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    Host Integration Server
    • 22 Feb 2019
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    Contents

    Host Integration Server

    • Updated on 22 Feb 2019
    • 3 Minutes to read
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    Article Summary

    What is it?

    Host Integration Server is about integration between existing IBM host systems and Microsoft technologies. HIS acts as a gateway between the Microsoft server ecosystem and the IBM ecosystem but provides some features at different levels to support different integration scenarios.

    There is a page in the documentation for HIS which gives a really good high level overview of HIS. Click Here

    Features

    HIS contains features which cover the following areas:

    • Network Integration
    • Data Integration
    • Application Integration
    • Message Integration

    Each of these areas have components designed to cover different scenarios of integration with IBM products. There is more details of the features in the HIS documentation – Click Here

    From an integration architecture perspective data, application and message integration are the most likely scenarios you will be interested in.

    Strengths

    The big strength for HIS is that if you are doing integration between Microsoft and IBM then HIS can provide an infrastructure which can allow you to work with a wide range of integration scenarios. This flexibility at a reasonable cost is a good strength for this product.

    On the Microsoft stack there is not really any alternative to HIS and it is quite mature now being in its 6th + major release.

    Dependencies

    HIS does not have a dependency on BizTalk from a technical perspective although sometimes people believe this is the case.

    Costs

    HIS is a product which is included in a bundle with the BizTalk product. If you buy a BizTalk license then you also get a license for HIS.

    There is no technical dependancy between the products so you can simply buy a BizTalk license and use HIS in stand alone without installing BizTalk anywhere. Some customers have apparently saved money by buying BizTalk branch edition which was cheaper than HIS used to be. The bundle together should give you capability to implement a wide range of scenarios.

    The following technologies are similar or have a relationship with ——–

    WCF

    WCF is able to use various support for HIS to use WCF channels which support aspects of IBM integration such as Websphere MQ

    BizTalk

    BizTalk is able to use aspects of HIS to implement the WebSphere MQ adapter

    Logic Apps

    Logic Apps comes with some connectors which can support some of the scenarios you may choose to use HIS for. More information on these connectors are available Click Here

    Learn More

    The following links are some recommended reading on this technology:

    • HIS on Channel 9 - Click Here
    • This article discusses some of the licensing relationship between BizTalk and HIS – Click Here

    Product Recommendation

    Existing Users

    Recommendation
    If you are an existing HIS user with a significant investment in it then we feel you are in a safe place to continue that investment. You will be aligned to the BizTalk product lifecycle and have many years of support available. This area is mature and stable and we cant see Microsoft investing heavily in this area so you may be restricted by lack of new features.

    New Users

    Recommendation
    If you are considering starting to use HIS or are a small user of it then we feel that it would be worth considering the Enterprise connectors in Logic Apps to see if you can achieve the things you need to do. We expect that this could make your solution simpler and you will also benefit from being in an area where Microsoft are investing heavily and should see benefits of that investment.

    Hybrid Option

    Recommendation
    If you are an existing user but want to consider using both HIS and Logic App connectors then we feel you would be sensible to consider this option. We expect that you will have HIS as a reliable safe fall back, but that Logic Apps could offer you some agility in an area where agility is typically difficult

    Learn More

    Integrate Videos

    BizTalk360--INTEGRATE-2018--5. Paul Larsen & Valerie Robb - Hybrid integration with Legacy Systems

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