What Is Middleware? Definition, Architecture, and Best Practices

Middleware is defined as a layer of software that enables interaction and transmission of information between assorted applications and services that make up a complex system, providing a uniform user experience for clients. This article introduces you to middleware, its benefits, architecture, and the best practices for implementing and managing middleware in 2021.

What Is Middleware?

Middleware is a layer of software that enables interaction and transmission of information between assorted applications and services that make up a complex system, providing a uniform user experience for clients.

Today’s technology infrastructure is no more a standalone monolith with everything created for and deployed within a single, homogenous system. Technology is constantly evolving. The introduction of affordable and flexible cloud solutions has allowed businesses to evolve along with these new technologies. The rapid pace of innovation in cloud services gives companies employing them a huge competitive edge. Cloud adoption rates have soared at such a rapid pace in the last few years that IDC forecasts cloud spending to surpass $1 trillion in 2024.

Today’s consumers have also evolved with technology. They can access the services of a business from any device, ranging from a smartwatch to a sophisticated, high-configuration computer. Gartner predicts that more than 15 billion IoT devices will connect to enterprise infrastructure by 2029.

With access to such fast-moving and varied technology, most organizations have taken the ‘best of breed’ approach, meaning they pick the best available product or service for each individual business requirement and then find a way to make them all work together.

This is where middleware comes into the picture. Middleware is often described as the ‘glue’ that holds disparate systems–from edge computing to legacy infrastructure–together. The underlying programming language that each system is written in differs. This means that what one system understands may be incomprehensible to another. Middleware is akin to a translator who facilitates people from different parts of the world in communicating with one another. It provides a common ground of communication, allowing for ease of integration and interoperability.

The most common example of middleware in action is online shopping sites. When users shop, they browse through catalogs, get personalized recommendations, buy desired products, receive intimations about delivery status, and finally receive their products. This is all done with the help of middleware. Middleware connects the payment, accounting, production shipping, and notification systems, providing the shopper with a seamless user experience.

Types of middleware

The word ‘middleware’ is a broad term covering different types of middleware based on the various functionalities they provide. Some common types of middleware include:

1. Database middleware: This is the most common middleware that enables access and interaction with different database gateways.
2. Message-oriented middleware: It allows software applications across multiple operating systems and networking protocols to receive and send messages to each other.
3. Portals: Enterprises use portal middleware to facilitate interactions between client-facing systems and backend systems.
4. Enterprise application integration: This is a virtual layer that connects applications, data, processes, and services, irrespective of where they are located (cloud or on-premise) and what technology they are based on.
5. Transactional middleware: This type of middleware ensures that transactions between heterogeneous components go through all the necessary steps to reach completion.
6. Content middleware: This is used to abstract specific content that is similar to publish and subscribe models.
7. Remote procedure call (RPC) middleware: This allows one application to trigger a function in another application, whether they reside in the same network.
8. Device middleware: This type contains a specific set of capabilities to integrate with or build applications on specific devices. It is usually used to build mobile applications.
9. Object request broker (ORB) middleware: This broker handles requests from one application to another without letting the applications worry about where each is hosted.
10. Platform middleware: This kind of middleware allows business logic to be seated in any platform (OS or hardware), including web servers, application servers, hosting environments, or containers.
11. Application server middleware: This framework allows the creation, deployment, and maintenance of enterprise applications within a system.
12. Web middleware: This allows companies to integrate more easily with individual backend systems, just like the ecommerce example mentioned earlier.
13. Robotics middleware: This simplifies the integration of robotic hardware, firmware, and software, irrespective of manufacturer and location.
14. Cloud middleware: Cloud middleware sits between the operating systems behind the cloud and the cloud users, providing a remote platform to create, maintain, and communicate with the hosted applications and data.

Most businesses today use at least one of these types of middleware for their everyday operations. Large enterprises often require a combination of these to be financially, operationally, and technologically savvy.

See More: Cloud Data Management: 6 Considerations to Optimize Both Cost and Performance

Key Components of Middleware Architecture

Middleware solutions are usually software-only, with hardware components very rarely in the mix. The idea of middleware is to provide a virtual layer between various applications and the platform layer.

Most middleware follows the service-oriented architecture (SOA) design or is designed as a platform-as-a-service (PaaS) solution. SOA is an architectural style that tries to achieve loosely coupled software applications that interact among themselves to run as a whole. It is adopted by organizations trying to decouple all their business units, depending on integration and reusability for daily operations. SOA allows organizations to use existing application and system investments.

