System Architect study note _ Chapter 2 _ serialization

Chapter 2 Enterprise Integration Architecture Design

The core of the enterprise integration platform is the enterprise integration architecture, including the information, process, and application integration architecture.

17.1 Enterprise Integration Platform

The purpose of the Enterprise Integration Platform (EIP) is:

The ability to quickly configure and adjust information systems based on changes in business models to ensure smooth interoperability between different systems, applications, services, and operators, thereby improving enterprises' ability to adapt to market changes, this allows enterprises to survive in a complex and ever-changing market environment.

Good software support tools can help enterprises accelerate enterprise system integration and reduce the complexity of information island integration within the enterprise.

17.1.1 concepts of the Enterprise Integration Platform

A simple integration method is to develop one-to-one interfaces between different applications to achieve data integration between applications, that is, point-to-point integration.

The advantage is relatively intuitive.

Problems: heavy workload, High Integration costs, difficulty in system upgrade and expansion, difficulty in standardization, and a large number of interfaces pose great difficulties to system management.

To overcome the difficulties that point-to-point integration brings to enterprise application system integration and maintenance management, an integration platform is adopted.

The enterprise integration platform is a software supporting the development, integration, and collaborative operation of information systems in complex information environments.

The scattered information system can achieve single point of integration through a single interface, which can be managed and repeated, so that all applications in the enterprise can communicate and exchange data through the integration platform.

The integration platform is a supporting environment that supports enterprise integration, including hardware, software, software tools, and systems. The basic functions are as follows:

1. Communication Service

Provides transparent synchronous/asynchronous communication services in a distributed environment.

2. Information Integration Service

Enables applications, services, and users running on the integrated platform to implement data access control with consistent semantics and interfaces.

3. Application Integration Service

Use high-level application programming interfaces to access corresponding applications. without modifying the original system (without affecting the functions of the original system, you only need to add corresponding access interfaces to the original system to interconnect the existing systems with different technologies.

4. Secondary Development Tools

A group of support tools that help users develop specific applications. They aim to simplify the development work of users during the implementation of the enterprise integration platform.

5. platform operation management tools

The operation management and control module of the Integrated Platform.

17.1.2 standardization of the Integrated Platform

The adoption of standardized technology is also an important way to improve the openness of the Integrated Platform System and the reusability of software modules.

The standardized content covers communication protocols, middleware, enterprise modeling, workflow management systems, data exchange in the Internet environment, product data standards, and application system integration standards.

17.1.3 Technology Development Trend

1. The integrated technology is implemented from Layer 2 to layer n.

Both on the server side and on the client side, because the business logic is closely bound with the application expression logic, it brings great difficulties to system upgrade and expansion.

The business process logic and business expression logic are separated, and each layer of functions are concentrated on a specific role to improve the flexibility of the integrated platform and integrated system.

2. Integration supports expansion from information-oriented integration to process-oriented integration and service integration

Information-oriented integration is mainly applied to databases and data sources in enterprises. The specific implementation methods include data replication, data bundling, and interface-based information integration.

1. process-oriented integration: the workflow engine executes the internal process model of an enterprise to realize the flow of business application data or information between different applications, sub-processes, and tasks.

The business process logic and application logic are separated to Implement Process Modeling and data and function separation. When the specific function units remain unchanged, the system functions are changed by modifying the process model.

2. Service-oriented integration.

Service providers deploy applications on the web as services and describe the functions provided by web services by using the web Service Description Language, and register it to the UDDI center through a unified service release and Discovery protocol.

You only need to add a SOAP interface to access the original system to integrate the original system with the integration platform.

The integration previously implemented on the basis of the enterprise's internal network has been extended to the integration for the open network environment, thus greatly expanding the scope of integration.

It is flexible and open, compromising performance and network traffic.

3. The standardization degree of integration specifications is continuously improved

From the data description point of view, it gradually transits to the XML-language-based data expression and storage with the self-description function.

From the implementation of the integrated interfaces between applications and the interface representation, it has evolved to a more general description of the integrated interfaces of the web service based on the XML language (WSDL.

From the perspective of business process definition, how to use the web service integration architecture to implement the XML-based Business Process Model Description Language for process integration.

4. supported integration coupling and integration granularity changes

The coupling degree is decreasing, the integration scope is expanding, and the Integration granularity is shrinking.

17.1.4 Development Trend of the Integrated Platform

It can be divided into enterprise application integration and business-to-business integration (B2B.

Among them, EAI focuses mainly on vertical integration within the enterprise, while B2B focuses on supporting horizontal integration of business exchanges between enterprises.

17.2 Implementation of the Enterprise Integration Platform

17.2.1 Data Integration

The primary purpose of building an enterprise integration platform is to achieve data integration and provide complete, consistent, and secure data access, information query, and decision-making support services.

It consists of three parts: shared information management, shared model management, and data operation management.

Shared Model Management provides functions such as data resource configuration management, integration of resource relationship management, resource operation lifecycle management, and corresponding service data collaborative monitoring management.

The level of architecture and standardization has a great impact on the level of data integration.

There are three main modes of data integration: Data Federation, data replication, and interface-based data integration.

