Level: Advanced Contributors: IBM, BEA Systems 14 Dec 2004
Updated 10 Jun 2005 A metadata discovery and import model for Java EE resource adapters and
Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) tooling frameworks. It allows
resource adapters to plug into an integration framework easily and
improve the adapters' usability within the framework. Any resource
adapter that complies with the specification can plug into any EAI
tooling framework that supports the specification.
Enterprise Metadata Discovery: Simplify the development of J2EE J2CA applications
SOA is rapidly emerging as the architecture of choice for inter-application communication, and easy interoperability with existing IT assets is a must. This specification addresses a key roadblock in ensuring connectivity to existing systems via adapters. Adapter partners and other ISVs are invited to work with us in delivering a strong specification and implementations to the marketplace. Other SOA Platform vendors are invited to join this cross-industry initiative by adopting this specification, thus allowing seamless interoperability. For more information about EMD, see the white paper titled
Enterprise Metadata Discovery.
Enterprise Metadata Discovery Specification for J2CA J2EE is a rich environment for building and managing enterprise class applications and solutions. With the rise of SOA, more and more enterprises are deploying SOA solutions in a J2EE environment, but need to service-enable their existing IT assets in order to realize the full benefits of business automation. IBM and BEA are collaborating on specifications that will enable more productive development of and deployment of this "last mile" of integration. The "Enterprise Metadata Discovery Specification for J2CA" is a cross-industry initiative spearheaded by IBM and BEA, and supported by our mutual adapter vendor and application vendor partners. This new specification provides a standard way of managing this "last mile" with a seamless design-time experience, thus allowing customers significant productivity improvements in service-enabling their existing IT assets.
Independent studies have shown that the majority of the costs of an integration solution or an SOA implementation are due to the "last
mile" of integration (that is, the connection from the integration application to the legacy systems). Costs of purchasing, supporting and
servicing adapters (or building one's own if off-the-shelf ones are lacking) directly impact the total cost of ownership and time-to-value of an integration solution.
The reasons for this are numerous, but all point to a fundamental structural problem in the industry. Infrastructure vendors cannot build
rich, high-quality adapters for more than a subset of all the end systems out there, without sufficient scale to offset the costs. An
industry based on partnering could solve this, but standards immaturity has stood in the way.
Customers demand rich tooling for service-enabling and connecting back-end application functionality into an SOA. However there is no
Java standard that enables this kind of tooling interoperability, so vendors can only address this by building proprietary extensions for
developer productivity. This results in interoperability challenges between platform and adapter vendors' solutions, typically addressed
with expensive one-off development or on-site consulting. Either way, the costs ultimately get passed to customers.
The Enterprise Metadata Discovery specification intends to solve the problem of standard rich tooling interfaces for adapters, thus unlocking the potential of the integration industry to deliver higher quality adapters to more end systems at lower costs. Adapter vendors can focus on building more and better adapters, without worrying about interoperability of proprietary extensions. Infrastructure vendors can focus on building better platforms and better development experiences. And application vendors and other ISVs can build their own "last mile" components, confident that a fully standard implementation will address both runtime and design-time interoperability requirements. As a result, any adapter product can plug seamlessly into any infrastructure vendor's J2EE SOA implementation, delivering both superior end-to-end runtime behavior and developer productivity.
The result to end customers will be greater adapter availability and quality at lower cost. Existing IT assets can be service-enabled more readily, thus reducing the total cost of ownership and improving time-to-value of an SOA implementation. Moreover, each component in the end-to-end solution will have been built to agreed-upon specifications as opposed to proprietary extensions, thus reducing vendor lock-in.
Download the white paper
Get additional information on Enterprise Metadata Discovery in the following white paper:
PDF format: Enterprise Metadata Discovery
Download the Enterprise Metadata Discovery specification
You can download the complete Enterprise Metadata Discovery specification, the Javadoc files, and the Interface Source files by clicking on the following links:
Provide feedback to this specification.
Note: This specification is being made available on an RF basis (as detailed in the Copyright notice of the specification); therefore, IBM does not require an implementation license. If you prefer, however, you may request a license.
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