<P> The various systems that need to be linked together may reside on different operating systems, use different database solutions or computer languages, or different date and time formats, or may be legacy systems that are no longer supported by the vendor who originally created them . In some cases, such systems are dubbed "stovepipe systems" because they consist of components that have been jammed together in a way that makes it very hard to modify them in any way . </P> <P> If integration is applied without following a structured EAI approach, point - to - point connections grow across an organization . Dependencies are added on an impromptu basis, resulting in a complex structure that is difficult to maintain . This is commonly referred to as spaghetti, an allusion to the programming equivalent of spaghetti code . For example: </P> <P> The number of connections needed to have fully meshed point - to - point connections, with n (\ displaystyle n) points, is given by (n 2) = n (n − 1) 2 (\ displaystyle (\ tbinom (n) (2)) = (\ frac (n (n - 1)) (2))) (see binomial coefficient). Thus, for ten applications to be fully integrated point - to - point, 10 × 9 2 (\ displaystyle (\ frac (10 \ times 9) (2))), or 45 point - to - point connections are needed . </P> <P> However the number of connections within organizations does not grow according to the square of the number points . In general, the number of connections to any point is independent of the number of other points in an organization . (Thought experiment: if an additional point is added to your organization, are you aware of it? Does it increase the number of connections other unrelated points have?) There are a small number of "collection" points for which this does not apply, but these do not require EAI patterns to manage . </P>

When are xml adapters and connectors used in an enterprise