B2B Integration : A Practical Guide to Collaborative E-commerce

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or persistent. Each application 'node' contains its own message queue.
Message queuing is often associated with IBM's popular MQSeries,
which has been used for several years as the application integration
solution of choice for the mainframe and UNIX platforms.
Message brokers
A better approach to point-to-point model of message queues is a
message broker. A message broker is an intelligent intermediary that
directs the flow of messages between applications, which become sources
and consumers of information. Message brokers provide a very flexible
communications backbone and such services as data transformation,
message routing and message warehousing (see Figure 8.4).
Message brokering is rapidly proving to be the most flexible and
adaptable way to translate between multiple information formats found
in typical enterprise application environments. Message brokers also
provide additional services, such as data transformation, event-driven
processing and intelligent routing. Message brokers are discussed in
greater detail in the chapter on integration brokers.
Legacy System
(Mainframe)
ERP System
(SAP, Peoples eft,
Baan)
Adapter
Adapter
Integration
Broker
Adapter
Adapter
CRM System
(Clarify, Siebel)
SCM System
'"§. (i2, Manugistics)
Figure 8.4. — Hub-and-spoke approach of message brokering