What is Application Integration Software?

Application integration (or app integration for short) software combines and

enhances data flows between two separate software applications.
Businesses often use application integration software to create a bridge
between a new cloud application and an older application hosted
on-premise, enabling a wide range of independently designed applications
to work together.

What is the Application of Integration?

Application integration services enable the sharing of processes and business data

among a wide range of applications in an organization. This means seamlessly
connecting a variety of on-premise and cloud apps to transform and orchestrate the
data required for business workflows. These applications address several business
needs and can be anything from CRM and e-commerce platforms to finance and ERP
systems.

What is Application Integration?

Application integration is the process of making your applications communicate with
each other by exchanging data and invoking services that they offer. Application
integration is fundamental to your digital transformation strategy because when your
applications are integrated and communicating with one another, your business can
operate in new and innovative ways.
Example of Integration Application
Salesforce integration is the process of merging the data and functionality of
Salesforce with another application to provide users with a single unified
experience. It allows you to provide your team with an ideal mix of features pertaining
to both platforms.
NetSuite SuiteCloud Platform Integration uses industry standards for building
reliable and scalable integrations that extend NetSuite into any business process,
and securely exchange data from your NetSuite account with on-premises
applications and cloud-native environments.
SugarCRM allows you to virtually connect with any software that you desire, be it
marketing automation, sales automation, social media, payment gateways, data
analytics, content management systems, eCommerce platforms, etc.
Magento is an ecommerce website platform owned by Adobe that specializes
in ecommerce websites. Magento users have access to hundreds of unique features
that help them connect with their customers and sell their products
What is the difference between Shopify and Magento?
The main difference between the two is that Shopify is a hosted platform, while
Magento is self-hosted. A hosted platform, such as Shopify, takes care of all your
hosting worries for you. All hosting costs are included within your monthly plan, with no
extra effort or expense required from you.
Supply chain management is the management of the flow of goods and services
and includes all processes that transform raw materials into final products. It
involves the active streamlining of a business's supply-side activities to maximize
customer value and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace.
A warehouse management system (WMS) is a software solution that offers visibility
into a business' entire inventory and manages supply chain fulfillment operations
from the distribution center to the store shelf.

In a traditional business setting, applications live in ‘silos’, meaning that they operate
independently of each other within separate business units or functions, and don’t share
the data they use. This creates a problem because oftentimes, these applications are
used to execute a business process, or to help you better understand how your
business is performing. In these cases, humans have to manually make disconnected
applications work together by moving data between them, which takes a lot of time and
is very error-prone.
In business, organizational silos refer to business divisions that operate
independently and avoid sharing information. It also refers to businesses whose
departments have silo' system applications, in which information cannot be shared
because of system limitations.
What does work in silos mean?
It represents people, teams or companies who are working towards the same
objective, often in close vicinity but not sharing information - people not talking to
other people - and this leads to wasted time and cost, not to mention missed
opportunities.

So how can technology help the built environment to break down these human silos?

● Mobile computing, whether on phone, tablet or desktop means more flexible and

dynamic working.
 ● Technology such as video calls and conferencing allows teams to mix and
communicate more effectively.
● New online project management tools help different teams keep track of what is
going on and to work together.
● New methods of working, originally forged in technology companies are being
adopted to work in more agile ways (literally and metaphorically).

But when your applications are integrated, the barriers between them are removed so
that they can work together seamlessly—without requiring manual intervention. Your
business processes execute faster, and with fewer errors. You can combine the services
provided across many different applications to create a more accurate and up-to-date
view of your business. You can put the capabilities of your business in the palms of your
customers’ hands, by offering them game-changing experiences that engage with them
in new and unique ways. And your business can react with agility to ever-changing
market demands.
State-of-the-art technologies for integration include an API-led approach combined
with Event-driven architectures. You can integrate your applications regardless of where
you deploy them. Application integration can occur between any combination of
on-premises applications, cloud applications, edge devices, and online web services.
Application integration can be done by anyone who has an integration need, not just
someone in an IT department, using integration tools that are designed for different skill
sets. With more and more SaaS applications being used by businesses, the need for
application integration increases, and most IT departments aren’t able to keep up with
the demand - thus role and skill-based solutions help accelerate integrations
everywhere.

