What supporting infrastructure does ESA require?
This new world of service consumers, service providers, and model-driven development and composition requires a host of supporting elements, each of which plays a crucial role, as shown in Figure 1-14.
Model-driven, pattern-based development tools
Applications in ESA are based on a division of duties among the various layers of the ESA stack. This structure serves to contain the complexity within each layer and to simplify the interaction between them. Further simplification is provided through the use of patterns and model-driven development tools. Modeling is used at many different levels in ESA. UI and application modeling using tools such as SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer helps you to create UIs rapidly. In certain cases, SAP NetWeaver Visual Composer can simplify the task enough so that business analysts can configure applications or even build them themselves. Modeling tools are also available for high-level business processes (ARIS models from IDS Scheer), for backend business processes (SAP NetWeaver XI), and for configuring business processes (SAP Solution Manager). Various abstraction layers such as Web Dynpro provide more detailed representation of an abstract UI that modeling tools can use. Modeling simplifies development and application change and helps to support many platforms with less work.

Figure 1-14. Supporting elements ...