Scientific
Applications:
FORMATION OF OpenEAI PROJECT: OPEN
SOURCE INTEGRATION
The OpenEAI Software Foundation and the University of Illinois announced
the
formation of the OpenEAI Project, an open source Enterprise Application
Integration (EAI) initiative that will collaboratively develop and perfect
standards-based integration technologies.
The OpenEAI Project will investigate and document the controlling
dynamics, principles and practices of enterprise application integration and
present, implement and promote these findings. The OpenEAI Project will
present findings in the form of the OpenEAI integration methodology and
OpenEAI integration software and documentation.
According to Richard Mendola, Associate vice president for Administrative
Information Technology Services at the University of Illinois, "The OpenEAI
methodology and work products have the potential to drastically reduce the
costs and time involved in integrating systems at the University of
Illinois.
In addition, with the support of a major ERP vendor like SCT, we believe
these
benefits can be extended to the larger higher education domain. The open
source nature of the project will allow us to collaborate with others to
expedite the evolution of the software and realize these benefits together in
as rapid a fashion as possible."
The OpenEAI Project is comprised of six distinct, closely related
departments,
which address OpenEAI methodology, application foundation APIs, message object
API, message definitions, messaging infrastructure applications, and
deployment and administration.
The OpenEAI Project is characterized by:
- Collaborative research and development
- Clear understanding and documenting the principles of EAI
- Creation of high-quality software that leads the way in the field,
and
- Open software licenses that allow embedding OpenEAI software in
proprietary products
The OpenEAI Software Foundation, an Illinois not-for-profit corporation,
guides the OpenEAI Project, and provides organizational, legal and financial
support to the project. Foundation members are individuals who have
demonstrated a sustained commitment to the OpenEAI Project and made
significant contributions in the form of EAI research and open-source software
development.
This site will provide a detailed description of the open source project
and
the OpenEAI Software Foundation, release 3.0 beta of the OpenEAI foundational
APIs and documentation, as well as reference implementations and corresponding
documentation.
Historical Background
In 2000, the University of Illinois began to define an enterprise
application
integration strategy that could be applied methodically and uniformly to the
wide variety of legacy and contemporary enterprise information systems at the
University. The main goal was to prepare for the implementation of an
enterprise resource planning (ERP) system at the University. At the time, the
University was operating and maintaining more than 150 enterprise
applications.
The implementation of an ERP system at the University meant that a number
of
these 150 systems would be replaced by the ERP system. However, many of these
existing systems, whose specialized functions could not be assumed by the ERP
system, would have to be interfaced with the new ERP system. The University
also recognized that it would have to purchase or develop a number of new
applications to fulfill critical, University-specific functional needs that
would not be met by any ERP software.
During 2000, University IT staff conducted an intensive initial study of
EAI concepts and products in the EAI market space. This process included
experimentation with traditional, proprietary integration products and an
investigation of integration development using relevant standards such as the
Extensible Markup Language (XML) and the Java Message Service (JMS). This
initial research culminated in an RFP process in which the University prepared
comprehensive integration requirements.
At the conclusion of this process, the University determined that standards
and products such as Java, XML, JMS, and JMS providers had matured
sufficiently for the University to base its integration strategy directly on
them rather than on proprietary integration platforms. In doing so, the
University saved a significant amount of money, because it did not assume the
purchase, training, and consulting costs, which are a common when implementing
a proprietary integration platform.
The University addressed its immediate and long-term integration needs with
Java and XML technologies -- the same technologies to which the University had
already committed itself for future enterprise application development.
In 2001, the Enterprise Architecture Group of Administrative IT Services at
the University of Illinois developed a comprehensive enterprise application
integration methodology, a Java message object API, and Java messaging and
application foundation components -- all based on open standards. This
methodology and foundation were used to implement integrations required for
the University's ERP implementation project.
The clarity of the University's methodology and the quality of its
implementation drew the interest of corporate and academic organizations that
work closely with the University of Illinois -- especially those involved in
integration projects with the University. Given this broad interest, the
University of Illinois sought to make these integration concepts and software
available to these other organizations and the general public on a sound
basis.
