Release It!, 2nd Edition

Decoupling Middleware

Middleware is a graceless name for tools that inhabit a singularly messy space—integrating systems that were never meant to work together. Rebranded as enterprise application integration, middleware became a hot property for a few years in the early 2000s and then faded back into its shadowy, thankless realm. Middleware occupies the essential interstices between enterprise systems. It is the connective tissue that bridges gaps between different islands of automation. (How’s that for a mixed metaphor?)

Often described as “plumbing”—with all the related connotations—middleware will always remain inherently messy, since it must work with different business processes, different technologies, and even different definitions ...