How can an application integration framework help my organization?

A data integration framework ensures the correct connection of systems and applications. Our Frank!Framework is an example of an Open Source framework that consists of ready-to-use building blocks and a management module. In this article we compare our framework with building connections yourself versus a fixed integration solution to give you an idea of how an application integration framework can support your organization.

BUILD YOUR OWN INTEGRATION

The great advantage of building links between different systems yourself is that you can integrate any application: it offers you 100% flexibility. What you should keep in mind is that with an improvement you have to ensure that existing links are also upgraded. You must modify code for that.

Programmers are very strong on the technical aspect of building, but at the same time can be expensive employees. Moreover, they have less functional knowledge than integration specialists. In short, building your own offers you a lot of flexibility, but can be very expensive and you have to adjust every link during an upgrade.

FIXED INTEGRATION SOLUTION

The opposite of building connections yourself is using a fixed integration solution: not very flexible and often Closed Source. In practice, you quickly run into a vendor lock-in. if you want to make an adjustment or add a component to the rigid framework, you have to pay for it. Because it is a Closed Source solution, you cannot build it yourself. At a certain point, your business processes are ‘caught’ in a web of solutions from one supplier, and you don’t just switch one, two, three to another supplier.

Do you have a complex integration puzzle for us?

APPLICATION INTEGRATION WITH THE FRANK!FRAMEWORK

Our framework is Open Source, which means that every developer can get started with our Frank!Framework. Every new component is available to every user. In our framework, the technical layer is decoupled from the functional layer. You can therefore easily link systems and applications with our framework, but you can easily disconnect too, without disastrous consequences for your information architecture.

After an upgrade, 99.99% of the solution will continue to work, including the ‘old’ building blocks. Suppose you built a functional flow 20 years ago; it still works on today’s newest framework. So, there are no large-scale migrations with the Frank!Framework or the purchase of (new)licenses.

Because the technology is separate from the functionality, someone with functional knowledge can simply make a link themselves. So, you don’t need a programmer for that. Moreover, the Frank!Framework was created from the perspective of the development, functional and management side. Every functionality in our framework exists because there was a demand for it.

CHOOSE A FLEXIBLE DATA INTEGRATION FRAMEWORK

The Frank!Framework is somewhere between the rigid integration solution and the 100% flexible, but expensive self-build. You can use more than 100 building blocks, which you can configure and link without programming. Or you can of course develop some Java components yourself. Debugging, testing tooling and the administration console: our framework is all-in-one, yet very flexible. Do you have complex integration puzzle for us? Request a Proof of Concept: we are happy to solve it for you!