Application Integration Blues

Discussion for EA874 Topic 2 > Application Architecture Layer
Post # 2

Application Architects should always place integration as one of the key criteria in the development and/or acquisition of application systems and components. Enterprise Application Integration is the combination of processes, software, standards, and hardware resulting in the seamless integration of two or more enterprise systems allowing these to operate seemingly as one.

I would suspect that a good portion of IT headaches -- as well as frustration of end-users, come from application systems not talking to each other, where system boundaries are far from seamless, and sharing data is primitively painful. Talk to any healthcare professional and they will lament with stories about redundant data entry because of disparate applications. This brings hours of costly inefficient overhead, demoralized personnel, diminished data quality, and poor customer satisfaction.

Ten years ago I was working for a software company which provides process automation tools to help move data from one application system to another, and thus promote systems integration.  Its HQ is in the Netherlands, and has a strong presence in Europe and North America in which two-thirds of its customer base resides. The company's core product was evolved and later co-developed with SAP in Waldorf, Germany, and is now a core component of the SAP ERP system.  We consulted for companies such as Shell Petroleum, UBS Bank, Toyota, Raytheon, and Lilly Pharmaceuticals, among many of its global customers. Further back in the 1990's I worked with IBM within the Systems Integration group, working with IBM products along with many third-party vendors to bring combined solutions for clients. Apparently, systems integration is good business for the large integrators such as IBM, Andersen, CSC, etc.

Application integration is an expensive operation, and is a key architectural concern.  Many IT organizations strategize to be agile, poised to be on the lookout for more cost-effective solutions.  Market analysts now predict that the global systems integration costs for IT organizations will be north of $300 billion towards 2020 and onwards, coming from somewhere in the vicinity of $50 billion around year 2000.

In such a scenario, it is not surprising to find IT organizations looking towards integration via automation solutions, leading to the growth of the Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) market which promises to answer that demand.  Today, the market is alive and well and could actually appear to be a confusing jungle with a cacophony of vendors for integration products. Capterra provides a current listing of integration product vendors and is referenced below.

References:

Top Integration Software Products. Retrieved 2016 Sep 9 from http://www.capterra.com/integration-software/

Radiant Insights. (2016 March 14). System Integration Market Is Expected To Reach $393.10 Billion By 2020. News Article. Retrieved from https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2016/03/14/819305/0/en/System-Integration-Market-Is-Expected-To-Reach-393-10-Billion-By-2020-Radiant-Insights-Inc.html