Web Services and Enterprise Integration - Friends Not Foes - Page 2

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eAI will easily support Web Services
Web services are the next logical step in the evolution of technology standards Let's review the characteristics of Web Services vis a vis the current state of eAI:

• Locate through a Web registry: Registry services are not new, but their role in the process is. The whole basis for CORBA was the provision of the registry service, but the registry for Web Services is not a run-time service as it was in CORBA. The registry is used to find the service in preparation for using the service. An IP address is returned and it is that address to which one refers at run-time. eAI supports this capability through a feature called introspection. eAI will require the WS-Inspection protocol to support web services just as it requires ODBC protocol to support the introspection of databases.
• Access over the Web: This means the service is TCP/IP addressable. This is a common feature of today's eAI systems.
• Provide an interface that can be called by another program: This is so common today we do not even acknowledge it. Technologies we commonly use are DCOM, RPC, RMI and CORBA. eAI is used to mask the specific interface technology. Web Services will likely link to eAI behind the firewall in order to navigate through all the interface protocols within a company.
• Communicate using standard Web protocols: All program-to-program communication is based on protocols. In order to communicate with a program you must select a protocol that it supports. The web service protocol is being easily supported by today's eAI systems. The inherent simplicity of the web service protocol makes it very easy to support within eAI.
• Support loosely coupled connections between systems: This has been a development principle in all languages for all time. It is and always has been an attribute of design, not technology.

Web Services versus eAI
Businesses should view the Web Services evolution as a complimentary integration solution to eAI. Corporate leaders should understand and review both technologies for implementation into overall integration architecture. eAI, which is not specialized to a single solution, will inexpensively support the addition of Web Services into the architecture.

The standards surrounding Web Services, such as XML, SOAP, WSDL, and UDDI will ultimately simplify application integration, both within and outside organizational boundaries. These standards will determine the value of Web Services as an integration solution.

While the deployment of web services promises the accessibility of any application over the network, the need and value of the integration framework remains strong. Companies continue to need the logical centralization of applications to manage and control their business processes and increase operational efficiencies. Regardless of how connections are established (eAI or Web Services) to individual applications, the integration framework acts as a company's virtual backbone and can be the most critical element in a corporate enterprise integration strategy.

Before deploying Web Services for mission-critical requirements, companies should understand that technical challenges remain, such as the lack of guaranteed delivery, security and routing capabilities. eAI can bridge some of these Web Service functionality gaps, but in many cases we will have to wait until the Web Services standards mature

A Call to Action: Plan for Web Service with an eAI Investment
For current IT investment planning, companies may want to prepare their integration strategy for Web Services to insure architecture flexibility in a rapidly changing technology environment. For a comprehensive Web Services implementation solution, companies will need an eAI investment. Fortunately, this investment will also support other integration needs.

By building eAI into a company's technical architecture today, this technology can be leveraged incrementally by mature Web Services standards tomorrow. Despite future standards variations, eAI will reinforce its position as an integration mainstay, despite wistful speculation embedded in vendor power point presentations. Remember, companies that have old legacy systems must integrate in order to renovate business processes. This is a vital function. eAI does this today. Web Services do not.

David Plesko is Partner Lead, Enterprise Integration and J. Michael Lee is Financial Services Lead, Enterprise Integration for Accenture. For more information on Accenture's services and a listing of offices, visit the Accenture Website at www.accenture.com

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