Every requirement of middleware points toward service-oriented architecture. This calls for individual, reusable components with their own topology. Each of these components must be able to interact with one another and other parts of the system. Apart from some basic components, each type of middleware needs a specific component. For example, a database middleware needs a database manager component.

Here are the key entities of each generic middleware component that is deployed across the system:

1. Middleware management console

A middleware management console is a single pane of glass that captures a bird’s eye view of the middleware architecture. This is especially important with enterprise application middleware, designed and implemented specifically with an organization’s business requirements in mind. This console provides an overview of events and activities, transactions, configuration management, and contract rules.

2. Common messaging framework

Middleware requires messaging services to communicate with services, applications, and platforms. Most of these frameworks rely on existing standards such as simple object access protocol (SOAP), representational state transfer (REST), or Javascript object notation (JSON). This framework needs to be carefully crafted, keeping in mind existing and predicted features. The communication itself happens through web services or application programming interfaces (APIs). APIs and web services use standards such as JSON to receive, send, and transfer information among the various layers.

3. Client interface (or application interface)

This is the interface that the middleware exposes to the client or application services. It allows applications to use predefined constructs to initiate a transaction involving the database, platform, or other backend servers. This component simplifies application development and deployment, one of the biggest benefits of using any middleware solution.

4. Middleware internal interface

This is the interface through which middleware instances communicate with each other to maintain the overall middleware structure. This component is required because various middleware instances must work together internally to appear as a single continuous layer. This is usually done using a special protocol defined by the middleware, which doesn’t overlap with other communication protocols.

5. Platform interface

Middleware needs to work across multiple platforms, irrespective of where it resides. This is the interface that is in direct contact with the backend servers. Every time a new platform is introduced, say by the cloud provider, this interface needs to be updated to support it. All other components of the middleware remain relatively unchanged.

6. Contract manager

A contract manager is the enforcer of various rules imposed by each application, data control, and server. All lines of communication and event initiation must follow these contracts to ensure transparency and minimize breakage. The contract manager makes sure business logic remains intact and is valid. All contract breaches are thrown back to the application, ensuring that the entire system does not go down because of them.

7. Session manager

The session manager ensures that all communication and transaction requests are valid and have not timed out. It establishes the connections, to begin with, allowing requests to flow back and forth. It also manages the session history for audit purposes. A session manager is one way of ensuring that the middleware is secure.

8. Database manager (if required)

The database manager controls connections to the database, changing addition, modification, and deletion of data based on the DB service used. Since this vastly varies on the type of database used (file-based or table-based), where it resides (internal data center or cloud), and how sensitive the data is, security is an important consideration for this component.

9. Runtime monitor

The runtime monitor keeps an eye on all contract validations, session history, requests, and responses. It is used by IT admin and security teams to detect and flag any anomalous activity. It also usually provides the base for reporting engines that churn out audit reports for compliance purposes.

Besides these, each type of middleware may require unique services to fulfill its requirements. A device middleware concentrates on the particular device it caters to. Each of these components is designed and built with a varying focus based on the type. Message-oriented middleware needs a robust common messaging framework, while the database manager is not required to function.

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Benefits for Enterprises

Large enterprises usually boast of complex operations and provide multiple services to clients from different industries. If an enterprise has acquired several smaller ventures, it might have pockets of infrastructure and operations that vary from its big picture. Even for smaller enterprises that are looking to expand, flexibility is the key to innovation. Middleware comes into play in each of these scenarios.

Middleware Benefits

The various benefits of middleware for enterprises are:

1. Ensures longevity of legacy investments

Legacy systems are tested, time-withstanding parts of the infrastructure that a company relies on. Most companies cannot afford to completely shake up their system and replace legacy ones with new technology. If an enterprise is planning to slowly phase out its legacy systems or add new features, middleware is the easiest, ideal, and most inexpensive option available.

2. Allows hassle-free scaling

Middleware allows enterprise-level scaling without disturbing the status quo. When application traffic spikes, enterprise middleware can distribute client requests across multiple servers. Middleware follows a component-based approach, making it easy to fit and run pieces as necessary. Most types of middleware work on a predetermined topography and strategy, thereby ensuring that scaling is a hassle-free process.

3. Cuts costs

Middleware cuts costs on multiple fronts. It facilitates cost-effective development and runs applications at scale. It also lowers integration costs when new updates and technologies come up. Maintenance costs are considerably reduced when teams do not have to deal with giant monoliths.

