NonStop Systems Introduction for H-Series RVUs

Requirements of Real-Time Solutions
NonStop Systems Introduction for H-Series RVUs—540083-001
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Services and Applications
the APIs and protocols necessary to ensure that information is delivered to its intended
destination.
The primary advantage of products such as JMS and MQ series is that they provide for
asynchronous transmission of data, both to and from the hub. With asynchronous
messaging, transactions are queued for entry into the database; the sending
application does not wait for confirmation that a transaction is complete but is free to
continue with its processing tasks while messages are queued. Queued requests are
processed in order, and the response is processed when it is returned to the client.
With synchronous messaging techniques, the sender of a message waits for a
response indicating that the message has arrived at its destination before continuing its
processing. Asynchronous messaging eliminates the delay inherent in synchronous
messaging and often results in faster response times.
Services and Applications
To enable diverse business applications to communicate with one another and with the
real-time hub, the EAI layer of a ZLE framework must provide a complex set of
services, including data transformation, business rules, and workflow. (Workflow or
message flow usually implies that when a certain event occurs, one or more business
applications must be notified. For example, when a user hits the Enter key in a SAP
application, a new order is entered, routed to a transformation server, and captured.
Then copies of the order are sent to various other business systems that need them.)
Another example of an essential EAI service is data conversion. When data is sent
from one application to another (through the real-time hub), EAI must be able to
convert the data from the format of the sending application to the format of the
receiving application. To perform these and other essential services, a wide variety of
software is available from the leading EAI vendors. The real-time solution must support
this software.
Support for open standards is also important for the real-time applications running on
the hub. These applications are specialized applications that perform business-level
functions, such as fraud detection and customer relations and personalization. Many
third-party real-time applications are available from companies such as Axciom,
Protagona, MicroStrategy, and Trillium Software. The real-time solution must support
these applications.
Application Integration Frameworks
The role of the EAI layer of a real-time solution is to provide a framework for the
integration of business applications and for implementing essential real-time services.
At the core of this framework is an application server. The application server provides
many essential services for application integration, including messaging, transaction
management, application management, load balancing, and high availability. The
application server also provides tools for developing and hosting new applications and
services.