Evaluation of Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) and Web Services at Fitting Out and Supply Support Assistance Center (FOSSAC) under NMCI.

Abstract

Information technology has woven itself into the fabric of every organization. As organizations grow and develop specialized needs, specialized software applications emerge to address the needs. Often the business processes take shape around the capabilities of the software applications and the technology infrastructure, until the two are inseparable from one another. When an organization decides to incorporate new processes or upgrade its information architecture, the new system may lack compatibility with the old system. The old, incompatible software is typically referred to as a "legacy application". In an effort to integrate the old applications with the new, organizations are typically faced with expensive, proprietary Enterprise Application Integration solutions. Fitting Out and Supply Support Assistance Center (FOSSAC) is an organization facing a legacy application integration challenge with the implementation of the Navy-Marine Corps Intranet. This thesis examines the applicability of traditional Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) methodologies for FOSSAC as way to preserve access to its legacy applications. As an alternative integration solution, this thesis explores the potential of the emerging Web Services architecture. The Web Services architecture employs standard Internet protocols to facilitate application integration and information sharing across a variety of computing-platforms.