Having referenced this book recently to refresh on a pattern used in a client engagement. We thought it worthy of a post mention. Here goes…

When Gregor Hohpe & Bobby Woolfe sat down in September 2003 to write the introduction to their book, Enterprise Integration Patterns, they may have had a notion that some of the ideas it contained were durable. Not having spoken to them we can only speculate. What we can testify to, some 22 years later, is the lasting impact on professionals responsible for designing and putting together asynchronous messaging solutions that countless EAI (Enterprise Application Integration) depend upon. 

Yes, EIP is a pre-cloud book. It was authored when everything was on-premises. As such its bound to be lacking in guidance on some of the newer cloud-based services and tools we have our disposal today. Do not let that put you off. Also, the books epoch does lead to mention of some older technologies like JMS/BizTalk/etc. that are either getting old in the tooth or have long since be merged or deprecated. However, the authors were careful right from the outset to set out that it was not their intent to document a particular technology or product. Rather the book focus is on the patterns that pertain to EAI. There in may lie the trick to this book’s longevity. 

As we write in 2025, the underlying patterns behind the business of designing actual asynchronous messaging-based solutions that are shared in the book have proven to remain highly relevant and dare we say relatively timeless. Given the worlds march to cloud is inherently more asynchronous then maybe that’s not a surprise. Yes, “timeless” may be a fair adjective when we ponder it relative to the technology world it emerged. A world where many ideas don’t last minutes and software older than 6 years is deemed as legacy! See GoldenSaaS statement that the “the average lifespan of a software application is typically 6 to 8 years.“.

We’d be fascinated to hear from others who remember or have recently revisited this book. Is the content assumed knowledge for you? Was the visit just nostalgic? Or did you have specific purpose for refreshing on a shared idea of concept from within the pages?

On behalf of asynchronous solution architects everywhere, DMS pass on our thanks and appreciation to Gregor Hohpe and Bobby Woolfe. Kudos gentlemen and thank you!