Title: EAI’s Impact on Enterprise Architecture
and How to Handle It
Abstract: Today
large companies often have to cope with com-plex and heterogeneous IT infrastructures.
A recent approach to this issue is Enterprise Application Inte-gration (EAI).
EAI provides a platform for business process oriented system integration.
The aim of EAI is to consolidate the number of point to point interface of
integrated applications in a centralized hub and spoke architecture. In contrast
to former middleware approaches EAI provides integration not only on a technical
level but on a business process level too. According to this we consider
EAI as an architectural element affecting IT as well as organizational issues
and thus Enterprise Architecture. Hence EAI again raises the question for
interdependencies between IT and organization. In a study we analyzed how
EAI is used in large-scale companies and which effects it has on the Enterprise
Architecture of those companies. The results illustrate that EAI is a major
component in complex IT infra-structures which has a significant influence
on busi-ness processes. But the study also shows that there is a considerable
gap between the importance of EAI in Enterprise Architecture and the way
it is used in com-panies today. As a result EAI as it is used today may provide
a way to connect IT systems but it is hardly capable of handling architecture’s
complexity. Even-tually this article points out what has to be done to move
toward a manageable enterprise architecture
Author: Stephan
Aier and Marten Schoenherr