I’ve always been fascinated with how things fit together. As a kid, it all started with a really cool Lego castle. I loved Legos. Building the specific structure from the box was fine, but I always wanted to expand the empire. Space settings, medieval settings, farm settings… My world was broken down into neatly interlocking pieces of all shapes and sizes. But, the Lego world was difficult to mix with other important worlds like Matchbox cars and G.I. Joe. It was then that I encountered my eternal, elusive challenge: making connections between seemingly dissimilar systems. Sure, there was always enough Duct Tape, WD-40 and SuperGlue to make any project work, but there simply had to be a better way.
I guess this is what shaped my desire to specialize in the software/hardware integration discipline within Computer Engineering at Georgia Tech. My professors helped me understand what it takes to make computers and programs talk. My co-op job at Scientific Atlanta (now Cisco) gave me hands-on experience and resources that would shape my quest. I vividly remember looking at a protocol analyzer and seeing the transaction stream between a cable settop box and the headend controller. One was a hardware ASIC and the other was an IBM OS/2 application, but they were able to efficiently communicate using a pre-defined structure of data over a serial connection. I was able to experiment with MS/DOS applications built in C talking to SCO x86 UNIX applications for host billing communications. Again, pre-defined structure over common media networks.
At CheapTickets.com, my view expanded greatly by being able to work on the systems that connected with a major travel reservations global distribution system (GDS). Our Systems Engineering team regularly wrestled with the artifacts of how the GDS organically evolved. Many things that made sense on a green screen were quite confusing for Internet transaction processing. To meet timelines and requirements, we had to be very creative at using legacy data fields to store required elements such as email addresses or website referrals. The tech buzz among travel industry engineers was all about creating a new integration framework that was optimized for Internet-based systems. To my knowledge, this dream is still not realized.
I remember a time that everything was polarized. You had to ask critical questions first: Mac or PC, Java or .NET, AOL or Prodigy. The world has come a long way. With Mac OSX and a fully interoperable Microsoft Office, companies and friends were finally able to freely share files. Web Services, Open ID and other powerful APIs have lessened the issues of Java and .NET. One common, global Internet quickly ended the issues of the AOL and Prodigy silos.
While not nearly as versatile as Duct Tape, WD-40 and SuperGlue, there are many powerful components that make up today’s Open Integration Frameworks. When used properly, these tools can cut development time in half and expand reach tenfold. Be sure to think about how the data needs to be prepared, transported, translated and processed. Consider the following list of technologies when needing inspiration in solving your integration challenges:
At Fred Squared, we embrace these Open Integration Frameworks and are taking an active role in ensuring their adoption. Join us in breaking down barriers and providing a future where Lego and G.I. Joe live in harmony.
Tags: APIs, Georgia Tech, Randy Arrowood, Web Services
