Designing Your Hybrid Integration Platform: Template Based

This lesson describes the design of a hybrid integration platform that connects on-premise and cloud systems. It covers the planning and implementation of a flexible and scalable integration infrastructure.

In this phase, you design your future hybrid integration platform. In relation to the SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology, the term "hybrid" is not limited to supporting hybrid deployment models. It also includes the ability to support all relevant integration domains and styles. In addition, a hybrid integration platform must fulfill the requirements of different groups of people such as integration experts, application developers, and business users.

The first step is to carry out a technology mapping to determine the scope of your future hybrid integration platform. In the second step, you define integration guidelines that describe when which technology of this platform must be selected. The third step, conducting an interface assessment, is an ongoing activity that is usually performed by integration developers. Whenever a new integration scenario is needed, the interface assessment helps integration developers determine the right integration technologies.

The goal of the second phase is to define the scope of the relevant integration technologies that make up your organization's hybrid integration platform. In addition, you will have defined integration guidelines that can help integration developers to identify the most suitable integration technologies for a new integration requirement as part of an interface assessment.

As part of the second phase of the SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology, you create the following assets:

• Technology mapping that describes which integration technologies should be selected for each integration style and use case pattern that falls within the scope.
• List of integration guidelines defined for each integration technology used.
• Interface assessment using the integration assessment function of the SAP Integration Suite.

Design Your Hybrid Integration Platform

Technology mapping is described, which involves the selection and mapping of suitable technologies for integration. This phase supports the identification of the best technological solutions for the specific integration requirements.

The scoping results of the first phase of the SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology describe the functional requirements for your organization's future hybrid integration platform. You perform a technology mapping to relate these functional requirements to the appropriate integration technologies from SAP or other vendors based on their supported capabilities.

Often, a 1:1 mapping between integration use case patterns is not possible, but an n:m mapping is possible. Therefore, you need more than one integration technology for an integration style and many integration technologies in turn support more than one integration style.

A specific technology mapping is required for each integration style. These are discussed in detail below for the integration solution. Some of the underlying technologies have already been discussed in an earlier unit. Due to the constant improvement and renewal of SAP services, tools and products, the technology mapping must also be adapted.

Due to the great importance of data in the corporate environment, the SAP Data and Analytics Advisory Methodology was created. This is discussed in detail later.

SAP does not currently have any products of its own in the IOT environment. Instead, SAP offers a holistic approach with SAP Industry 4.0, which is why technology mapping is individual for each customer and depends on which products they use. This training deals with the remaining three integration styles here in the SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology in the following examples. These are:

• Process Integration
• User Integration
• Cross-Use Cases

The Process integration style is probably the most important integration style.

Often, not just one integration style with its characteristic use case patterns must be considered for an integration requirement. For this reason, far more complex technology mappings usually have to be created than those shown here in the examples.

When carrying out such a technology mapping, specific context factors must also be considered. These factors influence the decision-making process for integration technologies and are customer-specific. Examples of such customer-specific context factors are

This architecture domain determines the overarching IT strategy of an organization. It thus defines the boundary conditions for the selection of integration technologies.

If your company is pursuing a "cloud-first" strategy regarding its application landscape, the integration technology landscape must also follow this strategy.

If an organization has already invested in certain integration technologies, it often prefers to reuse existing investments for new integration requirements rather than investing in new integration technologies. In such cases, careful consideration must be given to whether this solution will also meet future requirements.

If a company prefers to outsource parts of its IT tasks, the same principle naturally applies to integration tasks. In this case, cloud-based integration technology is probably preferable to on-premise integration software.

In this table, you can define integration guidelines for the process integration style for your organization. You can add one integration guideline per row:

• In column 1, you can select the relevant integration technology/service for which you want to define the policy (for example SAP Integration Suite cloud integration capability).
• In column 2, you can define the recommendation level you want to assign to the integration technology/service in your organization (for example General recommendation).
• In column 3, you can further describe your integration guideline, optionally with reference to the corresponding use case patterns.
• In column 4, you can assign the integration technology/service to the relevant integration domains, for example, OnPremise2Cloud or Cloud2Cloud. Customize the decision template to your specific needs.

You can implement the associated Use Cases Patterns of the User Integration Style using the following solutions:

• Cloud Integration
• SAP Data Intelligence
• SAP Master Data Integration
• Integration Advisor Capability within SAP Integration Suite
• Open Connectors
• Trading Partner Management
• API Management
• SAP Event Mesh/SAP Advanced Event Mesh
• Integration Assessment
• SAP Process Orchestration
• SAP Application Interface Framework
• And others, depending on requirements.

The following is an overview of the Integration Suite Services on SAP BTP:

All of these technologies were discussed in advance. The following are examples of realization with the following technologies depending on the use case patterns.

