Multi-tenant data integration

A computer-implemented method for serving multiple tenants using shared business objects, comprising:

• providing a plurality of predefined business objects to be used by applications,
• wherein each of said business objects includes multiple data elements,
• wherein each of said business objects represents a generalization of enterprise data spread across multiple information systems in a standardized way, and
• wherein the generalization enables applications associated with different tenants to independently access different information systems when calling a same business object using the data elements corresponding to the different information systems;
• providing business object logic that represents a mapping of the multiple data elements of each business object to one or more information systems that support said business object;
• mapping logical operations assigned to each business object by the multiple tenants to physical operations that are specific to each information system;
• receiving, from an application associated with a tenant, a call for a particular business object;
• identifying a tenant configuration corresponding to the tenant associated with the application, the tenant configuration specifying an information system that is to be queried by the particular business object,
• wherein for each call for the particular business object by a given application associated with a given tenant, a corresponding tenant configuration is identified, the corresponding tenant configuration allowing a connection to be formed between the given application and at least one information system having the data necessary to ensure the particular business object is used appropriately by the given application for the given tenant;
• connecting a service offered by the information system with the application that requires use of the service;
• and
• enabling the application to utilize the service offered by the information system.

An apparatus for multi-tenant data integration, comprising:

• a processor configured to implement an enterprise application integration system (EAIS) for managing interactions between a plurality of applications and a plurality of information systems;
• wherein applications that access different information systems are accommodated simultaneously by the EAIS;
• and
• wherein each of said applications accesses only those information systems that are relevant to each application;
• said EAIS including a data integration framework that comprises:
• an integration application programming interface (API) that enables the plurality of applications to interact with said plurality of information systems using business objects,
• wherein each business object represents a generalization of data spread across multiple information systems in a standardized way,
• wherein the generalization enables applications associated with different tenants to independently access different information systems when calling a same business object, the same business object being associated with multiple sets of logical operations mapped to different physical operations specific to the different information systems, and
• wherein for each call for a given business object by a given application associated with a given tenant, a corresponding tenant configuration is identified, the corresponding tenant configuration allowing a connection to be formed between the given application and at least one information system having the data necessary to ensure the given business object is used appropriately by the given application for the given tenant;
• a business object manager for defining the business objects prior to implementation by the integration API and maintaining the business objects in a business object repository;
• a multi-tenancy manager that enables support of multiple applications associated with different end users by making said EAIS adjustable any of per end user, per application, and per information system;
• a quality of service manager that periodically tests functionality of the plurality of information systems to determine operational performance and stores results of such testing for later use;
• said quality of service manager implementing a proactive heartbeat mechanism that allows an application to determine a priori whether an information system is reachable and prompts said application to adapt its behavior to avoid using said information system in response to determining said information system is unreachable, wherein said adaptation includes communicating with an alternate information system to access data that is not accessible from said information system;
• and
• one or more data access handlers for collecting data from the plurality of information systems, which include different data types, and converting said data into a format suitable for said business objects.

A computer-implemented method for multi-tenant data integration, comprising:

• providing an enterprise application integration system (EAIS) for managing interactions between a plurality of applications and a plurality of information systems;
• providing a multi-tenancy manager containing tenant configurations for two or more tenants, wherein each tenant corresponds to one or more applications, and wherein the tenant configurations are used by the EAIS to support the two or more tenants;
• providing said one or more applications for each tenant with access to one or more information systems via an appropriate tenant configuration in said multi-tenancy manager;
• wherein applications that access different information systems are accommodated simultaneously by the EAIS, and
• wherein each of said applications accesses only those information systems that are relevant to each application;
• and
• providing a business object manager that allows new business objects to be created and added to a repository, and that allows existing business objects in the repository to be modified or deleted,
• wherein each business object represents a generalization of data spread across multiple information systems in a standardized way,
• wherein the generalization enables applications associated with different tenants to independently access different information systems when calling a same business object, the same business object being associated with multiple sets of logical operations mapped to different physical operations specific to the different information systems, and
• wherein for each call for a given business object by a given application associated with a given tenant, a corresponding tenant configuration is identified, the corresponding tenant configuration allowing a connection to be formed between the given application and at least one information system having the data necessary to ensure the given business object is used appropriately by the given application for the given tenant.

A computer-implemented method for serving multiple tenants using common business objects, comprising:

• providing an enterprise application integration system (EAIS) for managing interactions between a plurality of applications and a plurality of information systems, said EAIS:
• providing a business object repository for storing a plurality of business objects,
• wherein each business object represents a generalization of data spread across multiple information systems in a standardized way,
• wherein the generalization enables applications associated with different tenants to independently access different information systems when calling a same business object, the same business object being associated with multiple sets of logical operations mapped to different physical operations specific to the different information systems, and
• wherein for each call for a given business object by a given application associated with a given tenant, a corresponding tenant configuration is identified, the corresponding tenant configuration allowing a connection to be formed between the given application and at least one information system having the data necessary to ensure the given business object is used appropriately by the given application for the given tenant;
• and
• providing a data integration framework comprising:
• an integration application programming interface (API) that enables said applications to interact with said information systems using said business objects and logical operations assigned to said business objects;
• and
• a quality of service manager that periodically tests functionality of the plurality of information systems to determine operational performance and stores results of such testing for later use;
• said quality of service manager configured to implement a proactive heartbeat mechanism that allows an application to determine a priori whether an information system is reachable and prompts said application to adapt its behavior to avoid using said information system in response to determining said information system is unreachable, wherein said adaptation includes communicating with an alternate information system to access data that is not accessible from said information system.