B2B Application Integration E-Business-Enable Your Enterprise

e-Business is no longer a buzzword; it is a reality in which internal and external business systems customers, financial partners, suppliers, and support operations communicate and execute transactions instantly and automatically. These emerging electronic business-to-business (B2B) relationships require a new type of integration technology that is dependent on intelligent, flexible middleware layers that glue disparate applications, databases, and processes together.

B2B Application Integration is a comprehensive guide to the concepts, techniques, and technologies that enable application integration, the technical foundation of e-Business. Noted application integration expert David Linthicum details real-time application integration solutions and explains how middleware layers work to create a seamless whole out of numerous independent systems, both within and between enterprises.

Inside you will find in-depth coverage of the five types of B2B application integration: data-oriented, application interface-oriented, method-oriented, portal-oriented, and process integration-oriented. B2B Application Integration also describes in detail available middleware technologies and existing and emerging B2B application integration standards. Specific topics covered include:

• Enabling B2B application integration standards, including XML, RosettaNet, BizTalk, and XSLT
• Message brokers and B2B integration servers for B2B application integration
• EAI technology and B2B application integration
• Database-to-database integration models
• Integrating with packaged applications and vertical market interfaces
• Frameworks, distributedobjects, and transaction servers for method-oriented B2B application integration
• Portal-oriented integration, focusing on Web enablement technologies
• Digital exchanges and B2B application integration
• Tools and approaches for process integration-oriented B2B application integration
• Transactional middleware, including Enterprise JavaBeans (EJB), Transactional COM+, and their use with application servers
• Java middleware standards such as JMS, EJB, J2EE, and RMI
• Traditional RPCs and Message-Oriented Middleware (MOM)
• Distributed objects, including CORBA and COM+
• Database-oriented middleware, including ODBC, JDBC, and OLE DB

Also discussed are the ways to evaluate and choose the most effective application-integration approaches and technologies for your organization. This book will give you a clear understanding of the tools and techniques required for successful application integration and the know-how you need to put them to work to create a successful e-Business solution.

David S. Linthicum is an internationally known distributed-computing and application integration expert who speaks at popular technical conferences throughout the United States. He has almost twenty years of experience in the integration-technology industry, most recently as CTO of Mercator Software, Inc. Before joining Mercator, David was the CTO of SAGA Software, and also held senior-level management positions at Electronic Data Systems, AT&T Solutions, and Ernst & Young LLP. He has consulted for hundreds of major corporations engaged in systems analysis, design, and development, with a concentration in complex distributed systems. This is David's third book on application integration.