• Perform a Technology Mapping
• SAP Activate Roadmap Viewer
• Interactive SAP Roadmap Explorer

It is shown how technology mappings for the process integration style are carried out with the SAP Integration Suite. This includes the selection and implementation of tools and technologies to support business processes.

SAP Integration Suite is the recommended SAP integration technology for process integration. It is an Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (EIPaaS) solution for cloud and hybrid integration scenarios. With SAP Integration Suite, you can discover, test, and consume digital content in the SAP Business Accelerator Hub. For example, predefined integration content packages, adapters, APIs, and events for the integration of SAP and third-party applications. SAP Integration Suite enables API-based integration of business applications and supports near real-time processing and transactional process integrity.

You can also use the SAP Application Interface Framework as a complementary technology: This interface management tool embedded in SAP S/4HANA serves as an add-on to the SAP Business Suite and enables business users to monitor interfaces, trigger alerts, and manage errors without IT support.

In a previous unit, the Integration Suite is discussed in detail. So, here is just an overview as a reminder.

The following is an example reference architecture for the Process Integration Style and A2A use case pattern with the technology mapping to the Integration Suite.

The following list outlines features that are specific to an A2A integration architecture:

• SAP Integration Suite
• Reference Architecture)

The technology mappings for the process integration style with SAP Process Orchestration are explained. This lesson describes the selection and implementation of the required technologies and tools.

A typical hybrid system landscape from an integration perspective. It includes on-premise SAP applications, cloud solutions from SAP and applications from SAP partners, third-party providers, business partners, and public authorities.

The following is a comparison of the Cloud Integration Capability versus SAP Process Orchestration.

• SAP Integration Suite
• SAP Process Orchestration

This unit describes the technology mappings for the integration of master data with SAP Master Data Integration. It covers the selection and implementation of the tools and technologies required to harmonize and manage master data.

The SAP Master Data Integration Service introduces a hub-and-spoke mechanism in the cloud for the exchange and synchronization of master data. This service enables out-of-the-box integration for SAP-to-SAP integration scenarios that exchange semantically harmonized data (based on the SAP One Domain Model). Customers and third-party applications can access this service via the cloud integration function of the SAP Integration Suite. Find out about the planned availability dates of the supported master data objects and scenarios in the SAP Road Map Explorer.

SAP applications can synchronize business objects with common attributes and use common semantics, reducing the effort of SAP-to-SAP integration for customers. New implementations can take advantage of SAP Master Data Integration for scenarios for which SAP has delivered customized domain models. The SAP Integration Suite supports both types of integration scenarios: for both noncustomized and customized APIs. The following is an example.

The following image is a sample reference architecture for the Process Integration Style and SAP Master Data Integration use case pattern with the technology mapping to the Integration Suite and Master Data Integration.

• Master Data Management
• Reference Architecture

The technology mappings for the SAP Application Interface Framework are explained. This lesson describes the selection and implementation of the required tools and technologies to support interfaces and integration scenarios.

The SAP Application Interface Framework complements SAP Integration Suite and SAP Process Orchestration with a deep integration capability into the application layer of SAP S/4HANA or SAP Business Suite. Among other things, it offers monitoring and error handling for business users.

An important question for integration architects is which patterns must be implemented in the integration layer and which patterns must be implemented in the application layer. This slide lists some typical patterns and their best practices. They can be extended/adapted to capture the best practices in your organization.

SAP Application Interface Framework

The technology mapping for the UI integration style is described. This unit covers the selection and implementation of the tools and technologies required to integrate user interfaces and applications.

The integration domains User2Cloud and User2OnPremise are relevant for the User Integration Pattern.

In this table, you can define integration guidelines for the user integration style for your company.

You can add one integration policy per row:

• In column 1, you can select the relevant integration technology/service for which you want to define the policy (for example, SAP Launchpad Service).
• In column 2, you can define the recommendation level you want to assign to the integration technology/service within your organization (for example, General Recommendation).
• In column 3, you can further describe your integration guideline, optionally with reference to the corresponding use case patterns.
• In column 4, you can assign the integration technology/service to the relevant integration domains, for example, User2Cloud or User2OnPremise.

You can implement the associated use cases patterns of the User Integration Style with the help of the following solutions:

The following is a sample reference architecture for the user integration style.

Central entry point across hybrid SAP landscapes:

SAP Build Work Zone allows you to easily build business sites that provide centralized access to business applications, processes and other important information on any device.

Support of third-party identity providers:

SAP Cloud Identity Services - Authentication (IAS) allows federation with third-party Identity Providers and SAP Cloud Identity Services - Provisioning (IPS) allows provisioning of user/role assignments from a third-party source.

Global User ID:

Globally unique user identifier defined by SAP Cloud Identity Services-Identity Authentication and used by SAP Build Work Zone.