Legacy system integration tackles the challenge of connecting APIs both

on-premises and over the cloud, bridging the network divide. Integration takes
information from on-premises systems and leverages new systems in order to drive
business.
Legacy software is software that has been around a long time and still fulfills a
business need. It is mission critical and tied to a particular version of an operating
system or hardware model (vendor lock-in) that has gone end-of-life. Generally the
lifespan of the hardware is shorter than that of the software.
What is an example of a legacy system?
Examples of legacy technologies which were highly popular decades ago, and still in
use today, are: Mainframe computers running ancient applications. Programming
languages, such as COBOL. Operating systems, such as MS-DOS, Windows 3.1 or XP.

When we talk about legacy systems, we mean an old technology, a computer system, or
an application that is outdated compared to today’s standards and expectations or
current IT contexts. Legacy systems may include complicated, obsolete, outdated
business processes as well as data standards (often in-house ones). While legacy
systems are often decades old, in some cases, they are not necessarily defined as a
legacy by age, but instead not being able to meet organizational requirements. These
legacy systems are so deeply engraved in the DNA of the operations of a company that
replacing them could be an enormous and risky task. This is why most organizations
still today have legacy systems despite the benefits they could realize from legacy
system modernization.

Types of Legacy Systems

What are some types of legacy systems that companies are using?
● End of Life. End of Life (EOL) legacy systems are systems that, from the
vendor’s perspective, are now past the useful stage. As a result, the vendor
discontinues the product. They have dropped support and no longer offer the
product. One example would be Microsoft recently dropping support for Windows
7. 
● No updates available. While this relates closely to EOL, you can often replace an
EOL legacy system with a similar but updated solution or, as in the case of
Windows, a vendor may offer a newer version that performs similarly. Some
legacy software, however, has no updates or newer versions to offer. This can
make it difficult for businesses to change, since they may have to switch to a
totally new vendor and work with completely new processes to perform the same
tasks. 
● Unable to scale. Some software cannot scale sufficiently to support, for instance,
larger streams of data or a bigger volume of financial transactions, the software
has already become obsolete for a growing company. 
● Heavily patched. The more patches that a software has required in the past, the
more difficult it can be to keep up with security concerns. Over the years,
software may become increasingly vulnerable, especially after the vendor has
dropped support and is no longer creating new patches or monitoring old issues.
● Lack of qualified developers. If a company has developed or altered software
in-house, it may be difficult or nearly impossible to find qualified developers who
can maintain the software. If a company depends on the legacy system for
everyday processes, this can be a huge problem. One example is a situation
where a company is using legacy integrations that only a few people in the
enterprise can use or edit. This is one of the main reasons people turn to
 DreamFactory. We can help you build REST API solutions that can be more
easily developed and managed. 

Benefits of Legacy Systems

● Durable. A legacy system can be notoriously durable. They can last 10 to 30
years without substantial changes, supporting essential business processes
throughout that time. This makes them virtually indispensable for many
companies. One example is Windows XP, which was in use for many years after
Microsoft dropped support. In fact, some businesses still use XP today, despite
potential concerns.

Enterprise integration uses technologies and methodologies to integrate business

applications, data, processes, and devices across the entire IT landscape. Enterprise
integration is important because it connects functionality and communication across
systems, allowing organizations to react quickly to the needs of the business and
become a more responsive, agile enterprise.
In the modern enterprise, all your systems and technologies across your business
ecosystem must work together as a functioning, well-oiled machine. This includes the
processes built around those applications and systems and the people managing those
processes. Digital transformation changes the way companies do business, for
example, more and more companies are looking to create ERP integration. The
question becomes... how can organizations advance their enterprise system integration
management strategies?
What is enterprise application integration with example?
Examples include trying to perform operational transaction processing (associated
with enterprise resource planning (ERP) system functionality) on systems
designed for informational data processing." ERP systems, which integrated
accounting, human resources, distribution, manufacturing, and other back-end
processes— ...
What is an integration strategy? Integration strategies are processes that businesses
can use to enhance their competitiveness, efficiency or market share by
expanding their influence into new areas. These areas can include supply,
distribution or competition.
Horizontal integration is the merger of two or more companies that occupy similar levels
in the production supply chain. However, they may be in the same or different industries
that is, they make or offer similar goods or services. 

