What is an Enterprise Service Bus?
If you?ve been looking for all-in-one software solutions to streamline operations at your school, you might have encountered the term ?Enterprise Service Bus? (or ?ESB?).
We know that there are a lot of acronyms and potentially confusing terms out there when it comes to technology, and ESB is one of them. So, we thought we?d walk you through what exactly an Enterprise Service Bus is, what purpose it serves, and how it can make a huge difference for your college or university.
The definition of an Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)
In the simplest terms, an Enterprise Service Bus is an architecture that allows many different applications to run together as a part of one infrastructure. It integrates these different applications, manages the access to them, and presents them to the user in a single interface. An ESB is typically part of an integration suite and can offer many valuable tools that other frameworks do not.
To make this abstract concept a bit easier to understand, think about the word ?bus? for a second. In the tech world, it refers to a transmission path where signals are dropped off and picked up ? kind of like an actual bus! So, you can think of the Enterprise Service Bus as a ?bus? through which all of your institution’s information passes.
The ESB?s Purpose in the N2N Integration Cloud (NIC)
An ESB is a core component of the N2N Integration Cloud (NIC) because it serves as the architecture that allows the NIC to integrate all of a school?s applications in one central hub. It actually provides the interface that allows you to connect your institution’s applications together ? parametrizable with no coding by you required!
Why This Matters For Your College or University
While you can probably immediately think of some benefits of the application integration offered by the NIC, there are a few that might not be so obvious. Here are some ways the NIC can help your college:
- It allows your students to use their mobile phones to check grades, view financial aid status, and more (NIC for Mobile).
- It cuts down on manual labor needs by eliminating tedious data entry tasks.
- It helps keep costs low (the NIC is cloud-based and does not require you to purchase extra hardware).
- It provides you with the ability to analyze data more effectively (melding data from multiple applications). That way, you have the resources you need to make good business decisions and give each student a personalized educational experience.
The NIC was specifically designed with higher education in mind, so you can feel confident knowing that it can help you achieve your goals. It?s also quick to deploy, so you can start benefitting from its functionality right away.
So, there you have it ? an explanation of what an Enterprise Service Bus is and why it is an important part of the NIC. If you have questions or are interested in learning more about how the NIC can help your college or university, we?d love to chat ? contact us today!
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