Your journey to service orchestration from point to point integration

Service orchestration can be said as a method of integrating multiple applications together for automating a process. Orchestration services help in synchronizing data produced in the given time. Many enterprises opt for point to point integration as it is the path of minimum resistance. However, it often leads to complexity, which is very difficult to monitor, manage and maintain. Service orchestration, on the other hand, provides a practical approach towards integration that reduces the complexity of the applications. It helps in managing and monitoring all the integration process centrally.

Why disregard point to point integration

1. High complexity

Point to point integration requires a number of components and systems for efficient working. It is hardly evident in case of a small number of architectures, but when the number increases, it becomes a problem. It is a significant problem where enterprises rely on connectivity by increasing the number of partners as a good business plan. As the number of components increases, the increase in connections is exponential. For example, with every 10 components, there is a need for more than 45 connections. Each of these connections shows the loss of time and effort.

2. Points of failure

The integration components occupy a central place in the network and have the potential of becoming a big point of failure. Another reason why enterprises must avoid point to point integration is that the resulting architecture inflicts the reliability of the application. The simplicity of the system increases its reliability. The reliable system must be well-documented and redundant. In point to point integration, maintaining documentation and redundancy becomes increasingly difficult.

3. Emergency backup

The high number of connectors ruin the best efforts in eliminating security patches. The clustering of these connection creates load problems, adding security issues. A single security patch can cause a system to lose its compatibility with the connections, shutting down the entire network. As there are multiple connections to the single connector, it takes much time to fix it. Once the connection is fixed, problems become evident only after refactoring and retesting the process.

4. Low agility

As the connections between components in point to point integration are tightly coupled, in order to replace a component, every connector must be refactored to work with the new system. Every newly added component must be linked to all the other systems in an infrastructure using new connections. With so much to do, the process loses agility. The loss in agility causes significant issues in the development processes.

Service orchestration integrates two applications at once through cloud storage, providing a seamless workflow and productivity. (Source)

As the above pointers describe, point to point integration is a process that works efficiently only if the number of components is low. As the number of components increases, so does the number of connections, creating unnecessary complexities. Whereas in service orchestration, the complexity is reduced, so it is easy to maintain and monitor the complete process.

Why choose service orchestration

1. Reducing complexity

The main difference between point to point integration and service orchestration is the way of handling tasks and workflow. While the former focuses on individual components and tasks service, the latter combines components and handles them in the smooth workflow. In enterprises where there are multiple components in the development, project orchestration is a better choice.

2. Decreasing points of failure

Service orchestration increases the reliability of an application. As the components are stored securely in the cloud and the data management is in the form of flowcharts, it becomes easy to discover defects. Thus, it reduces the chances of failure in the application.

3. Provides emergency backup

The security patches can be discovered quickly and fixed in service orchestration. As there is no clustering of components, the security issues are easily discoverable. As the connections are independent, there is no need to fix all the connections if there is a problem in one.

4. Increases agility

The independent connections allow easy replacement of components. There is no requirement of refactoring all the components with the new component. Linking the new component is easy as it is required only to be connected with the central system. This helps in increasing the agility of the business process, providing a faster time to market.

If enterprises are using minimum connections and are not to lead the market, they should opt for point to point integration. However, if they are looking forward to facing the cutthroat competition in the market, they need to use orchestration services in their processes.