Lesson 1

Integration may well be the single greatest challenge in creating and growing an e-business today. To take advantage of the Web, businesses must integrate their existing applications with new Web technologies. In this module, you will learn which tools are available to ensure the integration of constantly changing technologies, and the processes that depend on those technologies. Specifically, you will learn about two kinds of tools that play a critical part in any integration strategy:

1. middleware and
2. workflow services technologies.

By the end of this module, you will be able to complete the following:

1. Describe message-oriented middleware and its function
2. Describe RPC-based middleware and its function
3. Describe data access/integration middleware and its function
4. Describe distributed object middleware and its function
5. Describe transaction processors and their function
6. Explain Enterprise Application Integration and its function
7. Describe workflow services solutions and their role in integration

There are several types of integration tools that can be used for e-business, including:

1. Enterprise Service Bus (ESB): An ESB is a middleware tool that facilitates the communication between different applications and systems. It allows for integration of various systems through a centralized hub, enabling them to exchange data and interact with each other.
2. Application Programming Interfaces (APIs): APIs are a set of protocols and tools that allow different systems to interact with each other. They can be used to expose the functionality of one system to other systems, enabling them to access and use that functionality.
3. Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) tools: ETL tools are used to extract data from multiple sources, transform it into a consistent format, and load it into a target system. This can be used to integrate data from different systems into a single data warehouse or data lake.
4. Cloud-Based Integration Platforms: Cloud-based platforms like Azure Logic apps, AWS Lambda, Google Cloud Functions etc, allow for integration of different systems and services in cloud environment, it allows for easy scaling, monitoring, and management of integrations.
5. Custom Integration Solutions: Depending on the specific needs of the e-business, custom integration solutions may be required. This can include developing custom code or scripts to integrate systems and automate processes.

Broadly speaking, there are four important established technological forms of middleware, with several more in the early stages of development, all of which are based on object-oriented or component-based software engineering principles. The four technologies are

1. remote procedure call,
2. message-oriented middleware (MOM),
3. object request brokers (ORBs), and
4. a class of transaction-oriented middleware.

I discuss each of these in turn and conclude with some current trends. For each of the following sections, in addition to discussing the core enabling technologies, I also discuss some of the middleware services associated with the particular approach.
The next lesson explains middleware and how it integrates eBusiness technologies.