Vertical integration is a strategy that allows a company to streamline its operations by

taking direct ownership of various stages of its production process rather than relying on
external contractors or suppliers.

A company may achieve vertical integration by acquiring or establishing its own

suppliers, manufacturers, distributors, or retail locations rather than outsourcing them.
 A good example of forward integration would be a farmer who directly sells his crops
at a local grocery store rather than to a distribution center that controls the
placement of foodstuffs to various supermarkets.
Backward integration is when a company buys another company that supplies the
products or services needed for production. For example, a company might buy their
supplier of inventory or raw materials. Companies often complete backward integration
by acquiring or merging with these other businesses, but they can also establish their
own subsidiary to accomplish the task
Example #1

Suppose there is a Car Company, XYZ, which gets a lot of raw materials like iron and
steel for making cars, rubber for seats, pistons, engine, etc. from various suppliers. If
this car Company merges/ acquires the supplier of iron and steel, it will be called
backward integration.

Example #2

Another example would be a tomato ketchup manufacturer purchasing a tomato farm

rather than buying tomatoes from the farmers.
 An XML integration is basically a connector that acts as a "translator" between
customers and suppliers allowing different formats or programming languages ​​(usually
XML) to be compatible.

What is XML?
The Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a simple text-based format for representing
structured information: documents, data, configuration, books, transactions, invoices,
and much more. It was derived from an older standard format called SGML (ISO 8879),
in order to be more suitable for Web use.
What is XML Used For?
XML is one of the most widely-used formats for sharing structured information today:
between programs, between people, between computers and people, both locally and
across networks.

A short example:
<part number="1976">
<name>Windscreen Wiper</name>
<description>The Windscreen wiper
automatically removes rain
from your windscreen, if it
should happen to splash there.
It has a rubber <ref part="1977">blade</ref>
which can be ordered separately
if you need to replace it.
</description>
</part>

If you are already familiar with HTML, you can see that XML is very similar. However,
the syntax rules of XML are strict: XML tools will not process files that contain errors,
but instead will give you error messages so that you fix them. This means that almost all
XML documents can be processed reliably by computer software.

The main differences from HTML are:

1. All elements must be closed or marked as empty.
2. Empty elements can be closed as normal, <happiness></happiness> or you can use a
special short-form, <happiness /> instead.
3. In HTML, you only need to quote an attribute value under certain circumstances (it
contains a space, or a character not allowed in a name), but the rules are hard to
remember. In XML, attribute values must always be quoted:
<happiness type="joy" />
4. In HTML there is a built-in set of element names (along with their attributes). In XML,
there are no built-in names (although names starting with xml have special meanings).
5. In HTML, there is a list of some built-in character names like &eacute; for é but XML
does not have this. In XML, there are only five built-in character entities: &lt;, &gt;,
&amp;, &quot; and &apos; for <, >, &, " and ' respectively. You can define your own
entities in a Document Type Definition, or you can use any Unicode character (see next
item).
6. In HTML, there are also numeric character references, such as &#38; for &. You can
refer to any Unicode character, but the number is decimal, whereas in the Unicode
tables the number is usually in hexadecimal. XML also allows hexadecimal references:
&#x26; for example.
XML has a number of advantages over many other formats. For any particular scenario,
you might be able to come up with a better format, but then you would have to include
costs of converting and processing your format, and of training, and of the XML-specific
editing and searching tool that are now very widely available. Some of the advantages
of XML include:

Redundancy
XML markup is very verbose. For example, every end tag must be supplied, such
as </description> in the example. This lets the computer catch common errors
such as incorrect nesting.

