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Use Cases for iWay Software Integration Technology
Organizations use application servers, integration brokers, B2B
technologies, and a host of industry and de facto standards to
streamline their business processes through better use of existing
information systems. This page presents some of the most common
requirements for integration projects, showing you how iWay Software
can help you deliver projects more quickly across more environments
than ever before.
The last thing you need is a solution based on overkill. There are a few functions that reside in multiple packaged applications – a little SAP, a little PeopleSoft, maybe a dash of Siebel – that need to be stitched together in a Web interface to make some knowledge workers more efficient. You don't want to install a massive integration infrastructure just to make a few functions available. iWay Software's Java™-based integration solutions enable programmers to call a wide variety of packaged applications using standard Java interfaces, including J2EE™ Connector Architecture (JCA) and directly accessible objects. There is no easier way to reuse existing application logic using only your standard Java skill sets and application servers, and any work you do now will be reusable, if you decide to work with BEA, IBM, Oracle, Sun, or other Java-based integration platforms.
The last thing you need is a solution based on overkill. There are a few functions that reside in multiple packaged applications – a little SAP, a little PeopleSoft, maybe a dash of Siebel – that need to be stitched together in a Web interface to make some knowledge workers more efficient. You don't want to install a massive integration infrastructure just to make a few functions available.
iWay Software's .NET-based integration solutions enable programmers to call a wide variety of packaged applications using standard .NET interfaces, including XML Web services and directly accessible objects. There is no easier way to reuse existing application logic using only your standard Microsoft skill sets, and any work you do now will be reusable, if you decide to work with BizTalk Server or other Microsoft integration technologies.
Many corporate environments are becoming more sophisticated, with a variety of integration technologies designed to provide intelligent routing, transformations, and business process management (BPM). Unfortunately, they also increasingly have more than one integration technology stack to cope with from application vendors (e.g., SAP NetWeaver and Siebel UAN), integration specialists (e.g., TIBCO and Sonic), and application platform suite vendors (e.g., BEA WebLogic, IBM WebSphere, Microsoft .NET, and BizTalk Server).
iWay Software works closely with all types of software vendors, from application suppliers to integration specialists, to provide the simplest, cleanest integration for their products. We help users integrate their offerings, use processes built in one platform or language in another, and reduce the cost, complexity, and time required to create business functions that can be reused in any other product.
The production systems you've been relying on for years – transaction processors, green screen applications, and batch jobs – represent countless person-years of business knowledge, programmer effort, quality assurance testing, and even more esoteric knowledge such as legal information. It's too risky to rip them out and replace them, but they were never designed to interoperate with other systems or the Internet.
iWay Software's SOAPswitch and Universal Adapter Framework make it a matter of a few mouse clicks to create WS-I-compliant Web services from almost any legacy system, including transaction processors such as CICS, IMS/TM, and Tuxedo; data resources such as Adabas, IDMS, IMS, Mumps, and VSAM files; and programs written in languages like COBOL, RPG, and PL/1. 3270 and 5250 screens can also be made accessible using standard Web services. There is no easier and more robust way to create Web services from any legacy system.
Although Web services are becoming the standard way to integrate applications, many packaged applications still don't have Web services interfaces. As a result, many organizations are writing their own Web services wrappers around packaged application functionality – which causes a great deal of maintenance overhead when applications are upgraded or standards shift.
iWay Software's SOAPswitch and Universal Adapter Framework make it a matter of a few mouse clicks to create WS-I-compliant Web services from almost any packaged application, including Ariba, Baan, J.D. Edwards (including the latest PeopleSoft version), Lawson, PeopleSoft, Oracle E-Business Suite, SAP, Siebel, and Vantive. There is no easier and more robust way to create Web services from any packaged application.
Organizations with older EDI-based applications and infrastructure often find it difficult to make them interact with newer applications based on XML and Web services. Writing complex validation, mapping, and transformation routines is cumbersome and error-prone, and often creates a maintenance burden as organizations shift to newer EDI or XML message types.
iWay Software's dictionary-driven EDI adapters convert XML documents to and from EDI messages, with complete validation of syntax and data relationships. Without any custom programming, they support EDI standards such as ANSI X12 and EDIFACT, as well as industry-specific EDI formats such as SWIFT (ISO 7775 and 15022), FIX, HIPAA, HL7, and many more. Moreover, they interact with EDI messaging standards such as AFT for SWIFT and with other middleware such as MQSeries. Finally, iWay Software provides code-free support for protocols that enable secure, reliable, and non-repudiable communications over the Internet, including EDIINT (e.g., AS2) and ebXML.
The complexity of integration projects is well-known, in part because of the high failure rates of integration projects. Complexity reduction is second only to solid executive sponsorship in the list of critical success factors for project success.
iWay Software specializes in simplifying integration projects by providing code-free interfaces to virtually any packaged application, transaction processor, legacy system, or business-to-business interaction; enabling developers to access any of these systems using the interfaces of their choice, such as J2EE Connector Architecture (JCA), Web services, direct object calls, ODBC, JDBC, XML, and more; and providing tightly integrated plug-ins that make iWay technology easily usable in all major integration and application development platforms. As the leading adapter provider to the integration industry, iWay Software makes every integration project simpler, more cost-effective, and more likely to be successful.
Creating a service-oriented architecture (SOA) begins with exposing business functions as services across a variety of channels – and, contrary to some claims, Web services is not the only channel needed to create a successful SOA.
iWay Software knows services better than any other vendor in the industry by virtue of its ability to unlock existing services that reside in packaged applications, legacy applications, transaction processors, and even behind data terminals. Just as important, we understand that an infrastructure limited to Web services doesn't reach its full potential – for example, a purchase order accessible via a Web service isn't as useful as one that's accessible through Web services and EDI, as well as other communication channels. iWay Software is the only integration vendor that specializes in making any service accessible through any channel, and therefore provides an ideal foundation for your SOA.
People who think of Java and .NET in either/or terms are missing the boat. Both J2EE, using the Java language, and .NET, using C# and other languages, have strengths that will find a place in almost every enterprise of any significant size.
The issue is interoperability. It's critical that every level of application, from the finest-grained object method to the highest-level business process, can be provided as a service to both .NET and J2EE environments. And iWay Software provides a complete set of tools that make information assets available to both .NET and J2EE environments, and helps the two environments communicate with each other. It's no wonder that Microsoft and all major Java-based application platform suite vendors have tapped iWay Software to provide interoperability services for their tools and application suites.
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