17.2.2 Application Integration

Mutual calls and interoperability between functions must be completed on the basis of data integration.

To achieve interoperability at the pragmatic level between heterogeneous application systems.

At first, Application Integration mainly adopts point-to-point tight coupling mode and lacks necessary flexibility. componentized system implementation and loosely coupled Application Integration Methods gradually become the mainstream for building enterprise business processing systems.

Application Integration modes include: integrated adapter, integrated messenger, integrated panel, and integrated proxy.

1. Adapter integration mode

Use an adapter to convert and map data formats and access methods between different systems.

2. Messenger integration mode

Communication and data exchange between systems are implemented through the Messenger (Message proxy), which greatly reduces the number of interfaces and minimizes the dependency between applications on communication service capabilities.

3. Panel integration mode

The integration Panel provides integrated interfaces for one-to-multiple, many-to-one, and many-to-many applications. It provides a simplified public interface for client applications and server applications.

4. Proxy integration mode

The Panel integration mode separates the interaction logic of server applications.

In the proxy integration mode, because there is no obvious division between client applications and server applications, it only needs to separate the applications to be integrated, the interaction logic between applications is encapsulated, and then the integrated proxy is used to guide interaction between multiple applications.

17.2.3 Enterprise Integration

Enterprise Application software systems can be divided into three layers: representation, business logic, and data.

Based on the degree of separation and separation between these logical functional layers, the specific implementation of software systems can be roughly divided into the following four categories:

1. Single-layer structure system.

2. Two-layer structure system.

The presentation layer is closely coupled with the business layer (fat customers), or the business logic and database layer are closely coupled (only the presentation layer is separated into thin customers ).

3. Three-tier structure system.

The presentation, business logic, and data layers are divided into independent modules.

The layers can be developed in parallel, and the layers can also select their most suitable development environment and programming language.

4. layer-n structure system.

The purpose is to improve the independence of different business function modules of the system, so that the system has the best flexibility and scalability.

Based on the support scope of the functions of the enterprise integration platform, it can be divided into EAI that focuses on and supports integrated operation within the enterprise, and B2B that focuses on business integration between enterprises. Generally, EAI is the foundation of B2B.

According to the implementation strategy of enterprise integrated operation, EAI mainly has the following three implementation modes:

1. frontend integration mode

EAI focuses on the integration of the business application system presentation layer. A single user portal enables the operation of multiple application transactions.

2. backend integration mode

It mainly focuses on data integration of application systems, just like a data pipeline that facilitates automatic data interaction between multiple application systems.

Based on the storage-forwarding mechanism provided by the EAI server, it can easily support a large amount of business data exchange (mainly B2B Integration) between partner enterprises.

3. Hybrid integration mode

It is a combination of the frontend and backend integration modes. It is mainly used to respond to a large number of service requests and maintain the integrity and consistency of multiple data sources.

17.3 key application technologies for Enterprise Integration

17.3.1 Data Exchange Format

Enterprise business data can be divided into structured data (Forms) and non-structured data (documents), which are generally stored in different database or document management systems.

The documents and data formats processed by different application systems and databases are very different. A universal data access model and expression specification that can be identified by each application are established, is the most basic way to achieve interaction and interoperability between different application systems.

Several data exchange formats are as follows:

1. Electronic Data Exchange (EDI)

The information of trade, transportation, insurance, banking, customs, and other industries is in an internationally recognized standard format through computer communication networks, exchange and process data between relevant departments, companies, and enterprises, and complete all trade-centric business processes.

The purpose is to unify the representation of electronic forms equivalent to functional paper media files.

According to the UN/EDIFACT standard, one-time exchange between trading partners is called an exchange. The exchange is composed of the switch Header/tail, function group Header/tail, Message Header/tail, and data segment (or disconnected group) and data elements (simple data elements and composite data elements.

Data segments (or segment groups) and data elements are called message items in the text.

2. XML

XML is an open standard customized by W3C for data storage tools and configurable carriers of various types of information.

The purpose is to better adapt to the needs of web applications and solve the defects of HTML in terms of expression ability, scalability, and interaction.

It is more clear and simple, and the structure is unambiguous.

The content and appearance of the file are separated by a set of tag-defining rules, which realizes the extensibility and self-description of the XML file.

It is not a markup language, but a root rule set for creating, designing, and using a markup language. It is a metalanguage for creating a markup language (such as HTML.

3. Standard for the Exchange of Product Model Data is an ISO Standard that describes how to express and Exchange digital Product information (ISO010303)

The objective is to provide a neutral model that does not depend on a specific system and use it to describe product data throughout the lifecycle.

4. PDML is a new mode for product data exchange and integration between different systems based on STEP and XML.

PDML mainly uses two parts: STEP integration resources and Express data standard language.

The component corresponding to a vocabulary (or data dictionary) in a specific field is called Application Service Set (ATS ), components that correspond to a general vocabulary across multiple application domains are called integration solutions.

PDML consists of seven application transaction sets, one integration outline, a ing specification between the application transaction set and the Integration outline, and four parts of the PDML toolset.

