Enterprise Integration is difficult to implement, since the environments around it are constantly changing. Some tools and frameworks can help the implementation, but they might not have any standardized way of creating the integration. Enterprise Integration Patterns will help with this by giving a set of patterns as guidelines on how the integration should work. This thesis examines what these patterns are and how exactly they impact the integration process. To get some concrete results, one integration solution will be improved by using a tool that is based on EIPs.
The thesis is divided into three parts. The first part examines the theory behind Enterprise Integration. It explains the evolution of Enterprise Integration and introduces some integration frameworks that can help the implementation. The second part revolves around Valtimo, the application that will receive the improved integration solution. In it, the criteria for choosing the best tool are examined. From the criteria, seven are chosen as the most relevant for Valtimo, and all the tools are evaluated against these weighed criteria. The final part explains how the actual new implementation was made with the chosen tool.
The study indicates that Enterprise Integration Patterns can help the integration by guaranteeing some features to be available in a framework, and bringing some best practices to the implementation. Still, a lot is dependant on how the actual integration tool is implemented. To choose the right tool, some set of criteria should be always applied. The criteria should be chosen so that there are only relevant ones to the current case. Comparing the new solution in Valtimo to the old one, some noticeable differences were realized. The new solution has a richer set of features, more active community with the tool and thus longer lifespan, and the tool is being kept up to date more frequently
