Enterprise Integration 101

Don’t wait to adopt.
The fittest adapt

SAP Inside Track NL
Integration core
(Resistance is futile)
Martijn Linssen M.A.
26 November 2011 – version 1.0

Integration Core
Don’t wait to adopt. The fittest adapt

Agenda

 What is Integration
 Which problems does it solve
 History of Integration
 How have problems been solved
 Future of Integration
 How can problems stay solved

 Of course, if you tackle a problem better and / or
earlier than the competition, it’s called a business
benefit …

Integration Core
Don’t wait to adopt. The fittest adapt Resistance is futile
23-11-2011 1

Next topic

 What is Integration
 Which problems does it solve





Integration Core
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What is Integration?

 Fitting (not ramming) the round red peg into the
square blue hole

 … good luck with that

 However, this has been done, and proven, outside IT

Integration Core
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The fittest adapt

Integration Core

The Integration problem: your place or mine?

 We’re all hungry, but who gets to be the cook? Because
every one will have to finish his plate – like it or not
 Not just a technical issue, but also a “political” one

Integration Core
5

The Integration trade-off: I speak yours if you speak mine

 Everyone must learn foreign languages

 Very costly, very time-consuming
 Impossible to become fluent in all, let alone a few
 No common single language

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6

The Integration compromise: let’s speak a common language

 Everyone must learn only one foreign language

 Slightly less costly, less time-consuming
 Possible to become fluent in one language
 One common single language

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7

The Integration solution: let’s hire an interpreter

 No one must learn a foreign language

 Least costly, least time-consuming
 One common single language
 Perfect fit-for-purpose for all
 Proven “technology”: European Parliament
Integration Core
8

European Parliament

 With currently 23 languages in the EP, there are 506
(23 x 22) possible combinations
 That would be the integration trade-off in the flesh
 So, they use 3 middle languages: English, French,
German
 (It’s that hard to be fluent in only two languages)
 Currently, 750 members serve for 5 years
 That means that on average
12.5 people per month get
replaced – seamlessly
 Can your IT landscape handle
1.67% application replacements
every single month?
Integration Core
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Next topic



 History of Integration
 How have problems been solved



Integration Core
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The first solution: the ultimate trade-off

For every connected
application N, one will have
to support N minus 1 non-
native interfaces. This is
killing if your landscape
grows, or has to change
(think upgrades)

 Point-to-point interfacing
 Hard-coupled, synchronous
 “Build once, modify never”
 Enterprise effort: 0. App effort: n - 1
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The second solution: use the tools, Luke

For every connected
to support 0 non-native
interfaces. Transformation
is done at a central hub, by
an Integration Broker

 “Enterprise Application Integration”
 Loosely-coupled, asynchronous
 Integration as a profession
 Enterprise effort: n2. App effort: 0
Integration Core
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The third solution: architects’ mistake

For every connected
to support N non-native
interfaces. This is killing if
you replace an application
or introduce a new one, or
simply upgrade

 Enterprise Service Bus / Service Oriented Architecture
 Hard-coupled, synchronous
 Point-to-point connection to the Bus
 Enterprise effort: 0. App effort: n
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Three solutions. Did any of them solve anything?

 Point-to-point was okay but couldn’t scale. It still works
for (very) small IT departments
 EAI was a great follow-up. Even introduced canonical
model and messages, but the introduction of XML lowered
the barrier so much that Integration quickly degraded from
a profession to a pastime
 As a result, ESB got introduced and architects promoted it.
At about the same time SOA saw the light, and now most
(semi-)governments enforce very costly XML over HTTP

 And then… Google refuses to use XML, and Twitter and
Facebook deprecate it in favour of JSON
 Hey – but XML was the language of the future!

 So maybe resistance wasn’t that futile after all?
Integration Core
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Next topic





 Future of Integration
 How can problems stay solved

Integration Core
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Picture yourself in an application’s place – from a business PoV

 Every single application in your
landscape is carefully hand-picked
and selected. You could compare
each of them to Olympic athletes,
specialised to perfection

 Highly single-minded, excelling at
only one thing, they are at best
average at most everything else

 But, you want to immediately replace
them with the next best one
whenever needed: there is no time-
to-market

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The Big Picture

 Any (leading) system needs to collaborate with(in) any
existing IT-landscape, whether internal or external
 Any IT-landscape is diverse, and heterogeneous
- and will always be. It’s an organic life-form in
itself
 Evolution dictates that there will always be exceptions,
differentiations. If a group becomes too large, individuals
will arise out of it, forming new groups: standardisation
never lasts long. Growth means change

 Application lifecycles get shorter every day. Spending
time on development is a necessity, but on Integration?
 There is no business sense in expecting other
organisations and applications to adopt; it is far more
effective to make yourself adaptable
Integration Core
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The real solution: facilitated canonical

For every connected
to support 0 non-native
interfaces. Transformation
is done at a central hub
into one common language

 Adaptive Integrated Enterprise
 Fully de-coupled, asynchronous
 Integration as a profession
 Enterprise effort: n2. App effort: 0
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The typical future-proof IT landscape

External Pull

External Push External
Social Applications
Media
Cloud
B2C
(SaaS)

B2B Mobile

Internal
Applications
SAP Big Data
Specials

 One Goal, One Vision

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Roadmap for the next 5 years (generalised)

JSON
over
XML HTTP JSON
over over
HTTP FTP

EDIFACT Any
over Over
EDIINT HSPA/WCDMA

iDoc Any
over In- over
MQ memory any

 This is a plug-and-play Enterprise as the Business would
like to have. Not much to assimilate here, really
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One last word to the wise

 SOAP, WSDL, REST, W3C – all of those haven’t been
mentioned. Nor need they be: they’re just narrow-minded
opinions

 If you want to restrict yourself, your company and your
customers and partners by limiting choices to either one of
those, go ahead and do so – but try making a solid
business case for that first, shall we?

 There is no one-size-fits-all, there are no Borg – well
maybe there are, but they can be ignored. Certainly not
feared

 You could debate the value of apples over oranges, but
could you really, if this is the big picture?
Integration Core
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Image sources

 http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Locutus_of_Borg
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rD4roXEY8hk
 http://castleawesome.blogspot.com/2011/07/happy-france-day-
frenchies.html
 http://ruisvis.nl/foto.html
 http://www.jointhestylehighclub.com/tag/german-stereotypes/
 http://library.aliyev-heritage.org/en/7231101.html
 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blanka_Vlasic_ISTAF_20
08.jpg
 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Two_man_replace_a_mai
n_landing_gear_tire_of_a_plane.jpg
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Gould_John_Duckbilled_Platypus
_1845-1863.png
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Tiktaalik_roseae_life_restor.jpg
 http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:La_Boqueria.JPG

Integration Core
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The fittest adapt

Questions?


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