WITH INTEGRATION and security topping IT priority lists, it's no surprise that enterprises are furiously seeking the right technology to help them link legions of disparate systems.

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But enterprise wariness about traditional EAI platforms' technical complexity, monolithic architecture, and a hefty price tag are giving rise to new options for lighter, distributed integration fueled by Web services and Java, as well as lower-priced solutions tied to application servers.

Though " EAI lite" comes in many flavors, the end goal is the same: cut costs, reduce deployment time and scope, and deal in open standards.

"There's definitely a backlash against implementation expense," said Jon Derome, analyst at The Yankee Group in Boston. "If you are trying to promote an IT project in an enterprise that carries a high services cost, forget it."

Characterized by less functionality than full-scale EAI, EAI lite is best targeted at particular projects connecting limited numbers of applications, as opposed to handling thousands of high-volume applications transactions. But for many organizations, that limited number of apps is often enough, analysts say.

"The problem is that integration today is sold using a one-size-fits-all model," said Eric Austvold, research director for enterprise applications and technologies at AMR Research in Boston. "Big 5 [ EAI vendors] just are not conditioned to sell their products piecemeal, and their architectures are not set up to support individual projects. Using their stuff can be like rocket science."

And then there's the cost: EAI software ranges from $250,000 to the millions of dollars, whereas lighter-weight products and solutions start in the tens of thousands of dollars. Companies regularly spend more than $3 on professional services for every $1 spent on EAI software, Derome added.

Momentum around EAI lite is growing from the application server and development space, where vendors such as BEA, IBM, Microsoft, Iona, and Oracle are making noise.

For its part, Microsoft is making headway with its XML-based BizTalk Server 2002, both from a pricing and ease-of-use perspective. Though it operates much like EAI in using a centralized integration server and adapters, BizTalk Server is gaining traction because it is based on XML and Web services standards, rather than a proprietary core, analysts said.

IBM also has an EAI lite story -- its flagship Websphere MQ messaging product will be injected with SOAP support in the fourth quarter. And BEA told analysts during a briefing earlier this month that it is building integration into its core app server platform. BEA plans to put WebLogic Integration hand in hand with its commodity-level product and toss the need for software adapters out of the picture.

"BEA is tying to expose back-end adapters as controls, so if you're using their Workshop development tool, you can go into the control and figure out how to get information out of a back-end system," explained Shawn Willett, principal analyst at Sterling, Va.-based Current Analysis. "That's an advantage."

Another EAI alternative derives from upstart companies such as Sonic Software and SpiritSoft, which are exploiting Web services, messaging-oriented middleware, intelligent routing, and transformation to create an architecture that Gartner analysts dub an ESB (enterprise service bus). Products such as Sonic's SonicXQ, for example, act as a lightweight, ubiquitous integration backbone through which software services and application components flow, according to Roy Schulte, an analyst at Gartner in Stamford, Conn.

This federated architecture stands in contrast to traditional EAI's centralized integration server, and it is designed to be rolled out incrementally -- an attraction for IT executives targeting particular projects with a limited number of applications, Schulte said.

Armstrong World Industries, a large designer and manufacturer of floors, ceilings, and cabinets, is getting ready to deploy SonicXQ to facilitate data exchange and integration with its smaller business partners, which can't afford to tap into Armstrong's EDI network but can install the lightweight XQ client.

If the solution proves itself scalable, the Lancaster, Penn.-based company will consider it as an internal application-integration solution.

"The advantage is putting a client component easily on a number of different platforms and letting them participate in your integration environment in a distributed way," said Bill Hutchinson, chief technology architect at Armstrong. "[Traditional] EAI environments focus you on the core, which is limiting."

However, traditional EAI vendors, many of whom have embraced Web services, contend that their products are superior for the messy, difficult task of integration. In particular, they question the scalability and performance of ESBs.

"There is no magic here [for doing integration]," said Scott Opitz, senior vice president of strategic planning at Fairfax, Va.-based webMethods. "The positioning [of EAI lite] is that you can start out small, then add things on. Implicit is that you can add on horsepower to scale, but I don't know that that can be proven."