An object-oriented approach for high availability of applications integration

The integration of networked applications, especially those requiring continuous access to shared information resources and databases, may be effected by scheduled unavailability of one or more of these applications. The scheduled unavailability usually occurs due to a number of reasons including application or data backup, software or hardware maintenance for the application's platform, executing periodic processes such as file reorganization or end-of-period processes, application maintenance, or application migration. This paper provides an object-oriented framework to increase the availability of integrated applications without fully replicating the application environment such as the application platforms, programs, and data. The proposed framework can be used to maintain the integration of networked applications during scheduled unavailability of one of the applications. In addition, the proposed framework enables highly available applications integrations while maintaining data and state consistency of the applications. This framework provides a cost-effective solution for increasing availability of networked applications integration.