Divide and govern! How to adapt an IT landscape to modern realities?

Regularly during projects it is necessary to face very important issue – the organization of an IT landscape. And traditionally 2 camps are formed at once: supporters of one big information system ("the best integration that which was not") and supporters of use of several separate information systems ("under each sparrow of a down of the caliber"). Each of these approaches has pluses and minuses which we will deeply not mention within this article, however will try to open a subject:

How it is safe to live if integration after all to be?

If after all there was a situation at which in an IT landscape there will be several different information systems, then at design of this scheme it is necessary to provide methodological aspects: how business processes that they also worked organically (when at each stage in an information system only those transactions which should be executed are executed) will be cut and provided rather complete information space in which users work.

Let's try to sort a task, traditional for producers of food, – the organization of document flow with clients. And to reveal the correct and not correct methods of its solution. Widespread question: separate a logistic circuit from financial or not?

Wrong scheme of separation: In a logistic circuit we write out the document of implementation, then it is unloaded in financial base. After return of documents from clients we begin to edit them in base of financial accounting. And when editing at us changes which influence the remaining balance of goods important for a logistic circuit turn out. On the person violation of one of basic rules – an object should be created and edited in one place.

Example of the correct scheme of separation: Documents of implementation are created and edited in the circuit, then for some complete period (day, week, month) documents are unloaded in a circuit financial. accounting. Thus it turns out that documents are created and edited in one place, and base financial. accounting is a consumer of the verified information of a logistic circuit.

If we methodologically competently separated information flows - it is already very powerful deposit that systems will function as necessary. But we also have rather serious question:

Technical organization of exchanges

Not to be mistaken with the choice of the mechanism of integration, it is necessary to decide on "caliber" of a solvable task at first. So, it is possible to select 4 levels of its scale:

• Local – is characterized by exchange via external files. We carry this mechanism to a class outdated, but nevertheless earlier it was rather widespread and with some ICs is the only available option of integration.
• Regular in homogeneous environments – it is meant that the integrated ICs are in one information environment. For example, on one server, exchange through COM. Such mechanism rather often meets and allows to solve problems of integration of regular character. It is convenient to implement it when there is rather small amount of the IC. Advantage of such approach is very easy setup and creation of the program interface which the integrated systems will use.
• Regular in heterogeneous environments – it is meant that the integrated ICs can be located on different servers, with different OS, it is even territorially isolated. It is about exchange through web services. One of advantages of such approach – an opportunity to integrate bases in different environments, at the same time saving rather low complexity of setup of integration.
• Industrial – application of separate solutions in heterogeneous environments: buses ESB (for example DATAREON) or industrial server of queues (for example RabbitMQ). Such solutions to apply relevant when more than 3 ICs when it is important to provide high-quality transfer of NSI between all systems and when it is important to balance loading between the exchanging ICs participate in exchange.

Instruments of check

When we resolved the first 2 issues in our way of integration, time to think of support of operation of the IC regarding integration comes. And there is a question of that it was possible to verify data of 2 integrated systems in 1 information space. As one of examples – the analysis of shipments in bases financial. accounting and logistic circuit. Here we also select 2 approaches:

• Passive – when the user, responsible for accounting section, creates the report which allows to compare data for the identical period in 2 bases and to take some actions in case of discrepancies
• Active – when is a certain analyzer which reglamentno receives 2 data sets from different bases, compares them and in case of discrepancy notifies responsible.

Thus, if it is going to build not just the automation system financial. accounting, and a management system including at the operational level, inevitably it will result in architecture of several information bases.

The most successful of automated enterprises therefore are like those that in time realized the value of the concept of microservices (when small separate ICs solve narrowly targeted problems), to win with competitive struggle they could be helped by only specialized solutions which are ground under their features and are capable to react to changes of the environment rather quickly. On the example of these companies we understand that for implementation of such approaches are required reliable and convenient for implementation and operation of an integration tool of IT systems.

P.S.: Integration is a task, and not a problem at all. And, at the modern level of its judgment and a set of technical tools - it is more, than solvable.

Author: Andrey Shishkin