Building EAI adapters for legacy systems

The use of enterprise application integration (EAI) techniques for integrating disparate systems has assumed increasing importance within the information technology industry, especially when utilized as a complementary e-business service. The focus of this column is the EAI Adapter subsystem. Most EAI vendors provide prepackaged adapters or software development kits that can be used to construct adapters. However, no standards exist in this area, so implementations are proprietary and display considerable variations in sophistication. There are, however, a number of common problems and issues faced during adapter construction for legacy systems. How one may construct a reliable, high-performance, and intelligent adapter for legacy systems that otherwise only support bespoke, unsophisticated, high-cost, or unacceptably risky integration methods is discussed.