SAP cloud and on-premise solutions integration:

Apart from integrating with various SAP Cloud and third-party solutions, SAP Build Work Zone Center can also be configured to work with SAP ECC, SAP S/4HANA, and SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition.

Different application clients:

Business content created in and/or integrated with SAP Build Work Zone can be accessed from the SAP Build Work Zone web experience. It can also be accessed from the native mobile client, specifically SAP Build Work Zone Advanced or SAP Mobile Start (only SAP Start and standard edition for now). Joule is another client using the SAP Build Work Zone navigation service to find business applications.

Native support of UI-Integration-Cards:

UI-Integration-Cards supports the efficient creation of content for SAP Build Work Zone for SAP lines of business solutions, partners, and customers users in a unified way. UI Cards can call APIs via Destinations, display data based on various card types and navigate to Business Applications.

Reference Architecture

The technology mappings for the cross-use case integration style are explained. This unit describes the selection and implementation of the tools and technologies required to support cross-use case integration scenarios.

Cross-use cases form a category for all use case patterns that complement one or more of the four central integration styles. For example, API-managed integration provides full lifecycle management for APIs, which can be used in user-centered or process-centered integration scenarios, for example.

Workflow management is another example of an overarching use case, as it can be used in process-centered, user-centered, and data-centered integration scenarios. This also includes all other integration-related use cases such as the management of business rules or stream analysis.

In this section, you find a decision table template that you can use to define integration guidelines for the cross-use case category in your organization, including the highlighted integration domains.

The SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology is open to including third-party integration technologies/services. The SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology template also contains examples for mapping cross-use cases to sample technologies/services from the SAP portfolio.

Separate technology mappings must be created for the following use case patterns. SAP Build Process Automation combines the functions of SAP Workflow Management and SAP Intelligent Robotic Process Automation with a powerful yet intuitive no-code development environment.

In this table, you can define integration guidelines for the Cross Use Cases category for your organization. You can add one integration guideline per row:

• In column 1, you can select the relevant integration technology/service for which you want to define the policy (for example, API Management).
• In column 2, you can define the recommendation level you want to assign to the integration technology/service within your organization (for example, General recommendation).
• In column 3, you can further describe your integration policy, optionally with reference to the corresponding use case patterns.
• In column 4, you can assign the integration technology/service to the relevant integration domains, for example, User2Cloud or Cloud2Cloud.

The technology mapping is highly customized, just like the use case patterns.

An architecture for API-managed integration can be characterized as follows:

Reference Architecure

This section describes how to define integration policies. These policies provide guidelines and standards for the design and implementation of integration solutions.

Once you have defined the scope of your hybrid integration platform using the technology mapping, you define one or more policies for each technology. These serve as guidelines for the integration developers and can help them to identify the appropriate technologies for a new integration requirement.

You can define integration guidelines for integration domains and integration styles. If necessary, you can also add applicable integration use case patterns. When defining such guidelines, you should also consider factors from the customer context (if any).

The SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology provides different levels of recommendation for the guidelines: These include general recommendations, reasonable alternatives, possible exceptions, and techniques that you want to avoid in your organization.

You can add one integration guideline per row:

• In the Integration technology/service column, you can select the relevant integration technology for which you want to define an integration policy (for example the cloud integration function of the SAP Integration Suite).
• In the Recommendation level column, you can define the recommendation level that you would like to assign to the integration technology in your company (for example, general recommendation).
• In the Description column, you can describe your integration guideline in more detail, optionally with reference to the relevant integration use cases.
• In the Integration domains column, you can assign the integration technology to the corresponding integration domains, for example, Cloud2On-Premise or Cloud2Cloud.

Define Your Integration Policies

This lesson describes the assessment of interfaces. It covers the analysis and optimization of interfaces to ensure efficient and reliable data and process integration.

A typical task of integration developers in implementation projects is to design integration scenarios between two business applications (see "?" in the following figure). Typically, a business scenario is divided into technical interfaces. Next, an integration developer must classify/evaluate the technical interface, whether it belongs to a process-centered, data-centered, analytics-centered, user-centered, or thing-centered integration style (see number 1 in the following figure), followed by the applicable integration use case pattern (see number 2 in the following figure).

The first phase of the SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology helps to determine the integration style and application pattern through specific characteristics. It supports integration developers with detailed guidance on choosing between different implementation options, such as between API management and integration layer, to make informed decisions.

Use the integration evaluation function in the SAP Integration Suite to evaluate interfaces. It provides a questionnaire-based approach that helps integration developers identify the most appropriate integration technology (or combination of integration technologies) for a given integration requirement. Integration Assessment contains recommendations for SAP integration technologies that can be customized to the customer context. These recommendations are regularly updated by SAP. In addition, the technology decisions made are documented. You can also define your own questionnaires to receive customized and/or detailed recommendations for your integration developers.

Assess Your Interfaces