In order to understand what middleware management is, it’s best to start by defining what, exactly, middleware is. The term “middleware” refers to software that acts as the “nervous system” of an enterprise’s application infrastructure. It is the “backbone“ that interconnects Java and.NET (News - Alert) applications, those using Web Services, databases and mainframes running CICS. It is even used to route between multiple flavors of middleware such as interconnecting applications using MQ with those using TIBCO by leveraging something like DataPower. In effect, it is the “plumbing” hidden in the walls that connects your applications to one another.
Middleware performs a number of important functions. It helps with client/server connectivity, platform transparency, network transparency and isolation, application and tool support, language support and RDBMS support. Additionally, middleware enables other, more advanced functions, like single system login, enhanced security, location transparency, database-oriented services, application-oriented services, management, and interaction with other network services.
Mostly invisible to the average user, middleware provides a standard way of doing things, like the server-side single login provided by Microsoft (News - Alert) SQL Server. Middleware components are built on established standards, specifically libraries of functions that your programs can call through application performance interfaces. The middleware also serves to tie together parts of a complex system. It works behind the scenes to connect different applications and even different computers to ensure a seamless experience for a user. Even if these systems were built by different companies or organizations, the middleware will serve to bridge the gaps. For example, middleware can use service oriented architecture based on an enterprise system bus to provide server, messaging and APIs that function like a hardware bus. All of these functions of middleware work to take care of problems, allowing businesses to focus on their core competencies rather than computing issues. This is especially true if these companies leverage middleware management.
Middleware management solutions should support all software and appliance-based middleware technology as most large enterprises often due to M&A activity have multiple flavors of middleware. This includesthe WebSphere MQ family of products, WebSphere DataPower, WebSphere Message Broker, TIBCO EMS and RV, Solace and more. Solutions for these products should encompass monitoring messages, queues and channels as well as message tracking. Message (or transaction) tracking follows a flow of messages from an application through the middleware messaging layer to another application. This provides an application-centric view of middleware.
It is very important for businesses to have the most effective solutions to manage and monitor middleware, because when your middleware is down, your business is down. Middleware management solutions can provide ways to support permissions, user access and re-certification, enable users to create powerful rules to monitor the environment without the need for support staff and provide a unified, end-to-end approach to monitoring.
Edited by Rich Steeves