SAP" Essentials Mastering SAP NetWeaver PI — Administration > Updated and expanded. up-to-date for SAP NetWeaver M1741 > Lear about configuration, authorizations, perfotmance optimization, monitoring and more > Explore service modelieg and publishing in the Enterprise Services Repository Marcus Banner , Heinzpeter Kiein Christian RiesenerMarcus Banner, Heinzpeter Klein, and Christian Riesener Mastering SAP NetWeaver PI - Administration im © Galileo Press Bonn * BostonIntroduction ‘The authors of this book at RealCore Consulting deal mainly with the topic of SAP NetWeaver Process Integration (PI). We have done so for a number of years and in many customer projects, both large and small. In this way, we have been able to build up a comprehensive body of specialized knowledge of real-world SAP NetWeaver PI issues. Our aim in this book is to share this knowledge with you in a compact and readable format, thus enabling you to enjoy complete control of your current and future SAP NetWeaver PI projects. SAP NetWeaver Process Integration 7.1 is based on an established architecture for implementing cross-system business processes, and is @ further development of the SAP Exchange Infrastructure (Xl) product. Like its successful predecessor, SAP NetWeaver PI is based on generally accepted standards so that external sys- tems can be integrated. Therefore, as before, the central concept is XML-based communication via HTTP. The focus of the new SAP NetWeaver PI release is on service-based application integration. This functional enhancement means that SAP NetWeaver PI 7.1 now plays a central role in supporting a service-oriented architecture (SOA) for business applications. In our daily work with SAP enterprise application integration (EAI) software, from SAP XI to SAP NetWeaver PI, we have found that the SAP NetWeaver PI platform is a significant advantage when it comes to optimizing and consolidating systems and loosely and flexibly interconnecting individual systems. We now regard it as a necessary component of every large system landscape. EAI providers were largely unaffected by SAP products up to 2004, but the new, stable SAP NetWeaver PI release seems to have finally put an end to that trend. For years, larger compa- nies with complex, mature SAP landscapes have been using the integration tool that is shipped with SAP products to integrate their systems with legacy systems and third-party systems. It will thus become increasingly difficult for the remain- ing EAI specialists in the market to compete with SAP NetWeaver PI. In recent years, SAP has further improved the stability and performance of its product in comparison to its competitors (by adding message packaging and local processing to the Advanced Adapter Engi Release 7.1, for example); in addition, SAP is