-
Integration solutions - A Comparative
Analysis
Applies to:
Middleware Technologies.
Summary
A
Middleware solution that provides out of the box
integration scenarios
eliminates the
need to hard code point to point connections
between applications or
businesses.
This article explores the integration capabilities
of various solutions
available in the
market.
Author(s): Balaji Koteswaran
UppalaCompany: HCL Technologies
Created
on: 26 June 2007
Author Bio
The author is currently working with
HCL Technologies in SAP Net Weaver Practice.
Overview
Why there is a need
for Integration?
Organizations have
found a host of compelling reasons to do this.
Some have discovered
that they must
share order and shipment information in real time
between an ERP
system such as SAP R/3
and existing production applications located in
warehouses or
manufacturing facilities.
Others have come up with equally compelling
diverse
scenarios.
What Integration solutions do?
- Integrate systems that were
not designed to work together
-
Accommodate various elements of information
technology that may be dissimilar
and
incompatible
- Integrate
across an increasingly broad organizational scope,
perhaps
encompassing multiple separate
businesses
- Make maximum use
of information
- Accommodate
and even proactively exploit change
-
Support the way the business operates, not the
other way around
Why
integrate systems and applications?
A successfully integrated enterprise can reward
your organization with significant
cost, resource, and time savings.
Enterprise Applications Integration (EAI) connects
existing and new systems to enable
collaborative operation within your entire
organization.
A
successfully integrated system allows information
to work harder and smarter,
increasing
the speed of business reaction time, and
facilitating seamless, straight-
through
transaction processing.
Although a
number of Integration solutions-Middleware
technologies are available in
the
market. Some of them are briefly discussed here.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
SAP Exchange
Infrastructure
Tibco
BizTalk
Web methods
IBM MQSeries/WebSphere
See
Beyond
Mercator
Oracle
fusion
Vitria
1. Sap XI
XI is well suited for connecting
SAP systems with each other and with non-SAP.
SAP XI provides an integrated workflow
engine that allows defining adapters to
non-
XML protocols and mappings to
convert data content from source to target format.
XI comes handy particularly incase of
SAP - Non SAP interfaces where you can import
standard integration content. Also XI
has got sophisticated open standard adapter
framework which is very easy to
implement and custom logic can be implemented
using
Adapter module programming.
Advantages
?
?
?
?
?
Monitoring is better than any other
middleware product. It offers exhaustive
monitoring features like message,
performance, component monitoring etc, all of
which can be used to track and rectify
the errors. It follows a hub and spoke
model.
When you need to
integrate with an SAP system XI has an advantage
in
supporting various SAP components
and so on.
Process functionalities
inside XI to modify content in the communication
channel
on own defined rules for
business purposes.
Mappings and
adapters are good as comparable with any other
middleware
product.
Synchronous & Asynchronous
communication is possible.
Dis-
Advantages
Web methods are particularly
good if u have B2B kind of communication with
their Trading Partners product.
?
XI is lacking
full-fledged Message Queue compared to other
established
Middleware products.
?
It lacks in
ability to process huge messages but SAP is
working on that.
?
It does not have a messaging layer
exposed by APIs like IBM MQ-Series.
?
?
?
It is not
comparable to Tibco in terms of speed.
SAP relies on other vendors except for
a few adapters.
2. Tibco
TIBCO is described as having the most advanced BPM
features overall, spanning
both
integration-centric and human-centric features due
to the company's aggressive
strategy to
sustain competitive advantage by adding leading-
edge features, whether via
internal
development or strategic acquisition.
For the integration of custom
applications into the e-business infrastructure,
TIBCO
makes available a comprehensive
Software Development Kit that enables enterprises
to
build their own adapters.
Advantages
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
?
Tibco has many
adapters that are built by their own.
Tibco simple and productive User
Interface is much more matured than XI.
Tibco does publish/subscribe very well.
Available messaging types include
request/reply, publish/subscribe and
publish/reply interactions.
Improves
overall system performance by eliminating
repetitive batch requests to
packaged
application systems.
Lowers cost-of-
ownership through general n-way rather than point-
to-point
integration.
Simplifies administration with data
transparency provided by subject-based
naming.
Enhances networked
applications based on component or object
development
models.
Choice
of message delivery service levels for optimal
resource utilization.
Dis-Advantages
?
?
?
Tibco does not have asynchronous
SOAP/HTTP.
Concept of integration in
terms of semantics and steps is a little more
complex.
When compared in terms of
monitoring, message level trace, message
resubmission, pipelining, components
monitoring Tibco is far behind to XI.
3. BizTalk
BizTalk is a business process management (BPM)
server that enables companies
to
automate and optimize business processes. This
includes powerful, familiar tools to
design, develop, deploy, and manage
those processes.
While
planning for the integration scenario BizTalk
takes care about tasks like
Gathering
information, Defining naming conventions, planning
team development,
setting up and
working with source control.
Advantages
?
BizTalk 2004 is completely built on
.Net.
?
?
?
?
?
Recoverable Interchange. In BizTalk, an
Interchange can contain two or more
messages, such as a batch. With the
introduction of Recoverable Interchange in
BizTalk Server 2006, only messages that
fail validation are suspended, and the
messages can be resumed after the error
is corrected.
Failed message routing.
New functionality is available to allow
orchestration and
send ports to
subscribe to failed messages. When used
appropriately, failed
message routing
can be used for notifying users of failed messages
or building
rich error handling and
message repair capabilities.
Lowest
total cost of ownership (TCO). BizTalk Server
reduces the cost and
complexity of
automating and managing business processes with a
single, unified
solution for Enterprise
Application Integration (EAI), Business-to-
Business
integration (B2Bi), and
Business Process Management (BPM).
Enhanced productivity through
integrated management and development tools.
Supports Computer Telephony Interface
(CTI) through TAPI.
Dis-Advantages
Recovery is manual.
Backups
are not automated.
Fault Tolerance
capabilities are supported through other Microsoft
products.
Repository only works with
MS SQL.
Requires additional software
to use certain features in BizTalk 2002, Microsoft
Operations Manager & Application
Center.
?
To use
a server with 8-32 processors it requires
Microsoft Windows 2000
Datacenter,
which must be purchased through an OEM.
?
Only runs on
Microsoft/Intel platform and only supports XML
Data Reduced
(XDR) not XML Schema
Definition (XSD).
?
?
?
?
?
4. Web Methods
Web Methods was one of the first vendors to
realize the significance of XML
interactions, bringing its first
generation of XML-based B2B integration software
to
market in 1999. Since that time, the
vendor has expanded its scope to include
enterprise
application integration
(EAI), electronic data interchange (EDI), and,
most recently,
business process
management (BPM), giving it the most comprehensive
and easy-to-use
integration suite on
the market.
Advantages
?
?
?
?
?
?
Connectivity from legacy applications
to Web delivery channels is core strength.
Web Methods provides strong monitoring
features, as well as comprehensive
support for vertical-industry
accelerators.
Web Methods has been a
strong proponent of the concepts underlying SOA
since
its inception.
Web
Methods Fabric is priced in the midrange compared
with other products in
this category.
Web Methods Extended Enterprise
Solution Suite software focuses on supply
chain management to facilitate order
processing and inventory management.
Web Methods will extend its current
universe of ERP adapters to address the