We can quote innumerable stats to impress, but there is no need, it is apparent the world is getting more connected. Today?s connectivity will seem primitive in few years as the connectivity extends beyond smartphones, tablets and computers to concepts such as devices implanted in the human body.
Connected Enterprise ? An Opportunity or Challenge?
A connected enterprise offers more opportunities, along with new challenges for IT leaders. On the one hand, it enables organizations to grow the business by taking part in the growing mobile, cloud and social networking revolution by reducing transaction costs with direct customer engagement.
On the other hand, you run the risk of exposing more of your data via public or private APIs. These new APIs need to incorporate access control strategies to protect the data before it is exposed to third parties.
These considerations create added complexity for already burdened IT organizations. IT has to begin with the systems and databases already in place. These systems are probably a mixture of new and legacy systems, using ODBC and JDBC to expose your databases. Current integration is likely a manual one-off practice using SOAP and XML as the underlying integration approach.
First step to cope with Connected Enterprise
To move your business from its current state to the ?Connected Enterprise?, you have to define a common API to your database and other systems, while providing the infrastructure to support the new model. The new systems must incorporate the security safeguards while ensuring the infrastructure can support the new growing, but variable, load.
With the rapid adoption of mobile and web services across the industry, the REST architecture has emerged as the de facto standard for API integration across systems. In the next few blogs we will address basics of REST technology, Why REST and how to create REST APIs to your database and integrate it with the rest of the enterprise.
