Authors:
Ralf Wagner
and
Bernhard Mitschang
Affiliation:
University of Stuttgart, IPVS, Germany
Keyword(s):
Middleware, adapter, reuse, virtualization, integration.
Related
Ontology
Subjects/Areas/Topics:
Coupling and Integrating Heterogeneous Data Sources
;
Databases and Information Systems Integration
;
e-Business
;
Enterprise Information Systems
;
Middleware Integration
;
Middleware Platforms
;
Technology Platforms
Abstract:
Middleware systems use adapters to integrate remote systems and to provide uniform access to them. Different middleware platforms use different adapter technologies, e.g. the J2EE platform uses J2EE connectors and federated database systems based on the SQL standard use SQL wrappers. However, a middleware platform cannot use adapters of a different middleware platform, e.g. a J2EE application server cannot use an SQL wrapper. Even if an SQL wrapper exists for a remote system that is to be integrated by a J2EE application server, a separate J2EE connector for that remote system has to be written.
Tasks like that occur over and over again and require to invest additional resources where existing IT infrastructure should be reused. Therefore, we propose an approach that allows to reuse existing adapters. Reusing adapters is achieved by means of a virtualization tier that can handle adapters of different types and that provides uniform access to them. This enables middleware platforms t
o use each others adapters and thereby avoids the costly task of writing new adapters.
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