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Technology and Integration Capability

Federated Integration HUB versus Point-to-Point Integration!

2024-05-30 Technology - LinkedIn Post

A Federated Integration Hub mathematically and logically beats a Point-to-Point capability and its economics every minute of every day.

The mathematical and logical benefits of a federated integration hub over point-to-point integration primarily involves reductions in the complexity and number of connections, which translates into more efficient and manageable integration systems in the long term - saving your IT Department from spending 70-80% of their support time just keeping the Lights On.

Number of Connections - With a Point-to-Point Integration method and using a system with ’n’ applications, each application needs to be directly connected to each other or other selected applications. The number of connections required is given by the formula for combinations

Connections = n(n-1)/2

This quadratic growth means that as the number of applications increases, the number of required connections increases rapidly; resulting in a complex and unmanageable network nightmare.

Whereas, in a Federated Integration Hub model, each application only needs to connect to the HUB once. Hence, the growth path is linear (1:1), more scalable, and more manageable.

Other Key Hub Benefits - These mathematical advantages translate into practical benefits (multipliers in fact) that enhance the scalability, manageability, sustainability, and efficiency of integration systems.

These benefits may include improving overall systems reliability and business effectiveness through

Simplified Complexity - Growth at a manageable and relatable effort as the overall number of systems grows.
Reduced Maintenance and Updates - Centralises updates to the HUB so that changes can be made just once in order to propagate changes to several applications. Even more so when you have deployed an Enterprise Unified NameSpace (UNS), Master Data (MDM) and a Management of Change (MOC) regimen with Business Rule and Workflow Engines.
Fault Tolerance and Error Recycle / Propagation - Isolating and fixing errors or discrepancies can occur through a single orchestration method - the complexity of debugging is directly proportional to the number of connections, which are vastly reduced via the HUB infrastructure.
Processing Performance Optimisation - Centralised Hub ‘Command and Control’ of the integration capability reduces timing and sequencing complexities, improves access controls and audibility, facilitates standardisation and completeness of data consistency, lowers technical debt, and helps identify sub-optimal performance.