The University structured an open source project patterned on other
successful
open source initiatives, such as the Apache Projects. It established the
OpenEAI Software Foundation, modeled closely after the Apache Software
Foundation.
In October 2002, the University of Illinois and the OpenEAI Software
Foundation executed an agreement to initiate the OpenEAI Project. In that
agreement, the University gifted its EAI work to the OpenEAI Software
Foundation as a seminal contribution to the OpenEAI Project.
Organizations that currently practice the OpenEAI methodology, use OpenEAI
software in their integration projects, embed OpenEAI technology in their
products, or contribute to the OpenEAI project include the University of
Illinois, SCT Corp, Campus Pipeline Inc. (recently acquired by SCT Corp.),
and Open Integration Inc.
About OpenEAI
OpenEAI defines a straightforward messaging protocol and message format in
XML
for both request/reply and publish/subscribe messaging models for any
enterprise message object. The message protocol is based on principles
inherent to EAI and is not tied to any specific technology used to implement
integrations. These fundamental principles are all derived from the root
concept of an authoritative source. This root concept as well as the
derivation of the fundamental principles of EAI are explained in detail in the
OpenEAI methodology documentation.
The OpenEAI methodology outlines a clear process for documenting
requirements
for interfaces between enterprise applications, requirements for enterprise
data services and requirements for information exchange with trading partners.
A comprehensive analysis template and instructions facilitate this process for
analysts and functional experts. The analysis culminates in defining
enterprise message objects using XML and specifying which XML messages defined
in the OpenEAI Message Protocol will be required for each enterprise message
object identified during the analysis.
The OpenEAI application foundation and message object APIs provide patterns
and foundation for building application gateways and message-aware
applications using a business-object-oriented API generated from the XML
message object definitions specified during integration analysis. Although
Java, JMS and XML are the native technology, message transport, and message
format for OpenEAI, many non-Java technologies can also be exposed through
gateways or made message-aware using OpenEAI concepts and foundational
APIs.
The OpenEAI Project provides a suite of runtime management and monitoring
scripts and documentation for managing deployed messaging gateways and
applications. Complete reference implementations of typical message-aware
applications and message gateways as well as critical infrastructure
applications such as message routers, message proxies, point-to-point
destination polling applications, and testing applications are also maintained
and documented by the project.
OpenEAI Project software and documentation artifacts will be available to
the
public under the terms of one of the following licenses: the GNU Lesser
General Public License (LGPL), the GNU General Public License (GPL), or the
GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL).
The University of Illinois enrolls 66,000 students at its three campuses in
Chicago, Springfield and Urbana-Champaign. It has an annual operating budget
that tops $3 billion; nearly 30 percent of that comes from gifts, grants and
contracts. The University employs more than 20,000 faculty and staff and has
more than a half-million living alumni. The Urbana campus is a pioneer in
high-speed computing and houses the National Center for Supercomputing
Applications.
SCT, the global e-education solutions leader with over 34 years of native
higher education experience, is the only company to offer higher education a
choice in both technology and products that best fit the unique needs of
institutions of any size and complexity.
The Company provides end-to-end solutions that include applications,
technology, and services that support higher education's administration of
teaching and learning. SCT works collaboratively with clients and partners to
provide an e-Education Infrastructure that enables institutions to serve
21st-century learners. SCT has more than 1,300 higher education clients
worldwide,
representing more than 8 million learners. SCT's global headquarters is
located in Malvern, PA and the Company has several offices around the
world.
Open Integration Inc is an integration technology company, providing
services
and software for organizations that practice standards-based enterprise
application integration and software vendors who wish to provide
standards-based interfaces to their products.
Subscribe to the "Announce" list to receive future OpenEAI announcements
and
press releases. An announcement will be sent to this list as soon as the
OpenEAI Project web site is publicly available.
http://www.OpenEAI.org/lists
The OpenEAI Project web site will be publicly available in January 2003 at:
http://www.OpenEAI.org.
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