Friday, May 17, 2013

Integration As A Service Explained

By Peggie K. Lambert


Integration as a Service is the latest cloud-based addition to the array of platforms and tools that are quickly replacing in-house setups. IaaS is useful for integrating company-wide applications and data. It should be able to integrate everything from the on-site data and applications to the ones that are in the cloud and even those that users simply access via SaaS (Software as a Service) providers.

The basic advantages include all the usual things associated with a move to the cloud. For instance, there will no need to invest resources for hardware, software or the manpower required for the process. It also eliminates budget allocations for maintaining redundancy to match future growth. The IaaS provider does all that, and the customer merely has to scale usage up and down to match growth or downsizing.

The development and availability of IaaS is a natural progression of the gradual shift of on-site data to the cloud. As companies go through the various stages associated with the migration, they find themselves stuck with data silos which cannot integrate with other systems used by the company. Some of the critical data is still safeguarded on-site, while other applications and data are scattered across different cloud-based providers.

Since the basic reasoning behind using these tools is to reduce IT infrastructure, it makes no sense to add more in order to integrate data and applications. Not to mention that developing a company-wide integration connector from scratch will be expensive and requires a time-consuming process. Small and medium scale organizations are unlikely to be able to devote the expertise, time and money required for this endeavor.

IaaS providers can deploy the same tool faster and cheaper, and it will be a lot more professional too. There is no percentage in reinventing the wheel when the provider has a spanking new one on the rack, and is offering to install it on to the car for free and handle the required maintenance. Providers not only offer the integration tool, but will also take on the actual process of integrating it with the customer's disparate applications and data.

Providers handle all the maintenance and upgrades as required. The customer's security, encryption and login protocols are kept intact as the data flows around through the IaaS platform. Put simply, the company gets a perfectly customized integration tool without having to pay to buy or implement it, and customers only pay for actual use.

Once it's over and done with, the data-centric benefits of Integration as a Service start piling up. It reduces the need for duplicate data entry and increases system-wide accuracy, since human errors, delays and oversights are eliminated when data is moved or copied between systems. Users start becoming more productive because there are no geographical or other limitations on when and from where data can be accessed.




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