6 Application Integration Problems You’ll Encounter When Implementing an Enterprise Service Bus

Perhaps you’ve taken a bus to commute to work. Maybe you’ve gone on a bus trip for a weekend vacation. If you have used buses for transportation, you’ve likely experienced a breakdown, traffic jam, or missed connection at some point in time. It’s frustrating, but it happens. The same is true when you board an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB). 

Ideally, an Enterprise Service Bus moves data from application to application, whenever and wherever it is needed to facilitate better transactions and greater resilience. The reality can be quite different. It can present numerous technical as well as infrastructural challenges that can make organizations difficult to do business with their partner network. Six of the most common ESB application integration problems while implementing an enterprise service bus are: 

1. The bus is not easy to access. Your applications can’t seem to get the data they need. And if you change any part of your system, it is “game over.”
2. The bus takes too long to get to your stop. You wanted an ESB to increase efficiency and productivity. Instead, data transactions are crawling.
3. The bus skips your stop. Your ESB bypasses important steps in a business process, with dire results.
4. The bus cannot be converted into a hybrid. Your business has one foot in the cloud but your bus is gripping the asphalt. 
5. The bus is stuck in a rut. Your users want options for data delivery, report formatting, document type, etc. But your ESB only knows how to do things a single way. This can greatly impact user experiences and time-to-value
6. The bus sputters and fails to start. You just can’t get the darn bus up and running!

If you have experienced one or more of these ESB application integration problems — or if you want to avoid ever pulling your hair out over them and future proof your approach to business integration — read our full report on Application Integration Problems: 6 Hazards You'll Encounter When Traveling On An Enterprise Service Bus. We’ll put you back in the driver’s seat of your Enterprise Service Bus!