EAI - Enterprise Application Integration

TIBCO’s Enterprise Application Integration Solutions

synverse1 — Sat, 02 May 2009 09:03:15 +0000

The Most businesses activities involve multiple applications and information sources,so incompatibilities between these systems can cause delays and errors that prevent companies from achieving real-time business. The key to increasing operational efficiency and maximizing the individual value of these systems is ensuring that they can communicate and interact in real-time.
TIBCO’s Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) solutions leverage technologies such as Java, Web Services, and TIBCO’s own high-performance messaging software to break down barriers between incompatible and distributed applications and databases. TIBCO EAI solutions dynamically transform and intelligently route messages and documents so they get to the right place, at the right time, and in the right format.
The Right Tool for the Job, Every Time TIBCO EAI solutions include a wide variety of technologies for every integration scenario. In addition to its own implementation of Java Message Service (JMS) and support for Web Services, TIBCO provides an innovative and trusted messaging software.

TIBCO EAI solutions enable synchronous and asynchronous communications using publish/subscribe, request/reply, broadcast and multicast communications, and a wide range of delivery verification and encryptionoptions.
Integration of Other Technologies TIBCO realizes that legacy methods of integration will continue to exist either because they meet current business needs or because they are difficult to replace. TIBCO EAI solutions provide interfaces for exchanging information with leading technologies such as COM, CORBA, MQSeries, CICS, and IMS, and with implementations of JMS from other vendors.Management of Business Processes TIBCO EAI solutions enable the automation of end-to-end business processes by coordinating sequences of tasks and the resources (both systems and people) that
perform them.

TIBCO EAI solutions also support sophisticated exception management
and the dynamic modification of processes even when processes are underway.Rapid Addition and Modification of Systems TIBCO EAI solutions increase the flexibility of networks using a unique architecture
that connects each application to the integration platform through a single point of contact called an adapter. Any application or system connected to the integration platform is automatically connected to every other connected application or system.
No-coding Approach to Integration Adapters enable the integration of applications using a simple configuration GUI instead of by hard-coding connections. In addition to packaged adapters for most leading applications and information sources, TIBCO EAI solutions provide a software
development kit that lets companies create adapters for legacy and custom
applications and information sources.
Intelligent Routing of Information TIBCO EAI solutions route information by subject name as opposed to addressing it to recipient applications or individuals. New applications can instantly begin publishing and
receiving information to communicate with the other applications and systems in theenterprise. Information can also be dynamically routed based on content.Automatic Data Transformation TIBCO EAI solutions automatically transform information as it moves across the network — resolving incompatibilities so each system can send and receive

information in its native format. TIBCO EAI solutions support a wide range of input/output options including HTTP, FTP, SMTP, database and flat files, XML andSWIFT, and any data format using Java-based plug-ins.

TIBCO Software :

TIBCO Software(TM) Inc. (NASDAQ: TIBX) is a leading provider of total business integration solutions–delivering infrastructure software that enables companies to seamlessly integrate business systems in real-time. TIBCO’s products enable the real-time distribution of information through patented technology called The Information Bus(TM), or TIB(R). TIBCO technology was first used to digitize Wall Street and has since been adopted in diverse industries including financial services, telecommunications, electronic commerce, transportation, logistics, manufacturing and energy. TIBCO’s global customer base includes more than 1,000 customers such as Cisco Systems, Yahoo!, Ariba, NEC, Enron, Sun Microsystems, GE Capital, Philips, AT&T, Pirelli and AOL/Netscape. Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, TIBCO can be reached at the web at www.tibco.com.

What is EAI?

synverse1 — Sat, 02 May 2009 08:43:27 +0000

Short for enterprise application integration, EAI is the unrestricted sharing of data and business processes throughout the networked applications or data sources in an organization. Early software programs in areas such as inventory control, human resources, sales automation and database management were designed to run independently, with no interaction between the systems. They were custom built in the technology of the day for a specific need being addressed and were often proprietary systems. As enterprises grow and recognize the need for their information and applications to have the ability to be transferred across and shared between systems, companies are investing in EAI in order to streamline processes and keep all the elements of the enterprise interconnected.

Here is the list of Open Source Free EAI tools available in Java. You can use these tools for free

EAI Defined

synverse1 — Sat, 02 May 2009 08:36:13 +0000

Even in our enlightened times, great amounts enterprise data lies locked away in monolithic applications. Whether they be purchased, home-grown, or a combination, the realities of business demand that the information contained in those vertical ‘silos’ be used in ways that the original architects never intended.

Enterprise Application Integration, or EAI, encompases the following areas:

1. Opening up ways for the information to flow from one application to another,
2. Letting applications to reach other sources of data outside themselves, and
3. Allowing other programs to peer into the innards of formerly closed programs.
4. Sharing data between divisions or even between separate corporations

Examples of enterprise programs that can benefit from EAI include

* Enterprise Resource Planning
* Customer Relationship Management
* Supply Chain Management
* Human Resources Management

EAI Tools

Each of these component tools can be bundled together into pipelines which are collections of EAI components to perform some set of tasks. Pipelines are modular constructs – they can call other pipelines – which lets you design and implement your integration project either in top-down or bottom-up fashion.
EAI Mappers

Stylus Studio contains many tools which can be used to build these pipes between silos, so that information can flow. Some of the most valuable include the XQuery Mapper which can build XQuery integration programs by dragging and dropping, and its companion XSLT Mapper used for designing XSLT transformations.

EAI Debugger

It’s one thing to debug the component, but we all know that when things are plugged in together, they don’t always fit. Stylus Studio® includes the next evolutionary step in debuggers – the Pipeline Debugger. This lets you set breakpoints at points in the pipeline, and see what data is flowing between operations. And if you don’t like what you see, you can then step into the XQuery or XSLT, or even into the Java, to determine why your program is doing what it is doing.
The XML Pipeline Simulator showing EAI (Click to enlarge)
(click to enlarge)
EAI Simulator

The host to the pipeline is the Pipeline Simulator. This lets you design and debug in a graphical environment, prior to deploying your application. When you’re ready, we’ll build all of the source code for you to use.
EAI Engines

Under the hood Stylus Studio® supports a variety of engines, geared toward the profile of your data. For solid design, the Saxon SA (Schema-Aware) engine is included for both XSLT and XQuery support. If you are accessing relational data sources, such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, IBM DB/2, or other databases, the highly-optimized DataDirect XQuery engine is available with bundled JDBC drivers.
EAI Converters

Including are a variety of converters which let Stylus Studio® speak your language. Whether you are talking HL7, EDIFACT, EANCOM, IATA, X12, or some other variant of EDI, or you speak in dBase or plain old text, XML or HTML, we can read and write your format.
Data Validators

It would be nice to defeat the old GIGO paradigm (“garbage in, garbage out” is not one of the design patterns we want to follow!). We supply a bevy of validators for you to use in your application to ensure that the data coming in is what you expect, and the data going out is what you plan.