A History of Application and Service Integration

Businesses, organisations and governments use applications and computer services to deliver content and business services to their customers and partners. To do this effectively they need to be able to communicate with other departments, employees and enterprises.


This communication and the sharing of information between them is known as application and service integration and has slowly transformed throughout the years alongside technological advances such as the personal computer, mobile devices and the internet.


The following pages take a look at how integration techniques, terminology, methods and products have evolved over time, taking islands of data and turning them into webs of communication. 


Specifically, the history of application and service integration will be discussed focusing around the products that do and have existed - typically known as middleware - to enhance solutions or resolve issues with integration.


The book looks specifically at historical events that have led to our current integration capabilities. There is no deep dive into specific functionalities or capabilities of individual products but instead the overall type of product i.e. messaging services.