In the second phase, Design your Hybrid Integration Platform, the previously defined integration styles and use case patterns have to be mapped to the corresponding integration technologies. Here, also, an open approach is used to map the integration technologies from SAP or other vendors. At this phase, you can also derive integration guidelines for your developers, because you have determined through the mapping which integration technology will be applied to specific use case patterns. The mapping of the integration technology is highly dependent on the customer context. Every customer differs from another, and because of this, the overall strategy, in terms of enterprise architecture, can also differ. While one company may take a cloud-first or cloud-only approach and thus be quite likely to adopt a cloud-based integration strategy that supports the cloud technologies, there are other companies that have already invested in the operation of existing integration technologies and competencies. Based on this, it is likely that these companies will continue to rely on these integration technologies. Therefore, the "one-size-fits-all-approach" cannot be applied here either. Last but not least, it is essential to perform an interface assessment because whenever a new integration scenario is needed, the interface assessment helps integration developers determine the right integration technology.
Discover the Need of Integration Technology Mapping
The overview shows what the mapping path can look like to assign the respective integration styles and use case patterns to the corresponding integration technology categories. There is no one-to-one mapping, that is, a use case pattern may sometimes require more than one integration technology. This in turn means that an integration technology can support multiple integration use cases.
The mapping to integration technologies / services highly depends on your specific customer context. This figure shows some sample factors that might need to be evaluated or considered in your organization. The listed factors can be adapted/extended to your specific needs.
In the following example, you can see a sample technology mapping for the process integration style. For more information, see Perform a Technology Mapping | SAP Help Portal
By looking at process integration, you will quickly note that SAP Integration Suite is the recommended SAP integration technology. For more information about SAP Integration Suite, see here: SAP Integration Suite.
SAP Integration Suite includes the following capabilities:
Capabilities of the SAP Integration Suite
| Capability | Description |
|---|---|
| Cloud Integration | Integrate SAP and non-SAP, cloud, and on-premise applications and process messages in real-time scenarios spanning different companies, organizations, or departments within one organization. |
| API Management | Get access to simple, scalable, and secure digital assets through application programming interfaces (APIs) and consume these. |
| Open Connectors | Build seamless integrations with over 160 non-SAP applications using prebuilt connectors. |
| Integration Advisor | Accelerate the development of business-oriented interfaces and mappings, generate runtime artifacts quickly, and significantly reduce efforts. |
| Trading Partner Management | Manage B2B relationships with multiple trading partners through this easy-to-use user interface that helps simplify the B2B communication between trading partners. |
| Integration Assessment | Define and execute an enterprise integration strategy based on the SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology. |
| Migration Assessment | Assess your existing integration scenarios from SAP Process Orchestration tomigrate them to SAP Integration Suite. |
The main characteristics of SAP Integration Suite are as follows:
- Support of A2A, Master Data, B2B, B2G integration use cases.
- Enables API-based integration and near real-time processing.
- Ensures transactional process integrity.
Define Integration Policies
After defining the scope of your hybrid integration platform, conducting the technology mapping, you should define one or more guidelines for each technology. They lead your integration developers and help them identify suitable technologies for the new integration requirements.
You can also determine integration guidelines for integration domains and integration styles, and if needed, you can add applicable integration use case patterns.
When defining such guidelines, you should also consider customer context factors, if applicable.
SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology already provides different levels of recommendations for the guidelines. These include general recommendations, reasonable alternatives, possible exceptions, and techniques you want to avoid in your organization:
Levels of Recommendations for the Guidelines in SAP Integration Solution Advisory Methodology
| Recommendation Degree of an Integration Policy | Description |
|---|---|
| General recommendation | Assign this degree to your default recommendation for a specific integration style and/or use case pattern. By doing so, you can standardize your integration approach companywide. |
| Reasonable alternative | Assign this degree to possible alternatives that are valid for specific integration scenarios. By doing so, you can also define integration recommendations on a more detailed level than on integration styles and/or use case patterns. |
| Possible exception | Assign this degree to possible exceptions for your general recommendations that you would like to allow for restricted use cases. By doing so, you can better govern and document deviations. |
| To be avoided | Assign this degree to explicitly cover integration techniques/approaches that you would not like to be further used for new integration scenarios. By doing so, you can gradually phase out some nonstrategic integration technologies in your organization. |
