When and when not use SAP PROCESS INTEGRATION in a SOA enviroment

[Cristian]

Hi experts.

Im a SAP PI consaltant and now we are working with 7.3 realese. I've just read this article:

[http://www.nagarro.com/blog/architectural-principles-for-usage-of-sap-pi-in-a-soa-environment/|http://www.nagarro.com/blog/architectural-principles-for-usage-of-sap-pi-in-a-soa-environment/]

And I'd to like to know your opinion about when use SAP PI and when not use it in a SOA ENVIROMENT.

For instance, Is it worth mediate with SAP PI when a enterprise service is published in a SAP BACKEND when the consumer is a SOA system or is always better mediate although any transformation is necessary?

Thanks a lot.

Regards.

Edited by: UO4396 on Feb 24, 2012 8:48 PM

Edited by: UO4396 on Feb 24, 2012 8:48 PM

[Former Member]

Hi,

I think there's a couple of key questions you still have to ask yourself before deciding when or when not to use SAP PI in a SOA environment...

There are also other factors to consider like your Enterprise Architecture view of your landscape. Also, do you really want to tight-couple (P2P without SAP PI) your services in a SOA landscape?

The general view is that in any SOA landscape you would require ESB (enterprise service bus capabilities) to enable loose coupling of your SOA environment. This enables a greater degree of felxibility for organisations to transform/adapt to changing market/technology solution conditions.

So while SAP PI is not a necessity and the consumer system is SOA-enabled, that may work okay for the current requirements but won't necessarily work for future requirements.

The pros of using SAP PI far outweigh the cons, so you can ask yourself many questions while considering this e.g.:

- What happens if you need to enhance your service? Can you manage it easily in an environment without SAP PI?

- What happens when the need arises to version step your services and need different versions to co-exist in your SOA landscape for different consumers?

- What happens when you suddenly have a consumer that isn't SOA-enabled?

- What happens when you phase out (replace) the current consumer?

- What happens when you start needing transformations?

These are just some questions to consider...

Regards, Trevor