Self-describing
The readability of XML (it is a text-based format) and the presence of element
and attribute names in XML means that people looking at an XML document can
often get a head start on understanding the format (and it also helps people to
find mistakes!)

Network effect and the XML Promise

Any XML document can be read and processed by any XML tool whatsoever. Of
course, some XML tools might want specific XML markup, but the XML format
itself can be read by any XML parser: you can't say, this XML document is only to
be processed by such-and-such a tool.
This means that every new XML document increases the value of every other
XML document, and of every XML tool, and every new XML tool increases the
value of every XML document and hence of every other tool. Today, XML is the
most widely-used format of its kind anywhere in the world.

Examples
XML is very widely used today. It is the basis of a great many standards such as the
Universal Business Language (UBL); of Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) used for home
electronics; word processing formats such as ODF and OOXML; graphics formats such
as SVG; it is used for communication with XMLRPC and Web Services, it is supported
directly by computer programming languages and databases, from giant servers all the
way down to mobile telephones.
If you double-click an icon on your computer desktop (the icon may well have been
drawn with SVG), chances are that an XML message is sent from one component of the
desktop to another. If you take your car to be repaired, the engine's computer sends
XML to the mechanic's diagnostic systems. It is the age of XML: it is everywhere.

● A web service is any piece of software that makes itself available over the
internet and uses a standardized XML messaging system. XML is used to
encode all communications to a web service. For example, a client invokes a
web service by sending an XML message, then waits for a corresponding XML
response. As all communication is in XML, web services are not tied to any one
operating system or programming language—Java can talk with Perl; Windows
applications can talk with Unix applications.
● Web services are self-contained, modular, distributed, dynamic applications that
can be described, published, located, or invoked over the network to create
products, processes, and supply chains. These applications can be local,
distributed, or web-based. Web services are built on top of open standards such
as TCP/IP, HTTP, Java, HTML, and XML.
● Web services are XML-based information exchange systems that use the
Internet for direct application-to-application interaction. These systems can
include programs, objects, messages, or documents.
● A web service is a collection of open protocols and standards used for
exchanging data between applications or systems. Software applications written
in various programming languages and running on various platforms can use
web services to exchange data over computer networks like the Internet in a
manner similar to inter-process communication on a single computer. This
interoperability (e.g., between Java and Python, or Windows and Linux
applications) is due to the use of open standards.
To summarize, a complete web service is, therefore, any service that −
● Is available over the Internet or private (intranet) networks
 ● Uses a standardized XML messaging system
● Is not tied to any one operating system or programming language
● Is self-describing via a common XML grammar
● Is discoverable via a simple find mechanism

Components of Web Services

The basic web services platform is XML + HTTP. All the standard web services work
using the following components −
● SOAP (Simple Object Access Protocol)
● UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration)
● WSDL (Web Services Description Language)
All these components have been discussed in the Web Services Architecture chapter.

How Does a Web Service Work?

A web service enables communication among various applications by using open
standards such as HTML, XML, WSDL, and SOAP. A web service takes the help of −
● XML to tag the data
● SOAP to transfer a message
● WSDL to describe the availability of service.
You can build a Java-based web service on Solaris that is accessible from your Visual
Basic program that runs on Windows.
You can also use C# to build new web services on Windows that can be invoked from
your web application that is based on JavaServer Pages (JSP) and runs on Linux.
A Service Oriented Enterprise (SOE) as an organization whose business processes
and IT infrastructure are integrated across the entire enterprise to deliver
on-demand services to customers, partners and suppliers.

Service Oriented Enterprises brings the concept of service orientation from the IT
department to the boardroom, applying the precepts of service oriented technology to
the underlying dynamics of how a business operates. Implementing a technological
concept as a cultural paradigm, the SOE succeeds by combining the best features from
virtual, extended, real-time, and resilient enterprises to serve not just its customers, but
also its trading partners, shareholders and employees. Building primarily on the success
of the Internet and the automation of business policies and processes, the Service
Oriented Enterprise (SOE) is defined by three essential layers: the enterprise
performance layer, the business process management layer, and the underlying service
oriented architecture.