In order to remain competitive, the integration of their information systems is an imperative
for many large organisations. Applications that originally have been developed independently
are now required to interoperate to support new or different functions of the enterprise. Although
the mechanisms for application interoperation exist provided by the technology, due to
the sheer number and complexity of the running systems, integration solutions � centralised or
distributed�appropriate at the local level do not translate successfully to the whole enterprise.
Centralised integration approaches often satisfy only some of the integration requirements, they
are very expensive, and are fraught with danger since they imply an �all or nothing� approach.
Distributed approaches, on the other hand, suffer from complexity and scalability problems as
the number of system interfaces to be implemented and the number of execution-time invocations
grows with the number of component applications.
This dissertation makes a contribution to the field of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI)
within the framework of distributed systems technology. Based on real-life case studies experience,
we present here a federated approach that controls the size and complexity of the
integration effort by reusing existing systems as much as possible and reducing the number of
interacting applications. Only selected local elements are exposed to the organisational milieu,
and a consistent supporting infrastructure is provided to make systems interactions possible.
Our approach provides a flexible and scalable strategy to enterprise integration, avoiding the
shortcomings of traditional approaches. We respect existing organisational structures, and
demonstrate how appropriate federation infrastructure and protocols enable the interoperation
of existing systems. The three main facets of enterprise knowledge are systematically incorporated
into the integration effort: a) by the use of domain ontologies to support data integration;
b) by the development of a methodology to include business rules; and c) by the development
of FEW, a federated workflow model to implement the business processes of the organisation.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ADTP/216555 |
| Date | January 2006 |
| Creators | Fernandez, George, gfernandez@rmit.edu.au |
| Publisher | Swinburne University of Technology. |
| Source Sets | Australiasian Digital Theses Program |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Rights | http://www.swin.edu.au/), Copyright George Fernandez |
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