NonStop Systems Introduction for H-Series RVUs

The Application Server Environment
NonStop Systems Introduction for H-Series RVUs— 540083-001
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The Role of Web Services in Application Integration
be used to connect the various business applications to a framework of a different
base, but the greatest benefit of a framework is provided to applications written using
that framework’s API. (For example, Tuxedo-based applications work best in a
NonStop Tuxedo integration framework.)
The Role of Web Services in Application
Integration
A new technology, known as Web services, is playing an increasingly important role in
the integration of applications throughout the enterprise. Although there is no widely
accepted definition of “Web services”, we can broadly define a Web service as a
business software component that can be accessed by other systems over the
Internet. Web services allow business processes written in one language on one
platform to be available to applications in a completely different environment. These
business components have certain characteristics, including:
•
They are reusable.
•
They can be accessed by other systems across the Internet using industry-
standard technologies.
•
They can serve many requests simultaneously.
•
They are often listed in a directory so that they can be easily found by the
applications that need them.
•
They can be shared by and used as components of distributed Web-based
applications.
Applications can be constructed using multiple Web services from various sources that
work together regardless of where they reside or how they were implemented.
Web services are important to the concept of application integration because they
enable diverse applications written in different languages to communicate with one
another and exchange data using industry-standard protocols.
Examples of Web Services
For an example specific to HP, consider a company that maintains its employee
database on a NonStop system. The database is serviced by a NonStop TS/MP server
class, written in C, that allows these operations on the database:
•
Add an employee
•
Delete an employee
•
Get information about an employee
The NonStop TS/MP server class is currently accessed using a Screen COBOL
program. But now, a new application in a J2EE environment needs to access the