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System integration is defined in
engineering Engineering is the use of scientific principles to design and build machines, structures, and other items, including bridges, tunnels, roads, vehicles, and buildings. The discipline of engineering encompasses a broad range of more speciali ...
as the process of bringing together the component sub- systems into one system (an aggregation of subsystems cooperating so that the system is able to deliver the overarching functionality) and ensuring that the subsystems function together as a system, and in
information technology Information technology (IT) is the use of computers to create, process, store, retrieve, and exchange all kinds of Data (computing), data . and information. IT forms part of information and communications technology (ICT). An information te ...
as the process of linking together different
computing Computing is any goal-oriented activity requiring, benefiting from, or creating computing machinery. It includes the study and experimentation of algorithmic processes, and development of both hardware and software. Computing has scientific, ...
systems and
software application Software is a set of computer programs and associated documentation and data. This is in contrast to hardware, from which the system is built and which actually performs the work. At the lowest programming level, executable code consists ...
s physically or functionally, to act as a coordinated whole. The
system integrator A systems integrator (or system integrator) is a person or company that specializes in bringing together component subsystems into a whole and ensuring that those subsystems function together, a practice known as system integration. They also sol ...
integrates discrete systems utilizing a variety of techniques such as
computer network A computer network is a set of computers sharing resources located on or provided by network nodes. The computers use common communication protocols over digital interconnections to communicate with each other. These interconnections are ...
ing,
enterprise application integration Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the use of software and computer systems' architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications. Overview Enterprise application integration is an integration framework comp ...
,
business process management Business process management (BPM) is the discipline in which people use various methods to discover, model, analyze, measure, improve, optimize, and automate business processes. Any combination of methods used to manage a company's business p ...
or manual programming. System integration involves integrating existing, often
disparate system In information technology, a disparate system or a disparate data system is a computer data processing system that was designed to operate as a fundamentally distinct data processing system without exchanging data or interacting with other comput ...
s in such a way "that focuses on increasing value to the customer" (e.g., improved product quality and performance) while at the same time providing value to the company (e.g., reducing operational costs and improving response time). In the modern world connected by
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, pub ...
, the role of system integration engineers is important: more and more systems are designed to connect, both within the system under construction and to systems that are already deployed.


Methods of integration

Vertical integration In microeconomics, management and international political economy, vertical integration is a term that describes the arrangement in which the supply chain of a company is integrated and owned by that company. Usually each member of the suppl ...
(as opposed to "
horizontal integration Horizontal integration is the process of a company increasing production of goods or services at the same part of the supply chain. A company may do this via internal expansion, acquisition or merger. The process can lead to monopoly if a c ...
") is the process of integrating subsystems according to their functionality by creating functional entities also referred to as silos. The benefit of this method is that the integration is performed quickly and involves only the necessary vendors, therefore, this method is cheaper in the short term. On the other hand, cost-of-ownership can be substantially higher than seen in other methods, since in case of new or enhanced functionality, the only possible way to implement (scale the system) would be by implementing another silo. Reusing subsystems to create another functionality is not possible. Star integration, also known as spaghetti integration, is a process of systems integration where each system is interconnected to each of the remaining subsystems. When observed from the perspective of the subsystem which is being integrated, the connections are reminiscent of a star, but when the overall diagram of the system is presented, the connections look like spaghetti, hence the name of this method. The cost varies because of the interfaces that subsystems are exporting. In a case where the subsystems are exporting heterogeneous or proprietary interfaces, the integration cost can substantially rise. Time and costs needed to integrate the systems increase exponentially when adding additional subsystems. From the feature perspective, this method often seems preferable, due to the extreme flexibility of the reuse of functionality. Horizontal integration or
Enterprise Service Bus An enterprise service bus (ESB) implements a communication system between mutually interacting software applications in a service-oriented architecture (SOA). It represents a software architecture for distributed computing, and is a special varia ...
(ESB) is an integration method in which a specialized subsystem is dedicated to communication between other subsystems. This allows cutting the number of connections (interfaces) to only one per subsystem which will connect directly to the ESB. The ESB is capable of translating the interface into another interface. This allows cutting the costs of integration and provides extreme flexibility. With systems integrated using this method, it is possible to completely replace one subsystem with another subsystem which provides similar functionality but exports different interfaces, all this completely transparent for the rest of the subsystems. The only action required is to implement the new interface between the ESB and the new subsystem. The horizontal scheme can be misleading, however, if it is thought that the cost of intermediate data transformation or the cost of shifting responsibility over business logic can be avoided. Industrial lifecycle integration is a system integration process that considers four categories or stages of integration: initial system implementation, engineering and design, project services, and operations. This approach incorporates the requirements of each lifecycle stage of the industrial asset when integrating systems and subsystems. The key output is a standardized data architecture that can function throughout the life of the asset. A common data format is an integration method to avoid every adapter having to convert data to/from every other applications' formats,
Enterprise application integration Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the use of software and computer systems' architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications. Overview Enterprise application integration is an integration framework comp ...
(EAI) systems usually stipulate an application-independent (or common) data format. The EAI system usually provides a data transformation service as well to help convert between application-specific and common formats. This is done in two steps: the adapter converts information from the application's format to the bus' common format. Then, semantic transformations are applied on this (converting zip codes to city names, splitting/merging objects from one application into objects in the other applications, and so on).


