h. Today its popularity continues in the OSS arena for several reasons. Point-to-point Interfaces are often the simplest to implement and often require the least amount of investment up-front. An EAI based approach, by comparison, can require significant investment in tools, whose purpose can be difficult for non-IT professionals to understand. Point-to-point interfaces are typically simpler to understand and sell to senior management. Another critical advantage of point-to-point solutions appears when pairs of vendors form partnerships and develop "bridges" jointly. A "bridge" has clear advantages. Implementation time can be reduced significantly. The risks associated with any form of development and testing can be eliminated. Essentially the risk is transferred to the vendor providing the solution; however this is also the greatest potential risk to this approach because it depends on continuing vendor cooperation. The vendors that provided the point-to-point solutions in the first flush of partnership sometimes turn away from the partnership as market dynamics shift. Partners can become rivals, or the market for the solution does not emerge as envisioned. The IIC is then left with the burden of maintaining the solution independently. There are several more subtle disadvantages to the point-to-point approach. The most notable is the increasing complexity of managing multiple disparate interfaces and technologies as the number of connections and packages grows. Other more technical problems can manifest themselves depending upon the methods used to construct the point-to-point interfaces. Frequently an expedient approach based on, for example, developing an intermediary Java program can subsequently lead to recovery, availability and scalability issues. Figure 24 illustrates the "spaghetti architecture" in which point-to-point integration can result. Each colored box represents a different style of integration e.g. file transfer, direct database access, or C++ to Java. Chapter 6 - Integrating the OSS Platform Or