The field of enterprise systems integration is constantly evolving, as
every new technology that is introduced appears to make all previous
ones obsolete. Despite this continuous evolution, there is a set of
underlying concepts and technologies that have been gaining an
increasing importance in this field. Examples are asynchronous messaging
through message queues, data and application adapters based on XML and
Web services, the principles associated with the service-oriented
architecture (SOA), service composition, orchestrations, and advanced
mechanisms such as correlations and long-running transactions. Today,
these concepts have reached a significant level of maturity and they
represent the foundation over which most integration platforms have been
built.
This book addresses integration with a view towards supporting business
processes. From messaging systems to data and application adapters, and
then to services, orchestrations, and choreographies, the focus is
placed on the connection between systems and business processes, and
particularly on how it is possible to develop an integrated application
infrastructure in order to implement the desired business processes. For
this purpose, the text follows a layered, bottom-up approach, with
application-oriented integration at the lowest level, followed by
service-oriented integration and finally completed by process-oriented
integration at the topmost level. The presentation of concepts is
accompanied by a set of instructive examples using state-of-the-art
technologies such as Java Message Service (JMS), Microsoft Message
Queuing (MSMQ), Web Services, Microsoft BizTalk Server, and the Business
Process Execution Language (BPEL).
The book is intended as a textbook for advance undergraduate or
beginning graduate students in computer science, especially for those in
an information systems curriculum. IT professionals with a background in
programming, databases and XML will also benefit from the step-by-step
description of the various integration levels and the related
implementation examples.
