Application Integration Complexities Highlight The Problems
Getting different applications to talk to each other is a problem faced by many companies. Application integration is particularly troublesome when legacy systems are involved, and transferring data between old mainframe systems and more modern applications can be cumbersome and time-consuming. A good deal of time is spent on ensuring this happens, and software is often available to help with the process.
While middle ware exists to help overcome these issues, the permutations of languages, equipment, databases, and operating system are never ending, so it is impossible to cater for every eventuality. If proprietary tools are not available, the the solution is a home-grown procedure to do the job of communicating between systems. Here the skills shortage may affect the maintainability of such software bridges.
It was hoped that object oriented applications would overcome these problems in newer systems. But this is only true if an enterprise database is created, and all applications are based on it. With many applications having their own databases, the problem is still around to haunt IT departments.
Different application packages will still have their own databases, and this could easily lead to duplication of entities and redundancy. The need for middleware to capture or transfer common data is once more created. As it often happens that packages are acquired, this scenario is an ongoing problem for most organizations.
The best solution would seem to be a central repository database which houses all data common to several applications and provides the functionality to maintain and inquire on the data. New applications or packages would interface to that master database. Data used by only one system could be handled as appropriate.
At the moment this would seem a dream. The Information systems world is sitting with Lamborghini computing power and Model T applications concepts. Perhaps IT should adopt the same approach as manufacturing, where older, less efficient machines are quickly replaced: not to do so makes a company uncompetitive, and saving money by using old equipment is known to be a wasteful chimera, resorted to by unaware managements.
A disproportionate amount of time and money is absorbed by application integration. Many smaller companies cannot deal with the complexities, and simply choose to live with the problem. In time it is possible that a move might be started towards rationalizing the whole approach to applications. Maybe one day everybody will look back and laugh at the current state of the art, after computers have fully emerged from the Dark Ages of systems development.
While middle ware exists to help overcome these issues, the permutations of languages, equipment, databases, and operating system are never ending, so it is impossible to cater for every eventuality. If proprietary tools are not available, the the solution is a home-grown procedure to do the job of communicating between systems. Here the skills shortage may affect the maintainability of such software bridges.
It was hoped that object oriented applications would overcome these problems in newer systems. But this is only true if an enterprise database is created, and all applications are based on it. With many applications having their own databases, the problem is still around to haunt IT departments.
Different application packages will still have their own databases, and this could easily lead to duplication of entities and redundancy. The need for middleware to capture or transfer common data is once more created. As it often happens that packages are acquired, this scenario is an ongoing problem for most organizations.
The best solution would seem to be a central repository database which houses all data common to several applications and provides the functionality to maintain and inquire on the data. New applications or packages would interface to that master database. Data used by only one system could be handled as appropriate.
At the moment this would seem a dream. The Information systems world is sitting with Lamborghini computing power and Model T applications concepts. Perhaps IT should adopt the same approach as manufacturing, where older, less efficient machines are quickly replaced: not to do so makes a company uncompetitive, and saving money by using old equipment is known to be a wasteful chimera, resorted to by unaware managements.
A disproportionate amount of time and money is absorbed by application integration. Many smaller companies cannot deal with the complexities, and simply choose to live with the problem. In time it is possible that a move might be started towards rationalizing the whole approach to applications. Maybe one day everybody will look back and laugh at the current state of the art, after computers have fully emerged from the Dark Ages of systems development.
About the Author:
Peggie K. Lambert is an expert in data management and integration. Need to learn more about application integration? If so the author recommends you visit www.liaison.com.
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