4. Fosters innovation

Middleware gives the illusion of plug-and-play whenever new technologies come in. This means that companies can churn out new, advanced features faster than before. It also makes development and deployment time-effective. This allows developers to try out new applications much quicker before releasing them into the market. Middleware makes the integration of new systems with existing infrastructure effortless.

5. Manages complexity

The main goal of any middleware is to disguise a distributed system and create the illusion of a homogenous system for developers and users alike. It provides developers with a uniform interface to support application development and integration. Middleware provides general-purpose services and common programming abstractions that prevent duplication.

6. Automates business processes

Middleware helps automate business processes by tying together various pieces of business operations with predetermined protocols and controls. It also helps developers and business leaders automate manual decisions by providing insights. Middleware simplifies and standardizes connectivity.

In today’s landscape, enterprises need middleware to survive. Introducing enterprise application middleware into existing infrastructure is a structured activity that needs to be planned with all the stakeholders involved. Most middleware, especially when connecting to SaaS and PaaS services, comes with the service itself. In fact, most organizations nowadays are already using middleware, whether they are aware of it or not.

Top 8 Best Practices for Implementing and Managing Middleware in 2021

Middleware makes integration between components seem simple because of how distributed the middleware architecture itself is. It keeps data flowing from one point to another. Thus, if any part of the middleware breaks down or isn’t updated, important parts of the system may also go down. Keeping this in mind, here are the top eight best practices for implementing and managing middleware.

Middleware Implementation Best Practices

1. Implement appropriate security measures

All sorts of communication run through middleware, making it an ideal target for cybercriminals. For every type of middleware used, appropriate security measures must be implemented. If a vendor provides the middleware, it must be a part of the service level agreement (SLA). For example, secure data passing through web servers cannot be compromised, or user data may be leaked. Message encryption is mandatory in the case of message-oriented middleware so that interception will not lead to a security threat. In the case of application servers, access and authentication systems must be in place.

2. Build a scaling strategy at the beginning

A scaling strategy typically consists of protocols that define parameters to be controlled while scaling in or scaling out. These rules must be customizable since middleware must be flexible enough to work with different applications and platforms. When using the cloud, these are provided by the vendors. The scaling strategy is tightly coupled with the internal architecture of each middleware component. This means that it must be done at the very beginning, keeping all stakeholders in the loop.

3. Don’t go back to default configuration with ‘out of the box’ middleware

When using middleware offered by a third party, it is necessary to remember that it is often configured for the ease of developers. This means that while it enables programmers to write and ship code as quickly as possible, it isn’t exactly production box-friendly. The production box is the environment directly accessed by users, clients, and dependent apps. As such, these configurations must be tweaked, keeping high availability, scalability, performance, and security in mind.

4. Ensure auditing & logging functions satisfy compliance requirements

All middleware used within the system must be audit-friendly. This means that all activities and events that go through the middleware must be logged. Comprehensive and readable reports must be retrievable based on these logs. This will ensure stress-free compliance audits.

5. Automate wherever possible

Middleware instances can be replicated with just the bare minimum changes based on the application it is working with. This makes well-built middleware software the perfect candidate for automation. Scripts need to be made for the creation, modification, and even rollback of middleware environments. By streamlining and automating the system, organizations can reduce human error, prevent duplication, and increase agility.

6. Provide placeholders for new advancements

Placeholders must be logically arranged for different types of applications, platforms, and data. These need to be grouped based on the parameters required for each one. This grouping informs developers which SaaS or cloud vendor each middleware is compatible with. This must also be done keeping future enhancements in mind.

7. Balance out completeness with complexity

While it is tempting to add middleware in every possible nook of the system, it would also mean an extra step that all communication or transaction must go through. This will considerably slow down the system. It is important to remember that completeness must not come at the cost of user complexity.

8. Constantly monitor the middleware architecture

Once the middleware architecture has been designed, it must be tested from end to end at scheduled intervals. What works for one environment may cause problems for another. While middleware doesn’t run applications by itself, it does act as a tunnel through which all operations run. Besides testing, all middleware must be monitored, preferably through a comprehensive console.

See More: Top 10 Challenges of Using Microservices for Managing Distributed Systems

Takeaway

The global middleware market size is projectedOpens a new window to reach $8,400 million in 2025 and for good reasons. While designing architecture from scratch, or even during a rehaul, it makes sense to design for middleware requirements as well. After all, coping with the latest in tech may be the difference between a thriving and graying enterprise.

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