Availability round the clock is a key requirement, but legacy systems are often operated on a batch basis, with periodic downtime for reasons such as backup and maintenance. Making these systems available 24 hours a day, seven days a week will need changes to systems and procedures, and almost certainly some sort of upgrade. A host of information that was previously only accessible internally is made available to customers. Security systems must be able to verify and certify authorised users, grant the appropriate level of access, bar hackers and detect viruses. By far the easiest way of achieving effective integration is through the use of adapters or connectors, which do not require any modification to the legacy systems, and are capable of performing the necessary data transformations.
Flexibility is required to support future channels.
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