In Part 2 of the article, I continue to explain some options to take now that you have an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) fully implemented. In Part 1, after explaining Hybrid Integration, I discussed the option of extending from on premise integration with IBM Integration Bus to hybrid integration by implementing IBM Integration Bus on Cloud and seamlessly running integration flows across the two instances (on premise and on cloud) to provide a full integration solution including securely accessing on premise systems of record. Now in Part 2, I will cover IBM API Connect, IBM App Connect, and IBM Application Integration Suite.

IBM API Connect

IBM API Connect is IBM’s web API management solution. It is an integrated creation, runtime, management, and security foundation for enterprise grade API’s and Microservices to power modern digital applications.

API Connect offers:

• Automated, visual and coding options for creating APIs
• js and Java support for creating Microservices
• Integrated enterprise grade clustering, management and security for Node.js and Java
• Lifecycle and governance for APIs, Products and Plans
• Access control over API’s, API Plans and API Products
• Advanced API usage analytics
• Customizable, self-service developer portal for publishing APIs
• Policy enforcement, security and control

When mentioning APIs, the API Economy is often heard. The API Economy can be viewed as a supply chain starting with exposing enterprise services in a managed and secure manner as Web APIs to developers that can build applications for end users.

The API Economy is driving businesses to find new ways to expose their valuable assets and interact with others – driving digital transformation. It is also what is driving the idea of two speed or bimodal IT. The ESB team would be part of “steady speed IT”, with a systems of record focus providing services needed for enterprise applications. Conversely, today there is typically also the idea within an organization as “fast IT”, with a systems of engagement focus, concentrating on APIs and Microservices needed for digital business applications, typically around mobile and Internet of Things applications. API developers that sit outside of IT are building, exposing, and consuming APIs to allow fast IT to work.

So while the IBM API Connect offering provides the ability to build and run APIs and Microservices, not all APIs fit into this development and runtime paradigm, though certainly all APIs should be centrally managed, controlled, publicized, and monitored from the central API Connect offering. Some APIs need to provide information that takes more integration capabilities, such as those provided by your ESB.

In fact, IBM Integration Bus V10 provides the ability to completely build and execute a RESTful API. This API can then be used by any authorized consumer, and can be easily exposed to the IBM API Connect offering. The IBM Integration Bus Toolkit allows the developer to push the REST API interface into API Connect, so as mentioned, API Connect can provide all of the value it offers for security, management, monitoring, publication to a developer portal, etc. That API running on IBM Integration Bus can of course use all of the extended and powerful facilities that IBM Integration Bus provides.

IBM App Connect

IBM App Connect is a new breed of integration tool, designed to connect your applications in minutes, whether they are on the cloud or a private network, and with no coding required. IBM App Connect helps you connect your apps and enables workflow automation to make your business more efficient. For example:

• Boost your campaign performance by automating social to CRM engagement virtually in real time.
• Use Salesforce data integration to reduce time spent on creating and updating Salesforce records so you can focus on converting leads and closing deals.
• Create flows for marketing automation and sales processes.

IBM App Connect is a Software as a Service (SaaS) solution for business users.

• You can build integrations between applications so that an event that occurs in one application initiates an action in the other application.
• Support is included for an initial set of cloud and on-premises applications; support for additional applications will be added over time.
• Tooling is provided so that your IT department can expose in-house applications, such as IBM Integration Bus message flows, as virtual applications on IBM App Connect

Simply select source and target apps from your list, define triggers and actions to set up a blueprint for how apps should interact and map the information you want to share between them. IBM App Connect gets you connected in minutes. By integrating your apps and information, you can eliminate manual processes and automate recurring tasks to improve productivity and maintain consistency of your information.

IBM App Connect enables you to:

• Connect apps in three steps—select your applications, define triggers and actions, map the information you want to share and IBM App Connect does the rest.
• Automate tasks and create efficient workflow orchestration through a simple, browser-based experience.
• Collaborate with your technical team to connect apps in hours if they don’t appear on your list.