Challenges of integration

System integration can be challenging for organizations and these challenges can diminish their overall return on investment after implementing new software solutions. Some of these challenges include lack of trust and willing to share data with other companies, unwillingness to outsource various operations to a third party, lack of clear communication and responsibilities, disagreement from partners on where functionality should reside, high cost of integration, difficulty finding good talents,
data silos An information silo, or a group of such silos, is an insular management system in which one information system or subsystem is incapable of reciprocal operation with others that are, or should be, related. Thus information is not adequately shared ...
, and common
API An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more computer programs to communicate with each other. It is a type of software interface, offering a service to other pieces of software. A document or standard that describes how ...
standards. These challenges result in creating hurdles that “prevent or slow down business systems integration within and among companies”. Clear communication and simplified information exchange are key elements in building long term system integrations that can support business requirements.


Benefits of integration

On the other hand, system integration projects can be incredibly rewarding. For out-of-date, legacy systems, different forms of integration offer the ability to enable real-time data sharing. This can enable, for example, publisher-subscriber data distribution models, consolidated databases, event-driven architectures, reduce manual user data entry (which can also help reduce errors), refresh or modernize the application's front-end, and offload querying and reporting from expensive operational systems to cheaper commodity systems (which can save costs, enable scalability, and free up processing power on the main operational system). Usually, an extensive cost-benefit analysis is undertaken to help determine whether an integration project is worth the effort.


See also

*
Artificial intelligence systems integration {{short description, Aspect of system integration regarding artificial intelligence The core idea of Artificial Intelligence systems integration is making individual software components, such as speech synthesizers, interoperable with other componen ...
* Continuous integration * System in package and system on a chip *
Enterprise application integration Enterprise application integration (EAI) is the use of software and computer systems' architectural principles to integrate a set of enterprise computer applications. Overview Enterprise application integration is an integration framework comp ...
*
Integration platform Integration may refer to: Biology *Multisensory integration *Path integration * Pre-integration complex, viral genetic material used to insert a viral genome into a host genome *DNA integration, by means of site-specific recombinase technology, ...
*
Integration Competency Center An integration competency center (ICC), sometimes referred to as an integration center of excellence (COE), is a shared service function providing methodical data integration, system integration, or enterprise application integration within organi ...
*
Interoperability Interoperability is a characteristic of a product or system to work with other products or systems. While the term was initially defined for information technology or systems engineering services to allow for information exchange, a broader defi ...
* System of record * Systems integrator *
Multidisciplinary approach Interdisciplinarity or interdisciplinary studies involves the combination of multiple academic disciplines into one activity (e.g., a research project). It draws knowledge from several other fields like sociology, anthropology, psychology, ec ...
*
Cloud-based integration Cloud-based integration is a form of systems integration business delivered as a cloud computing service that addresses data, process, service-oriented architecture (SOA) and application integration. Description Integration platform as a service ( ...
* System design * Modular design *
Connectivity Integrator Connectivity may refer to: Computing and technology * Connectivity (media), the ability of the social media to accumulate economic capital from the users connections and activities * Internet connectivity, the means by which individual terminals, ...
* Configuration design


References


External links


CSIA (Control System Integrators Association)
{{Authority control Systems analysis Systems engineering Interoperability