17.3.2 basic framework of Distributed Application Integration

Heterogeneous, an important feature of large-scale computer networks.

Distributed Object Computing (DOC) generated based on object-oriented technology and Distributed Computing ).

There are four influential distributed software object (Component) standards:

1. CORBA (Common Object Request Broker Architecture, public Object Request proxy Architecture) A standard object-oriented application system specification is proposed to address the interconnection of hardware and software systems in a distributed processing environment.

Object Management reference Architecture (OMA) uses software as an Object and communicates with other objects through the Object Request proxy.

The core is the Object Request Broker (ORB), which supports interaction and communication between Object services, common facilities, domain interfaces, and application interfaces.

After the service is completed, the execution results or exceptions are returned to the requester.

2. COM +

The basis of the COM component standard is the core of COM, which defines the principle of interaction between component objects and customers through the binary interface standard.

COM is mainly composed of COM interfaces, COM objects, COM servers, class factories, and type libraries.

Each interface has a unique identifier (UUID). Calling a COM object is implemented by a pointer to its interface.

The Calling Interface of the customer's object creation function is generally described using com idl.

Two types of servers: Process internal server and process external server.

The in-process server is the DLL on the local machine. The out-of-process server is divided into two types: one is the exe executable program on the local machine, but the dll or exe program on the remote machine.

Objects outside the Process must first Call the proxy provided by the Service Control Mechanism to generate Remote Process Call (RPC) of the service object ).

In addition, the COM component standards include structured storage, unified data transmission, and smart naming.

3. J2EE

J2EE is well integrated with Internet technology, which is conducive to the establishment of distributed applications based on web and with a n-layer structure.

J2EE is based on the Standard Edition of the core Java platform or Java2 Platform. J2EE integrates J2SE into its own architecture.

Various components can be deployed to the corresponding J2EE container through the J2EE Configuration tool. The client accesses various components and calls between various components are completed through containers and servers.

4. Web Service

A Web Service is a Service provider that deploys an application on the Web as a Service and uses the web Service description language to describe the functions provided by a specific web Service.

Web services can be seen as an extension of existing applications for the Internet.

Currently, the following technical standards are supported:

The meta-language standard XML used for data exchange and expression,

UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery & Integration), which is used for web Service Registration and service search,

WSDL is used to describe the interfaces and operation functions of web Services,

SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol) supports communication between web services and service requests.

17.4 enterprise model for overall solutions

17.4.1 role of the enterprise model in the overall solution

1. The enterprise model can provide consistent and standardized expressions and descriptions for the overall informatization solution.

2. Modeling and model-based analysis are the starting points of Enterprise Informatization and the basis for establishing effective implementation methods.

3. modeling can pre-evaluate the information system planning scheme.

4. Model-based workflow execution allows you to navigate and monitor the interaction between information systems and the information system.

17.4.2 reuse of enterprise models in the overall solution

Although different enterprises have their own particularity in many aspects of production and operation, they are instances of the enterprise system and have the most essential behavior and characteristics of the enterprise.

All elements that constitute an enterprise (both material and abstract processes) can be divided into three types:

The first type is the most common and applicable to any enterprise.

The second type is applicable within a certain range.

The three types are proprietary to an enterprise.

General layer, some general layer, and special layer.

Enterprise models can be established from scratch, with low cycle length and modeling quality.

Therefore, it is better to establish a specific enterprise-specific private model based on the reference model.

There are two phases: Selection of reference models and instantiation of reference models.

To select a reference model, follow these steps:

1. determine the purpose and basic requirements of enterprise modeling.

2. Define the scope of enterprise modeling.

3. Propose a candidate reference model.

4. determine the final reference model.

The following method can be used in the instantiation process:

1. Inheritance.

2. crop.

3. Details.

4. expansion.

5. modify.

17.4.3 Enterprise Model Evolution in the overall solution

The lifecycle of Information System implementation can be divided into the requirement analysis stage, system design stage, system implementation stage, and operation and maintenance stage.

1. Demand analysis stage

Abstract user requirements to form a demand analysis model as input for the next stage.

The Requirement Analysis Model should contain high-level enterprise business processes, resource allocation, organizational structure, product structure, and other information.

Finally, the overall goal and evaluation criteria of the system need to be determined.

2. System Design Stage

Extract functional models and information models from business models related to future information systems, and use them to design and construct information systems.

3. System implementation stage

Transform an enterprise model from a design model to an executable model.

By defining specific operators, executors, resource entities, organizational units, and application software.

4. Operation and Maintenance stage

The system can be effectively managed and monitored through document management and version control, and new requirements continuously raised by enterprises during operation can be recorded and managed by integrating requirement management software tools, the accumulated requirements and documents are input for the next lifecycle.

After a system is implemented, the problems and requirements collected during the operation and maintenance phase start a new life cycle.

This continuous cycle of life cycle in the form of a spiral rise to achieve enterprise-related status and behavior improvement and development.

17.4.4 model-driven Enterprise Integration System Evolution

Because this implementation is based on the current market strategy, business process planning, and current Information Technology Status of the enterprise, it can only be in the current enterprise and market status, it supports enterprises to achieve their competitive advantages.