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Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) is a broad term that
includes methods, tools and technologies used to integrate different
IT systems. There are usually two flavors of EAI. First is application-to-application
integration which takes place within an organization. The second
is business-to-business integration (B2Bi) which encompasses
integration of external business partners.
EAI is a required part of a BPM
Platform because it enables
a process execution engine to interact with multiple applications
in an organization for seamless process
execution.
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EAI is typically delivered through a set of middleware software
products which eliminate the maintenance headaches of multiple
point-to-point custom integrations. These products provide two
main features:
- Messaging
systems – for passing asynchronous transactions between
systems in a very reliable manner
- Integration brokers – for
handling more complex system-to-system interactions by providing
translation of data between systems as well as routing
of information based on its content.
Application integration middleware can be complex and expensive,
but standardized integration technologies such as web services
are improving ease of use and reducing costs. |
