What is Middleware (Simplified to the max)🧐?
Have you ever been scrolling through tech forums, LinkedIn, or just getting ready for your career in tech, and noticed a certain word that gets you thinking… Me too! Middleware, what is it and what does it do?
Table of contents:
- What is Middleware 🕵♂️
- How does it even work ⚙️
- There are different types of middleware 🤯
- Is Middleware still relevant 🙄
What is Middleware 🕵♂️
Middleware is a type of software that acts as a glue, enabling services to integrate with one another when a native integration doesn’t exist. The reason it is referred to as glue to due to it connecting two things that wouldn’t be able to communicate without this.
Offering capabilities outside of what the OS can provide such as “data Management, Application Services, Messaging, Authentication, and API management” — RedHat, which are all commonly handled by middleware.
Imagine you are having a conversation with someone of a different language, I wouldn’t be able to speak with them/give them instructions and vice versa. And now picture a translator in between us, that is middleware, allowing us to communicate and give each other instructions.
How does it even work ⚙️
When developers are creating applications they would need to find a way to Integrate the apps into relevant components such as devices, the cloud, data sources, and other different computer resources. To do this they have to create custom Integrations to work with the tech they want (Which costs a lot of time and resources over yearly periods)
On a technical level, middleware typically consists of a set of programming libraries or components “such as JSON (JavaScript object notation), REST (representational state transfer), XML (extensible markup language), SOAP (simple object access protocol), or web services. Typically, middleware also provides services that enable components written in multiple languages — such as Java, C++, PHP, and Python — to talk with each other.” — IBM. All this efficiently allows communication between different systems.
For example: Imagine A business has a CRM (Customer relationship management) and an inventory management system, they are not initially made to communicate with each other, so in order to exchange data the business might use middleware to create a link between the two systems (A translator). When they need to exchange data, a request would be sent to the middleware layer, translating the data from one system to the other in a format that the other system can understand and vice versa. Enabling effective communication and data exchange.
There are different types of middleware 🤯
14 types of Middleware 🤕!!?? What?
- API (Application Programming Interface): A toolset allowing developers to create and manage APIs for their applications. What is an API? — new blog coming soon!
- Data/Database middleware: Allowing for communication, and access to back-end databases.
- Device Middleware: Provides Integration and Connective capabilities to a certain mobile operating system.
- Robotic Middleware: As we all know, Robotics has some crazy hardware that is evolving by the minute and robotic middleware helps control and manage the software and hardware systems that define a ‘robot’
This article is aimed toward simplicity, therefore I’m only including the most common (from my perspective, this may vary from industry to industry)
If you want to know all types of middleware, please check this link out — Talend
Is Middleware still relevant 🙄
If like me, this Is your first time diving deeper into the tech, you’d be quite surprised to know that the term Middleware was referenced since the late 1960s, and officially rolled out in the 80s to link modern applications (at the time) to legacy systems (outdated computing software and/or hardware that is still in use). And as with all things, middleware went through some major changes since its first adoption!
It can’t still be growing…Can It?
As newer technologies come out, there in theory should always be a use case for middleware, whether that is being embedded into newer languages and Infrastructure, to legacy technologies needing a way to communicate with the newer technologies.
2022 Market Analysis: “Movement of manufacturing organizations towards Industry 4.0, the latest revolution, which focuses on automation, interconnectivity, real-time data and machine learning is expected to benefit the middleware software market in the forecast period. Industry 4.0 includes the latest technologies such as Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, cloud computing, cyber-physical systems and cognitive computing which are equipped in the computer systems and automated machines including robotics. Manufacturing companies need to integrate with their business processes and operations with these platforms/technologies which is fulfilled using middleware software among others.” — 2022 Middleware Market analysis
