to forward an event which just affects one application to few applications in a sequenced manner. STP needs to rely on an EAI system able to maintain integrity across few applications. Each step of the process requires to be reliable with few backward moves. Best fitted EAI systems usually are based on message queuing Middleware with Hub and spokes layout, implementing message broker and Process automation pattern. For some special cases, Mediator and Façade patterns could be used. Additionally Security sub-systems should provide nonrepudiation for mitigating backward step occurring. How to go? EAI projects are likely to meet some of following assertions: EAI application will be more critical than the most critical application connected to. EAI application could be more complex than the most complex application connected to. All needed EAI functions will not be necessarily included in a single off-the-shelf product. Some of them could require development tasks. EAI projects are deemed to bear strong technical risks, and require project plans to be drawn with due care. First of all, Project Business Case should figure high quality of service, good performances and high level of security. Hence Business Benefits should be clearly identified and matching such a project class. EAI project requires to be driven like a complex business application project, Business people having the lead with paying attention to involve from inception architects and technical people. An evolutionary prototyping approach would be the best suited lifecycle, using most of the time CASE tools. Do not big-bang implementation excepted for little projects. Since XML and Java are key standards of EAI platforms, I would recommend to use UML like tool during design phase. System delivery plan might follow data flows priority. As a good practise, data flows (df) have to be ranked with respect to forecasted ROI, costs and risks, and implementation to be planned accordingly. ROI df1 df2 df3 When STP involve multiple organisations, operations being managed by more than one system rise the level of complexity with respect of security and operation sequences. These systems require to be designed with due care. df4 df5 Costs 3
Since EAI systems are usually critical, system go live should happen only after comprehensive testing including: Business Functions Technical functions for administration and technical monitoring Performances Not only Business users and application management teams are interested in Change management, but production team as well. Since EAI will be one of the most critical application, all of them will find their work to be changed. A good profile for Project Manager is to be experienced in Business as in information system planning with high communication skills since project team will encompass various profiles like: Business analysts, Developers, Technical Architects, Software experts. Enforcing standards as much as possible might be the most important recommendation. As information systems change, they are likely to move to off-the-shelf applications which use to rely on standards. Standards enforcement is a key enabler for driving information system changes, hence for containing costs and risks. Which product? Application to Application EAI off-the-shelves do not usually fulfil all integration requirements since they are likely to be complex. EAI off-the-shelf vendors are expected to provide the best running platform containing most of the building blocks for developing company, divisional or departmental EAI system. Some vendors propose systems based on Java Application Servers for scalability and standards enforcement. Some others prefer to supply proprietary systems for performance. Since EAI systems are critical, organisations should pay specific attention to manageability and reliability. Some systems focus on technical interfaces, some others on data mapping and transformation, some others on Business Process Management. Some are robust for routing, some others contain graphical tools for design and configuration. A lot of products are packaged according to specific business, appealing for a swift implementation. Since All-in-one products do not usually provide same level of service as specialised products, it is sound to select more than one product for an EAI system. According to Business requirements, information system planning, and technical constrains, products selection should match service and cost objectives. Then, I recommend to pay particular attention to following criteria for selecting EAI products: 1. Running platform for performance, manageability and reliability 2. Standards 3. Business package 4. Easiness for configuration and implementation Hereafter some of the best known products : Crossworlds now from IBM, comprehensive product, business management oriented Webmethods from Webmethods, comprehensive product, business management capabilities with graphical interface Websphere MQ Integrator from IBM, good running platform with excellent transformation and routing capabilities, lack of technical adaptors. Mercator from Mercator, wide technical interface, excellent for data mapping and transformation, easy to implement, business package. The darkest side of EAI products is security. As EAI systems use to break end to end session, it makes security implementation very complex for critical systems. Products usually provide few buildings blocks according to transport layer technology. Most of the time, they require add-ons, programming, and procedures to improve coverage. Security components has to be decided and designed carefully with respect to Business requirements, since they could account for a significant part of budget. Conclusion As modern organizations are keen to define and manage Business processes, as Information Systems happen to be more complex, EAI systems will soon become key applications for all significant organizations. Because EAIs help Information Systems to be aligned with Business Strategy, and to move forward in a smoother way than previously, they are likely to fuel Information Systems managers and sponsors plans for change. 4
EAI implementation is also a good opportunity for improving security level, since it happen to be a cornerstone of digital economy. experienced in management and information system planning. However, EAI projects are budget consuming and technically at risk. They require to have strong business objectives and a new breed of Project managers References and readings: Butler Group Report 2000 Ovum Report 2001 Octo White paper 1999 «Urbanisation des systèmes d'information» Jacques Sassoon HERMES 1998 «Urbanisation du business et des SI» Gérard Jean HERMES 2000 http://www.messageq.com/ http://eai.ebizq.net/ 5