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Home > Solutions > Information Integration
Information Integration

Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) products provide a strong platform for messaging and workflow management. However, these products do not claim to specialize in either metadata management – managing the underlying data resources and message formats that participate in the EAI process – or data transformation – understanding data and deriving accurate data transformation scripts for execution within EAI environments.

As EAI projects scale, three problems arise if metadata management and data mapping are not addressed:

  • Productivity: The ability to maintain point-to-point data transformations becomes an enormous IT burden.

  • Agility: It becomes prohibitive to make change in underlying data sources, message formats and business rules. Critical business logic and metadata is trapped in proprietary EAI products and versions.

  • Quality: As data is integrated without metadata management, inconsistencies and ambiguities accumulate, resulting in reduced quality of business information.

Metadata Management for EAI
A successful EAI deployment relies on three things: (1) a good understanding of underlying data sources and application APIs, (2) an awareness of any change, and (3) comprehensive management of message formats. Inter-enterprise integration also requires tracking partners’ data formats and industry-standard message schemas. Proper metadata management is key to efficiently using a complex EAI deployment. Metadata is best managed outside the EAI product in a specialized metadata environment, as these are more open, thereby reducing dependence on specific EAI vendors and versions. This also allows the same metadata to be reused by other users of the data resources such as application developers and ETL/business intelligence infrastructure.

Data Transformation for EAI
EAI products allow messages to be physically transmitted through a hub. But the different data sources and message formats are often mapped point-to-point. Even when canonical message formats are used, there are usually many different standardized messages - with their versions changing over time - resulting in a spaghetti of mappings that is difficult to maintain. SIM allows every data source and message format version to be mapped just once to the Information Model. All the end-to-end transformations are then generated automatically. When a data source or message format is modified, only one mapping requires updating and all transformations are regenerated automatically.

Integrating Information Management & EAI Environments
The SIM environment easily and efficiently supports EAI run-time environments with:

  • Transformation Code: May be based on a standard such as XSLT, using code which is integrated to the EAI API, typically using Java Beans, or in an EAI vendor-specific transformation scripting.

  • Push/Pull: The SIM environment may push translation scripts into the EAI repository or the EAI repository may be configured using its API to request translation scripts from the SIM environment, e.g. using a web service.

  • Design-Time/Run-Time: In high-volume systems, it is not recommended that transformation scripts be generated for each transaction. Instead, for each process a stable transformation script may be generated and updated only when one of the data sources, message formats or business rules changes.

The optimal choice will depend on both transaction volume and the architecture and APIs of the specific EAI system, such as IBM WebSphere MQ, Tibco, BEA, WebMethods, SeeBeyond, MS BizTalk, Vitria, or Mercator.

The Benefits
Enterprises are turning to SIM as a major component of their integration (EAI) infrastructure, recognizing that only the combination of an industrial-strength metadata management system with next-generation semantic based data integration capabilities will enable them to:

  • Increase engineer productivity and code accuracy by automatically generating translation scripts.
    Reduce deployment time of integration projects.

  • Ensure consistency and maintainability by generating canonical data formats from a single Information Model.
    Accelerate adoption and tracking versions of industry standard message formats (e.g. HL7, XBRL, ISO 15022, ACORD, and RosettaNet).

  • Replace the overhead and rigidity of manual point-to-point mappings with the paradigm of mapping once.

  • Store business logic and rules in a central and open way, thereby increasing business agility and reducing dependence on proprietary EAI vendors and products.

  • Leverage a mature data management environment to enforce policy, promote reuse, rationalize data assets and ensure consistency as the project scales.

To request a Unicorn System Solutions Sheet entitled, "SIM for Integration & EAI projects, visit our Literature page.