7 ways to scare EAI experts (part I)

Enterprise Application Integration. Sometimes, you just can’t help associating it with a absurdist theatre play. Two EAI experts are sitting on a bench, somewhere in a deserted place. They are awaiting the arrival of someone named Godot. But Godot never shows up and the EAI experts seem to have forgotten why they are waiting in the first place. At the end, nothing has happened and nothing has changed. One expert says to the other “shall we go?“ and the other one responds “yes, let’s go”.

Nobody moves.

It used to be an art, or at least a scarce design skill, integrating all these different, heterogeneous systems, let alone knowing the ins and outs of an abundance of EAI tools and platforms. Professionals used the title ‘EAI Expert’ with pride on their business cards and established a firm street credibility among IT peers. But every now and then, some of them seem to think that their very mission in life has become integration, forgetting about both the original business rationale and the evolution of technology, systems and strategy.

They desperately need to unfreeze. And in order to achieve that, they may need to be scared a bit first. Let me introduce you to 7 opening lines to achieve that, based on many engagements with EAI experts (and suppliers of EAI tools for that matter) across many different organizations:

1. Integrating is bad
2. It’s all Open Source now
3. You forgot about the data
4. It comes with SAP
5. Just put it in the server rack
6. Amazon does it for you
7. Only vertical matters

There is sort of an ascending order to it, possibly increasing the shock effect. It all depends on how long one is already waiting for Godot. Let’s see if the first three already work for you:

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