Glossary
Middleware
Middleware is software that sits between systems and handles the work of connecting them (translating formats, routing messages, retrying failures), so each system does not need to know about the others.
Glossary
Middleware is software that sits between systems and handles the work of connecting them (translating formats, routing messages, retrying failures), so each system does not need to know about the others.
Five systems connected directly to each other is ten connections, each with its own error handling and each needing changes when any system changes.

Each system connects once, to the layer, which handles translation and routing centrally. Adding a sixth system becomes one connection rather than five, and the retry, logging and error-handling logic exists in one place rather than being reimplemented each time.
It is another component to run, monitor and understand, and it can become a bottleneck or a single point of failure if it is treated as an afterthought. For two or three systems, direct integration is usually simpler and correct.
Not for two or three systems, where direct integration is simpler. It starts to pay off as the number of connected systems grows and the point-to-point connections become more numerous than the systems themselves.
It can be, which is why monitoring, retries and a documented recovery path matter more here than in a point-to-point integration. Treating it as infrastructure rather than glue is the difference.
Middleware is software that sits between systems and handles the work of connecting them (translating formats, routing messages, retrying failures), so each system does not need to know about the others.