What are the advantages and disadvantages of Portal-oriented Application Integration?

Portal-oriented Application Integration enables us to look at a multitude of systems both internal enterprise systems and external enterprise systems through an individual user interface or software.

An example of POAI is an automobile parts supplier that would like to begin selling parts to retail stores (B2B) using a portal. This portal can enable the retail stores to access catalog data, place orders, and track orders over the internet, directly the parts supplier leverages SAP as its chosen stock control system, and a commonly developed mainframe software written in COBOL/DB2 serves as its sales order system. Data from each system is needed for the B2B portal, and the portal users to upgrade those back-end systems as well.

The benefit of portals to link enterprises has several advantages. The basic one is that there is no requirement to integrate back-end systems directly between organizations or within enterprises, which removes the associated cost or risk.

Portal-oriented B2B application integration also supports the best facility for web-allowing current enterprise systems for any gaols, involving B2B and business-to-consumer (B2C) selling over the internet. If it is required to move data to a user interface for any reason, this is the best method.

In several B2B application integration problem areas, the users prefer to connect with the back-end systems through a user interface instead of having the systems automatically exchange data behind the scenes (as in data-oriented B2B application integration).

Advantages of Portal-oriented integration

The advantages of portal-oriented integration are as follows −

• It supports a true non-invasive approach, allowing other organizations to interact with a company’s internal systems through a controlled interface accessible over the Web.

• It is generally faster to execute than real-time data exchange with back-end systems, including the data, method, and application interface–oriented techniques.

• It’s allowing technology is mature, and some instances of portal-oriented B2B application integration exist to understand from.

Disadvantages of Portal-oriented integration

The disadvantages of portal-oriented integration are as follows −

• Information does not flow in real-time and therefore needed human interaction. As a result, systems do not necessarily react to business events within a trading community (including the depletion of stock).

• Data should be abstracted. It is generally through another application logic layer (including an application server). As a result, some portal-oriented solutions add intricacy to the solution.

• Security is an important concern when enterprise and trading community data is being continued to users over the internet.

• The approach of POAI has gone through several generations, such as individual system portals, multiple-enterprise-system portals, and enterprise portals.