Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)

To integrate old and new, service-oriented architecture (SOA) needs an infrastructure that can connect any IT resource, whatever its technology or wherever it is deployed. To be flexible, it needs an infrastructure that can easily combine and re-assemble services to meet changing requirements without disruption. And to be dependable, it needs an infrastructure that is robust and secure. This infrastructure is the enterprise service bus (ESB). An ESB is software infrastructure that simplifies the integration and flexible reuse of business components within a service-oriented architecture. It gives API which can be used to develop services and makes services interact with each other reliably. Application servers provide features like life connection pooling, transaction management, and life cycle management that free the programmer from writing new code for each application. Similarly, an ESB provides common communication and integration services. Because ESBs also use industry standards for most of the services they provide, they facilitate cross-platform interoperability and become the logical choice for companies looking to implement SOA.

An ESB provides a dependable and scalable infrastructure that connects disparate applications and IT resources, mediates their incompatibilities, orchestrates their interactions, and makes them broadly available as services for additional uses.

Capabilities of the Enterprise Service Bus:

Integration & Communication Addressing/Service Virtualization Multiple Transportation Protocols Multiple Bindings Intelligent Routing Message Processing Service Hosting Service Discovery Service Coordination Error Handling Security

Management Administration Monitoring Exception Mediation Service Levels

Mediation Protocol Transformation Data Conversion Runtime Policy Enforcement Pipeline Processing Loose Coupling

Deployment Models:
ESB can be deployment in different ways as per the organization structure and their requirements. Independent ESB Each department has its own implementation. They manage their SOA by managing the integration of the application and the development of business processes Unified Enterprise ESB - ESB is unified throughout the company and spreads over the various servers of the departments, allowing communication between them Domains in Unified Enterprise ESB - Same as Unified Enterprise ESB with domains and sub-domains to define boundaries between units

Some ESB Vendors:

Artix ESB BEA AquaLogic Service Bus Oracle ESB FUSE ESB WebSphere MQ

There are five principal aspects that need to be considered when selecting an ESB:

1. Performance and scalability

2. 3. 4. 5. Security, reliability and availability Distribution Flexibility Visibility and control

Benefits of an Enterprise Service Bus:

IT Benefits: Reduces time and effort to integrate new and existing applications. Creates new processes through the reuse of existing applications and data. Increases flexibility to change complex system behavior by minimizing the hidden dependencies among applications, services and middleware in a distributed environment. Reliably delivers messages across services, even after software, network or hardware failure. Provides a service hosting and management infrastructure that is highly distributed, yet centrally managed. Disseminates information throughout the enterprise, as well as to customers and trading partners. Can be deployed incrementally, speeding delivery of service to customers and reducing risk for large, complex projects.

Business Benefits: Integrated business systems: reduced cycle times, reduced operating expenses, improved customer service, facilitated mergers and acquisitions, easier and more accurate decision-making based on up-to-date business information for "single version of the truth." IT cost reduction and control through standardization of reusable business components. Improved responsiveness to change business processes quickly and effectively. The ability to respond to special business conditions as they occur