Organizations that are able to integrate their applications and data sources have a distinct competitive advantage: strategic utilization of company data and technology for greater efficiency and profit. But IT managers attempting integration face daunting challenges--disparate legacy systems; a hodgepodge of hardware, operating systems, and networking technology; proprietary packaged applications; and more. Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) offers a solution to this increasingly urgent business need. It encompasses technologies that enable business processes and data to speak to one another across applications, integrating many individual systems into a seamless whole. Enterprise Application Integration provides a comprehensive examination of EAI. You will find an overview of EAI goals and approaches, a review of the technologies that support it, and a roadmap to implementing an EAI solution. You will also find an in-depth explanation of the four major types of EAI: data-level, application interface-level, method-level, and user interface-level. The book describes in detail the middleware models and technologies that support these different approaches, including: *Application servers, including the use of Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB) and ActiveX *Message-oriented middleware (MOM) and remote procedure calls (RPCs) *Distributed objects, looking at CORBA and COM *Database-oriented middleware and standards, including ODBC, JDBC, and OLE DB *Java middleware standards *Message brokers *New process automation and workflow technology This practical guide to implementing an EAI solution leads you through all the major steps, including identifying sources of data, building the enterprise metadata model, process integration, identifying application interfaces, mapping information movement, selecting and applying the technologies, testing, and maintenance. Other key topics include integrating packaged applications such as SAP R/3 and PeopleSoft, integrating the supply chain using EAI, the role of XML, and process automation. Comprehensive, practical, and clearly written, this essential resource will help anyone involved in this important business area understand the nature of EAI, its tools and techniques, and how to apply it for a significant business advantage. 0201615835B04062001
David S. Linthicum (Dave) is an internationally recognized industry expert and thought leader, and the author and coauthor of 13 books on computing, including the best selling Enterprise Application Integration (Addison Wesley). Dave keynotes at many leading technology conferences on cloud computing, SOA, Web 2.0, and enterprise architecture, and has appeared on a number of TV and radio shows as a computing expert. He is a blogger for InfoWorld, Intelligent Enterprise, and eBizq.net, covering SOA and enterprise computing topics. Dave also has columns in Government Computer News, Cloud Computing Journal, SOA Journal, Align Journal, and is the editor of Virtualization Journal.
In his career, Dave has formed or enhanced many of the ideas behind modern distributed computing including Enterprise Application Integration, B2B Application Integration, and SOA, approaches and technologies in wide use today. For the last 10 years, Dave has focused on the technology and strategies around cloud computing, and how to make cloud computing work for the modern enterprise. This includes work with several cloud computing startups.
Dave's industry experience includes tenure as CTO and CEO of several successful software companies, and upper-level management positions in Fortune 100 companies. In addition, he was an associate professor of computer science for eight years, and continues to lecture at major technical colleges and universities including the University of Virginia, Arizona State University, and the University of Wisconsin.
