Abstract
Architects are faced with the problem of building enterprise scale information systems, with streamlined, automated internal business processes and Web-enabled business functions, all across multiple legacy applications. The underlying architectures for such systems are embodied in a range of diverse products known as enterprise application integration (EAI) technologies. We highlight some of the major problems, approaches and issues in designing EAI architectures and selecting appropriate supporting technology. An architect's perspective on designing large-scale integrated applications is taken, and we discuss requirements elicitation, architecture patterns, EAI technology and features, and risk mitigation. J2EE and .NET technologies are used to illustrate the capabilities of state-or-the-art integration technologies.
