iPaaS - Enabling Integration in Cloud

Integration in enterprise helps in getting right information at right time by sharing and storing information. Since its inception, it has evolved from batch file transfer to cloud integration and all changes in integration technology/platform/solution have supported business needs. Technology advancement & doing it with right mindset has been the driving factor behind all successful transformation.

Traditional middle-ware products/platforms, built before cloud became predominant, have connectors/adapters to connect applications together. Most of them have started supporting adaptors for various SaaS applications such as salesforce.com, Intuit, RightNow etc.... However these SaaS application integration support by traditional integration platform vendor is not sufficient to transform them to an iPaaS vendor. 

To me it looks like that traditional integration platform vendors took too much time to transform into an iPaaS provider. iPaaS providers enable cloud integration by sharing data between system/application/services in the cloud.

An iPaaS providers strengthen Business by enabling continuous integration and rapid delivery which shorten the time to market. It enables IT by getting rid of traditional mundane tasks like -

• IT has been dealing with platform upgrade projects since long & the challenge has been in keeping track of components that needs to be re configured, maintained and deployed.One bad experience leads to 'don't shake the boat', and hence ends up missing latest application enhancement, performance improvements and security patches. With cloud integration platform offered as service, IT no longer deals with upgrades as all platform upgrades and enhancement are taken care by service providers.We not only get the best possible stack to deploy, we also get a stack that keeps up with time, ensuring that the application is always running on the latest and greatest. we don’t fall behind our competitors and there is no time loss.The iPaaS experts constantly incorporate and test component updates and bring them into the platform.

• Setting up platform level software for application has been a complex and time consuming task. iPaaS enhances platform agility to meet fast-changing business and technical requirements. Market opportunities exist very briefly. Business solution needs to be built, deployed, and evolved in days or weeks, not months.

• Capacity planning was always one of the most important task while doing project releases. This was usually done by considering best & worst case scenarios. Even with all careful planning, there were always performance related issues. Platform on cloud helps to tackle this age old issue with elastic nodes and LB's. So IT does not have to worry about infrastructure management anymore.

• Installing development tools on individual machines and setting up of a centralized repository was always an IT job. Cloud integration platform vendor provides collaboration tools for distributed development teams. So there is no need for IT to get into platform lifecycle management, as it is taken care by vendor. 

• iPaaS dramatically reduces the cost and complexity of new projects. At same time it brings predictability to both cost and ramifications of bringing a new application on platform. In time of need, IT can get help from dedicated stack experts who can help in reducing time spend on operations.

With all these above benefits which we have from iPaaS, there is a flip side as well, which need to be understood well while making transition from traditional integration to iPaaS vendor.

• Need to be careful in choosing vendor i.e. we have to make sure that the new platform will not lock business into vendor standards and formats
• To start with, a cloud based platform service looks a lot economical than in-house installed applications and hence reduces capital expense. However the need is to make sure that you are comparing A to A
• Does the iPaaS offers all features which you have from in house installed platform ?        
• If iPaaS do not have important feature, which you have in on-premise application - then how much IT will bear to build those capabilities.
• Look carefully on the pricing plan which iPaaS vendor is offering. If there is change in pricing in future, then how it will impact the cost of total ownership.

• Security around data is an important issue which has to be thought well. IT should make it sure that the iPaaS vendor which they chooses, does not exposes sensitive business data on cloud. 
• Cloud computing overall has made everyone dependent Internet connection. So it brings dependency on internet provider. Even the most reliable cloud computing service providers suffer server outages now and again.

http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/cloud/300077635/the-10-biggest-cloud-outages-of-2015-so-far.htm

http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/cloud/300075204/the-10-biggest-cloud-outages-of-2014.htm

http://www.crn.com/slide-shows/cloud/240158298/the-10-biggest-cloud-outages-of-2013-so-far.htm

Benjamin Franklin once said that the only things that are certain in this world are death and taxes. For sure we can add cloud/server outages to this statement. No matter how competent the cloud hosting provider is, it sometime fails. But it's getting better day by day as customers become increasingly dependent upon the cloud for applications and access to their data.

Bottom line is cloud computing is a great opportunity to off-load the hassle and costs of IT management.

                                                                                                        Cloud:What’s Opportunity it brings for EA's?

How it’s have been?

Since long, most of the EA (Enterprise Architect) programs have always been in their own box with well-established practices for deliverables, standards, and architecture that have been developed around the characteristics of the core business. Trans-formative business agility can't be achieved when standards and practices takes time to change. This comes with out – of – box thinking.

How it’s changing?

Big 5 cloud service providers - Amazon Web Services (AWS), Google, IBM, Microsoft, and Salesforce offers solutions which will help EA’s to create an impact with business leaders by being fast and agile with less operational cost.

Today business is more impatient and seeks independence to experiment with ideas at much faster pace. EA’s objective should be to balance risk and agility and not always act as guardrails, as too much control without innovation always pushes IT & its management out of the loop. Business values, more than hard-and-fast IT management rules, is becoming the predominant factor in finalizing decisions.

So enterprise architects should be business-focused, strategic, and pragmatic to become an integral part of business and technology planning processes.

How EA’s should contribute?

With rampant cloud adoption going all around - it will alter the role of enterprise architects from “owning the architecture”, strict governance, well-vetted standards and controlled release patterns to new way where they support business self-service way of delivering technology and serving as a cloud center of expertise.

There are a plethora of different cloud reference architectures. EA’s role would be to define the right reference architecture for the enterprise’s cloud approach. This will strengthen their engagement with technology management and business leaders.

With cloud computing services becoming members of the technology management portfolio, the challenge shifts from understanding cloud to selecting the right partners. Most hosting companies, managed service providers, and software companies are jumping into the cloud business. But are they really delivering the cloud computing values of agility, autonomy, scale, flexibility, and pay-per-use economics? EA’s of cloud era should be contributing by evaluating these options and then giving right direction to IT which eventually benefits business.