So again, many of the “applications” exposed in App Connect can simply be flows running in IBM Integration Bus. Often, these flows are already there, running the business and providing the data to be exchanged between various enterprise applications. However, here is a way to now expose that flow so that the data and service that it provides is offered through this simple, business driven integration application so they can have access to the data. The business user does not need to know anything about the integration details or the actual backend system. They simply get a new application exposed to them in App Connect described as something they do understand, making it immediately accessible for integration to the other applications they need to tie it to.

What this means for the IBM Integration Bus development team is offloading further integration work, where the integration is simpler, but is not, at least to start, something that might be considered an enterprise class integration. This might be an integration built by a person in the marketing department to allow them to do their job easier and quicker, maybe to run better promotions and campaigns, which then improves the business, all at the direct request of the CMO. It is estimated that by 2017, at least 65% of new integration flows will be developed in the Line of Business.

IBM App Connect, a cloud based application, provides the tool for the “citizen integrator” in the line of business. This again addresses the need and reality of two speed IT previously discussed. App Connect can address the pervasive integration requirements fostered by the digital revolution, providing a do-it-yourself integration approach.

IBM Application Integration Suite

As you can see from the above picture, IBM offers tools that cover the entire hybrid integration spectrum. The just discussed IBM App Connect provides that purpose built “automator” tool for the “citizen integrator” that needs to connect applications together in the line of business. IBM Integration Bus of course provides the enterprise class integration tool for the IT integrator specialist. IBM API Connect was described and how it provides a development, runtime, and management platform for APIs and Microservices. Further, how again APIs are being built by an API developer often outside of the traditional IT core.

IBM now offers a single IBM offering that provides all the tools enterprises need for connecting cloud and on premise applications, building Microservices and exposing and managing APIs. It enables you to reach new markets, rapidly take advantage of new business opportunities, and improve communications within your partner ecosystem. With this offering, you can influence existing investments by continuing to provide reliable, secure, and scalable enterprise integration while modernizing IT infrastructure to support digital transformation.

The following are included in this offering:

• IBM Integration Bus Advanced
• IBM API Connect Professional
• IBM WebSphere® Cast Iron® Hypervisor Enterprise Edition

This offering combines already established IBM software and provides the following capabilities and benefits:

• Securely integrate on premise and cloud applications, enabling you to optimize resources and productivity in Software as a Service (SaaS) and cloud models.
• Use the Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) architectural pattern to eliminate costly point-to-point connections, which are expensive to maintain and resistant to change.
• Simply and quickly build new APIs by using integration technology.
• Rapidly design APIs with essential security policies and share APIs across organizational boundaries and environments, while providing deep insight into API usage.
• Create Microservices and APIs by using Node.js Loopback and Express® frameworks
• Accelerate your integration creation and management for cloud and on premise through the use of premade patterns, rich connectors, and easy-to-use tools.
• Improve visibility of your business data, events, and messages flowing through the integration layer. This results in a more agile response to the changing needs of your business and smarter business decisions.
• Take advantage of new business opportunities. Application Integration Suite provides the foundation for a successful mobile, analytics, and cloud strategy. It enables you to seamlessly connect your Systems of Record to Systems of Engagement to help create a positive experience for your customer.
• Leverage the synergy between IBM and other Mobile, API Management, Analytics, Business Rules solutions, and many more. 

Summary

So while ESBs provide a powerful tool for enterprise integration, the speed the world is moving at today does not allow the ESB to provide integration for all purposes, in all ways, at the speed required by all users and use cases. By extending the ESB to work with and provide APIs that are controlled and managed by API Connect; by extending IBM Integration Bus flows to be a simple application in App Connect that a non-IT integrator can use to tie to other on premise or cloud based applications they use; and by extending IBM Integration Bus on premise to directly integrate with IBM Integration Bus on Cloud to add capacity, offloading of on premise integration, or cloud integration, the possibilities are there to solidify the positioning and need for the ESB by participating in all integration – by participating in hybrid integration.

Future blog posts will dive into some of these options in more detail, as well as further explore hybrid integration.