Tools for efficient end-to-end integration
Greater amount of applications based on various technologies requires the approach towards integration to be unified and to respect technological diversities of the communicating sides at the same time. Therefore, it is essential to provide broad connectivity for current applications and to be able to implement new technology flexibly.
The key to success is maximum acceleration of application development thanks to great flexibility of the integration solution and due to the fact that any service, data or events required by an application or a project can be accessed quickly. The integration layer must particularly be able to reuse existing integration and business components, interfaces and connections.
The decision to integrate a new frontend proved to be worth it already during the project implementation and over the years we managed to build and maintain architectonically clean large-scale integration architecture. Nowadays, 56 systems are interconnected in it and average 7.5 million services are being called on daily basis.
Petr Beneš, CIO, GE Money Czech Republic, 2008.
For this purpose, Trask has developed its own integration framework based on distributed ESB platform - TIF Enterprise Service Bus. The TIF Enterprise Service Bus integration platform consists of various pre-arranged modules (connectors/adapters) for commonly used applications. The modules are implemented consistently and offer a uniform way to solve various aspects that are important for efficient implementation and secure operations (monitoring, error handling, administration, configuration, security, etc.).
For whom is integration framework intended?
Integration framework is suitable for all mid-sized and larger organizations who want conceptual approach towards integration with minimum impact on the applications that are being integrated. The advantages of the integration framework arise especially when integration framework is used for all the integration tasks. This is because the existing components and services are re-used to the maximum extent and administration and development of the integration infrastructure also becomes substantially easier thanks to its homogeneity.
TIF ESB integration framework is also an ideal basis for end-to-end integration and operations of the commonly used SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) and EDA (Event Driven Architecture) patterns.
In what situations can integration framework help you?
- Many organizations try to provide their employees with a unified frontend, aiming for better and faster customer service. In such cases, it is necessary to integrate the new frontend with the applications running at the background and this is when it is worth it to use an integration framework. Another example may be implementation of new presentation/distribution channels, such as telecommunications centers, internet portals, etc.
- In banking environment, when it is decided to implement a new significant application (ERP, core-banking, etc.) in the complex environment, such application has to be integrated with numerous existing applications. Again, integration framework can help solve these tasks quickly and efficiently
- TIF ESB allows for the solution to be extended in the future on incremental modular basis according to the organization's future needs. The conversion from the existing integration mechanisms to a conceptual integration platform can thus be gradual, without the need for large modifications to current applications and solutions.
- The long-term experience of Trask consultants in the field of application integration and TIF ESB implementation and support is also crucial, as proved by various notable references in the Czech Republic or abroad.