Quelle: CIO Asia

APPLICATION INTEGRATION USED to be a back-office, behind-the-scenesactivity for many IS departments, but it has now emerged from its lowlevel status to become a priority. "Internal integration consistentlytops the list of [IT projects] that companies are focusing on," saysMichele Rosen, U.S.-based IDC research manager specialising inapplication development and deployment.

It isn't difficult to understand application integration's rise to ISpre-eminence. Integration projects, by giving end users access tovaluable information, boost productivity and customer satisfaction.For example, when United Airlines Corp. (UAL) redesigned itsarchitecture and built a more integration-friendly one three yearsago, it saw customer satisfaction rise several notches. And when IPCommunications (a data networking services provider in the U.S.)completed two integration projects last year, it harvested a 522percent return on investment.

The success stories of UAL and IP Communications indicate thatapplication integration is increasingly inseparable frominfrastructure and application development. A common platform - BEA'sWebLogic Server - was used by both companies for applicationdevelopment and integration.

"It was last year, when application server vendors announcedintegration solutions, that companies began looking at application andintegration servers melding as foundational components for theire-business platform," says IDC's Rosen. Although the use ofapplication servers for integration remains ad hoc, industry playersexpect this to change. "The lines between application development andintegration are blurring, and Web services are a key part of that.It's eye-opening to see how intertwined integration and applicationdevelopment are becoming," says Greg Olsen, co-founder of Extricity,an integration services firm owned by Peregrine Systems Inc.