Solution architecture

With the Product Information Management for Retailers solution, internal and external collaborative processes are linked throughout the operations of an enterprise. It provides the platform, connectors, and tools to integrate applications, data models, and process workflows, creating a more efficient, uniform, and responsive business environment, both within the enterprise and between the enterprise and its trading partners. The architecture is based on layers of functionality listed below in order from top-most layer to bottom-most layer:
Solution Studio layer
This top-most layer contains tools such as the System Manager, Business Object Designer, Process Designer, Map Designer, and Relationship Designer.
Industry Libraries layer
This layer contains the IBM® WebSphere® Business Integration Collaborations for Product Information Management and IBM WebSphere Business Integration Collaborations for Retail Message Manager.
Runtime Solutions layer
Controlled within this layer are B2B integration, user experience integration, process choreography, application and information integration, and the interaction of logical components in any particular solution deployment (through the integration hub).
Common Solution and Integration Services layer
Controlled within this layer are the directory, security, messaging, audit log, exception, process management, portal, and gateway.
WebSphere Platform layer
This layer holds WebSphere Application Server, WebSphere MQ, the database, and WebSphere MQ Workflow.
Infrastructure layer
This layer's information is hosted in data centers (network, operating system, hardware).

The Solution Studio provides a common build environment for applications and solutions. The artifacts that make up the Product Information Management for Retailers solution within the Industry Libraries layer consist of collaboration templates, IBM WebSphere application adapters, message sets, and business objects. The collaboration templates are built on Runtime Solutions layer components, including the integration hub, in any particular solution deployment. In this architecture, the ICI layer (contained within Common Solution and Integration Services) provides the connection between the business process definitions, located within the Runtime Solutions layer, and the WebSphere platform and existing infrastructure, which hold the business functions operating on legacy systems.

ICI executes the state transitions, required by Process Integration (contained within the Runtime Solutions layer) to traverse the business processes that drive the integration architecture, in a way that allows these business processes to be reused. The primary goal of ICI is to provide loose coupling of the business functions to the business process so that either or both can be independently enhanced over time.

To achieve this goal, ICI must provide message routing and transformation services against a granular set of messages in the particular message model utilized between PI and ICI. This approach ensures that the interactions that leverage the coupling of the functions and the navigation are a normalized implementation of the message vocabulary, and as such, are independent of the systems providing the functions. By taking this approach, systems can be integrated without needing to be continually adjusted as other aspects of the topology are changed. This approach also simplifies the architecture because it positions all process choreography within the PI layer, so that it reflects all aspects of the business process.

Process integration requirements involving only automated processing are addressed using IBM integration technology in the form of layered collaboration templates, which are discussed in detail in the section Collaboration templates.

Parent topic: Architecture