Extend your existing technology investments-and increase your organization's agility-by integrating disparate applications and data into solutions that work together to meet ever-evolving business needs. This guide defines application integration and describes the requirements, capabilities, and best practices to help you achieve success. It is written for technical decision makers and architects looking for practical recommendations on how to orchestrate an application integration project that puts heterogeneous and legacy applications to work-helping to maximize ROI and organizational responsiveness. PATTERNS & PRACTICES guides are reviewed and approved by Microsoft engineering teams, consultants, partners, and customers-delivering accurate, real-world information that's been technically validated and tested.