The Integration and Interoperability Issues of Legacy and Distributed Systems

An important issue of distributed systems is interoperability. Lack of interoperability between distributed systems is a common problem with current and legacy applications. Since the legacy applications represent a major investment and for the most part can not be abandoned. Enterprises are looking for solutions that enable the integration of the legacy environments with the new breed of distributed applications, as well as the integration between their existing applications caused either by mergers and acquisitions, or a company's desire to move into a new and uncharted business activity. This paper provides an in depth analysis of legacy systems integration. It presents an analysis of distributed systems concepts and design as seen from the perspective of the integration of a monolithic legacy systems into a distributed systems, and it concludes that distributed systems protocols and architecture must be tailored to various levels within the legacy systems in order for an integration project to succeed.