An EAI Architecture Based On Web Services And Workflow

Over recent decade, Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), which aims at integrating various kinds of information systems that are initially deployed on different platforms and implemented in different languages to share information within and between companies, has become a heat topic in IT industry as a result of drastically changed business environments promoted by the proliferation of the Internet and web application services. Having advantages of simple, open standard, flexible, efficient and dynamic, EAI based on Web Services is an effective way in resolving the problem of enterprise application integration. However, such kind of integration has its unresolved problems and can't meet users'requirements in some aspects. So many people try to find better solutions. Based on analysis of EAI architecture that is based on Web Services, through the research of workflow system, we find that some advantages of workflow management system may be exploited in EAI. EAI, which combines web services and workflow, may make use of workflow characters to redefine business process model to promote system performance without revising any specific function module, and to increase economy efficiency in companies. Besides this, some tools of workflow can promote system flexibility, reliability, and robustness. According to a project requirement, an architecture based on Web Services and workflow is proposed from the complementary thought. Moreover, in the architecture, three technical structures are used together—message-centered message broker structure, data-centered information bus structure and access-centered Web Services structure.