B2B Application Integration: e-Business-Enable Your Enterprise - Softcover

Linthicum, David; Mary O-Brien

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0201709368 ISBN 13: 9780201709360

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2000

Synopsis

In B2B Application Integration, noted enterprise application integration expert David Linthicum presents a timely, sophisticated introduction to middleware: the glue that holds today's rapidly changing e-Business IT infrastructures together. This book covers all aspects of e-Business integration, from concepts to technology, helping any IT professional understand how to leverage middleware to achieve business goals. Linthicum introduces each key technology enabling B2B application integration, including message brokers, application servers, XML, Microsoft's BizTalk initiative, Internet-enabled EDI, and more. Using real-world case studies and examples, he shows how to define an e-Business technical strategy that aligns with the objectives of the business; how to architect superior integrated B2B systems and infrastructure; and how to make the most of today's best tactical tools and techniques. For all IT managers, application integrators, and system architects concerned with delivering B2B systems that integrate diverse applications, both within the enterprise and beyond its borders.

About this title

About the Author

David S. Linthicum is an internationally known distributed-computing and application integration expert who speaks at popular technical conferences throughout the United States. He has almost twenty years of experience in the integration-technology industry, most recently as CTO of Mercator Software, Inc. Before joining Mercator, David was the CTO of SAGA Software, and also held senior-level management positions at Electronic Data Systems, AT&T Solutions, and Ernst & Young LLP. He has consulted for hundreds of major corporations engaged in systems analysis, design, and development, with a concentration in complex distributed systems. This is David's third book on application integration.

0201709368AB07142003

From the Back Cover

e-Business is no longer a buzzword; it is a reality in which internal and external business systems customers, financial partners, suppliers, and support operations communicate and execute transactions instantly and automatically. These emerging electronic business-to-business (B2B) relationships require a new type of integration technology that is dependent on intelligent, flexible middleware layers that glue disparate applications, databases, and processes together.

B2B Application Integration is a comprehensive guide to the concepts, techniques, and technologies that enable application integration, the technical foundation of e-Business. Noted application integration expert David Linthicum details real-time application integration solutions and explains how middleware layers work to create a seamless whole out of numerous independent systems, both within and between enterprises.

Inside you will find in-depth coverage of the five types of B2B application integration: data-oriented, application interface-oriented, method-oriented, portal-oriented, and process integration-oriented. B2B Application Integration also describes in detail available middleware technologies and existing and emerging B2B application integration standards. Specific topics covered include:

• Enabling B2B application integration standards, including XML, RosettaNet, BizTalk, and XSLT
• Message brokers and B2B integration servers for B2B application integration
• EAI technology and B2B application integration
• Database-to-database integration models
• Integrating with packaged applications and vertical market interfaces
• Frameworks, distributed objects, and transaction servers for method-oriented B2B application integration
• Portal-oriented integration, focusing on Web enablement technologies
• Digital exchanges and B2B application integration
• Tools and approaches for process integration-oriented B2B application integration
• Transactional middleware, including Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), Transactional COM+, and their use with application servers
• Java middleware standards such as JMS, EJB, J2EE, and RMI
• Traditional RPCs and Message-Oriented Middleware (MOM)
• Distributed objects, including CORBA and COM+
• Database-oriented middleware, including ODBC, JDBC, and OLE DB

Also discussed are the ways to evaluate and choose the most effective application-integration approaches and technologies for your organization. This book will give you a clear understanding of the tools and techniques required for successful application integration and the know-how you need to put them to work to create a successful e-Business solution.

0201709368B04062001

From the Inside Flap

Business as usual? Does anyone remember what that phrase even means anymore? About the only thing certain about "business as usual" is that it is inadequate to survive in the new, technology-driven business environment. It just doesn't get the job done anymore. If IT organizations fail to transform and enable themselves to compete in the new Internet economy, they will find themselves among the "left-behinds," wondering what in the world hit them. Gartner Group has proclaimed that "e-commerce applications and technology have been elevated to 'core competency' status, and their success or failure will determine an enterprise's viability."

It is a whole new business world out there. It is dynamic and fluid. It is relentless. And it is dangerous. The thing that makes this new world so challenging to IT organizations is that the Internet e-Business model no longer exists solely in a technology domain. The new e-Business model is now being shaped and driven by the business units; technology has been reduced to an enabling role.

