Thursday 23 May 2013

Introduction To Integration As A Service

By Peggie K. Lambert


Integration as a Service (IaaS) is a relative baby among the wide range of cloud-based platforms, tools and applications that are readily available for use by customers. It can be used by a company looking to integrate all their disparate applications and data. This includes everything on-site, on the cloud or accessed as SaaS.

The usual cloud benefits are available, including fast and easy deployment without any need for in-house IT resources. The usage based subscription system eliminates all the upfront costs of integrating and building up redundancy for future growth requirements. The system is highly scalable and can be expanded or reduced as required based on the company's growth.

The development of IaaS is part of an ongoing evolution of cloud-based services, as companies look around for ways to maximize the advantages. Right now, a lot of them are struggling to deal with data silos which are isolated and cut off from other systems the company uses. The applications are scattered around, with some of the critical data still locked up in-house while the rest has been outsourced to different cloud providers.

It's hard enough for companies to keep track of all this and make sure their IT systems remain operational. Developing an integration connector capable of offering users access to all the data from every location and application would take a heck of a lot more expertise and additional resources. Most small and medium scale companies simply do not have such resources.

Besides, instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, it's faster and cheaper to sign up with an IaaS provider who can immediately offer a professional and shiny new "wheel." It becomes the provider's job to integrate the company's various systems. This means the provider is not only offering a wheel for free, but is also taking the responsibility of fixing it to the car and getting things rolling.

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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