Cloud-Based Application Integration in Virtual Enterprises

A key characteristic of a virtual enterprise (VE) is the heterogeneity of the applications that compose its enterprise information systems (EIS), since it builds on the EIS of the individual enterprises that are part of the collaborative network of that VE. This raises an application integration problem, which is even more serious than within any given EIS because a VE has a temporary nature, and therefore, integration requirements can change frequently. Current integration technologies, such as Web Services and RESTful APIs, solve the interoperability problem but usually entail more coupling than needed, since they require sharing data schemas between interacting applications, even if not all values of those schemas are actually used. The fundamental problem of application integration is therefore how to provide at most the minimum coupling possible while ensuring at least the minimum interoperability requirements. This chapter proposes compliance and conformance as the concepts to achieve this goal.