The importance of the Internet is mushrooming before our eyes. Forrester Research forecasts that the e-Business market will reach $1.3 trillion in only three more years. According to the IDC, businesses will spend $10 billion over the next five years to create the infrastructure that will support this e-Business market. In its research, Forrester found that almost half of the Fortune 500 executives surveyed had already opened up three or more corporate data systems to their business partners-and that 60 percent expected that number to grow threefold or more by 2001. Gartner predicts that by year-end 2002, more than 50 percent of large enterprises will have implemented at least one large-scale, extended-enterprise application to support multiple trading partners or Web-based external access to applications.

Woe be to the executive who tarries!

Determined to add competitive advantages to their businesses, savvy IT executives are enlarging their roles to provide customized business information applications and e-Business systems. All other aspects of their businesses, including traditional development for the enterprise, will be outsourced, purchased via packaged applications, or managed in the most efficient, cost- and time-balanced manner. This coming business reality requires a new type of integration technology--a technology that is dependent on intelligent, flexible middleware layers that "glue" all of these disparate applications and processes together.

The purpose of this book is to describe to you just how those middleware layers will function to hold everything together--and allow your business to succeed in the new e-Business world. Extending Enterprise Application Integration

The extended enterprise consists of automatic, electronic interfaces that link the computer systems of the ultimate selling business, the partners that finance or manage the transaction, external suppliers, carriers, and support operations. In turn, these external partners connect with a multitude of internal enterprise systems that support customer service, sales, manufacturing, procurement, logistics, accounting, human resources, and corporate finance.

The technology process of the extended enterprise is sometimes described in terms of "long transactions"--traditional purchases that are electronically and automatically linked across the supply, order, and financing chain in one continuous set of connected transactions. When an order is placed, all affected systems (supply replenishment, credit checks, financial accounting, sales reporting, feedback from marketing campaigns, and so on) are provided with real-time or near real-time updates so that the implications of the sale are recognized and acted upon.

e-Business depends on many of the same concepts and approaches that I outlined in my last book, Enterprise Application Integration. B2B application integration is a direct outgrowth of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), reusing many of the same approaches and technologies. However, e-Business challenges all the existing rules, since both approaches and technology must morph around this new, and more complex, problem domain.

Many of the lessons we learned in solving EAI problems will aid us in finding a solution set for B2B application integration. However, some of the approaches to application integration that occur within a firewall will be nontransferable to B2B application integration. Moreover, we need to create new concepts and technologies that are unique to moving information between partner organizations. As we saw with EAI, current technologies are limited, and users must learn to pick and choose wisely, bypassing the hype in order to determine which technology is best for their needs. Why This Book?

Although many books on the market address the high-level issues of e-Business, currently no other book details how to create B2B application integration solutions to move information and processes between organizations in real time. It doesn't take a genius to declare that applications should share information between organizations. Such declarations amount to little more than words. Accomplishing the task is something else again--action.

This book covers all aspects of B2B application integration, from concepts to technology. When you read it, you will understand the next level of e-Business technology. In addition to gaining the ability to apply this technology appropriately, you will clearly understand the enabling technology and standards, such as message brokers, application servers, XML, RosettaNet, BizTalk, and EDI. Whenever possible, I have taken advantage of case studies to make these concepts more accessible to you, and you'll also find case studies in the appendixes.

Ultimately, our task is to create the right e-Business strategy while keeping in mind the business drivers. After that, we must consider the architecture. Finally, we must consider the availability of various tactical solutions utilizing technology and techniques.

As we approach a real-time economy, the necessity of B2B application integration becomes more and more obvious. Even so, bridging the gap from "business as usual" to the benefits of the new e-Business is absolutely daunting for most organizations. The solutions will not come about overnight. It will take years of planning, analyzing, developing, and testing before we are able to take that first substantial step closer to e-Business nirvana.

Reading this book is the best way to begin mapping out your organization's path to B2B application integration success.

