The decompartmentalization of the small information islands facilitated by distributed architectures allows for new approaches to the integration of the various elements of the company information systems.

For this, we are waiting for sufficiently large performance increases in the standardized connection interfaces, such as JCA (Java Connector Architecture) in the J2EE domain, as well as increases to its strengths as an integration platform. Among other elements (ERP, software, TP monitors...) applications developed on IBM mainframes (in particular on CICS or IMS) still involve a colossal investment, and it is preferable to integrate or exploit as much as possible at the level of processes (business logic) as well as at the data source level.

Depending on the degree of intrusion authorized at the level of the host systems, various approaches can be used. Web Services imply installing an implementation of these protocols before starting to modify to the applications.

However, the techniques that can be used will vary according to the preliminary strategies (which should be worked out in advance): from simple reworking of transactional screens to up-to-date presentation formats (graphical interfaces or HTML) using translators and emulators, which used to be called "revamping", to re-using functions and services through bridges that connect different technical domains. The current integration efforts benefit from standards, such as XML, to formalize the exchange of data and messages between these environments.

These approaches have been collectively called "Web-to-host", but the evolutions envisaged in the Web Service and Connectors techniques concerning the transactional aspects, security, asynchronous communications and metadata exchange mean that there will be a wider range of choice in using incoming and outgoing flows; an expansion from the Web-to-host approach to Host-to-web.

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