0201709368P04062001

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

PREFACE Business as usual? Does anyone remember what that phrase even means anymore? About the only thing certain about "business as usual" is that it is inadequate to survive in the new, technology-driven business environment. It just doesn't get the job done anymore. If IT organizations fail to transform and enable themselves to compete in the new Internet economy, they will find themselves among the "left behinds," wondering what in the world hit them. Gartner Group has proclaimed that "e-commerce applications and technology have been elevated to 'core competency' status, and their success or failure will determine an enterprise's viability." It is a whole new business world out there. It is dynamic and fluid. It is relentless. And, it is dangerous. The thing that makes this new world so challenging to IT organizations is that the Internet e-Business model no longer exists solely in a technology domain. The new e-Business model is now being shaped and driven by the business units; technology has been reduced to an enabling role. The importance of the Internet is mushrooming before our eyes. Forrester Research forecasts that the e-Business market will reach $1.3 trillion in only three more years. According to the IDC, businesses will spend $10 billion over the next five years to create the infrastructure that will support this e-Business market. In his research, Forrester found that almost half of the Fortune 500 executives surveyed had already opened up three or more corporate data systems to their business partners--and that 60% expected that number to grow threefold or more by 2001. Gartner predicts that by year-end 2002, more than 50 percent of large enterprises will have implemented at least one large-scale, extended-enterprise application to support multiple trading partners or Web-based external access to applications. Woe be to the executive who tarries! Determined to add competitive advantages to their businesses, savvy IT executives are enlarging their roles to provide customized business information applications and e-Business systems. All other aspects of their businesses, including traditional development for the enterprise, will be outsourced, purchased via packaged applications or managed in the most efficient, cost- and time-balanced manner. This coming business reality requires a new type of integration technology; a technology that is dependent on intelligent, flexible middleware layers that "glue" all of these disparate applications and processes together. The purpose of this book is to describe to you just how those middleware layers will function to hold everything together--and allow your business to succeed in the new e-Business world. Extending Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) The extended enterprise consists of automatic, electronic interfaces that link the computer systems of the ultimate selling business, the partners that finance or manage the transaction, external suppliers, carriers, and support operations. In turn, these external partners connect with a multitude of internal enterprise systems that support customer service, sales, manufacturing, procurement, logistics, accounting, human resources, and corporate finance. The technology process of the extended enterprise is sometimes described in terms of "long transactions"--traditional purchases that are electronically and automatically linked across the supply, order, and financing chain in one continuous set of connected transactions. When an order is placed, all affected systems (supply replenishment, credit checks, financial accounting, sales reporting, feedback from marketing campaigns, etc.) are provided with real or near real-time updates so that the implications of the sale are recognized and acted upon. e-Business depends on many of the same concepts and approaches which I outlined in my last book, Enterprise Application Integration. B2B application integration is a direct outgrowth of EAI, reusing many of the same approaches and technologies. However, e-Business challenges all the existing rules as both approaches and technology must morph around this new, and more complex, problem domain. Many of the lessons we learned in solving EAI problems will aid us in finding a solution set for B2B application integration. However, some of the approaches to application integration that occur within a firewall will prove to be non-transferable to B2B application integration. Moreover, we need to create new concepts and technologies that are unique to moving information between partner organizations. As we saw with EAI, current technologies are limited, and users must learn to pick and choose wisely, bypassing the hype in order to determine which technology is best for their needs. Why This Book? While many books on the market address the high-level issues of e-Business, currently there is no other book available that details how to create B2B application integration solutions to move information and processes between organizations in real-time. It doesn't take a genius to declare that applications should share information between organizations. Such declarations amount to little more than words. Accomplishing the task is something else again--action. This book covers all aspects of B2B application integration, from concepts to technology. When you read it, you will understand the next level of e-Business technology. In addition to the ability to apply this technology appropriately, you will come away with a clear understanding of the enabling technology and standards, such as message brokers, application servers, XML, RosettaNet, BizTalk, and EDI. Whenever possible, I have taken advantage of case studies to make these concepts more accessible to you, and you'll also find case studies in the appendixes. Ultimately, our task is to create the right e-Business strategy while keeping in mind the business drivers. After that, we must consider the architecture. Finally, we must consider the availability of various tactical solutions utilizing technology and techniques. As we approach a real-time economy, the necessity of B2B application integration becomes more and more obvious. Even so, bridging the gap from "business as usual" to the benefits of the new e-Business is absolutely daunting for most organizations. The solutions will not come about overnight. It will take years of planning, analyzing, developing and testing before we are able to take that first substantial step closer to e-Business nirvana. Reading this book is the best way to begin mapping out your organization's path to B2B application integration success.

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0201709368
• ISBN 13: 9780201709360
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 432