You might have heard of different cloud services such as SaaS (Software as a Service), PaaS (Platform as a Service) or IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) which are the sum and substance when it comes to cloud computing. But interconnecting these technologies is challenging to do for businesses and very costly. Introducing iPaaS, or Integration Platform as a service which connects multiple cloud services and onsite enterprise applications together, hosted in the cloud. In this blog I will discuss what the current challenges companies are facing with data from various systems and how iPaaS fits to the bigger picture helping organisations succeed.
There are a number of systems available on the market specializing in their particular fields (i.e. CRM, ERP applications, etc.). Companies procure these different systems to help them provide better services for their clients. Unfortunately, connecting these various systems to consolidate into one data source is very costly to create and maintain and organisations have their back to the wall to accomplish this. Especially with the availability of cloud services, companies are moving towards migrating all their data to cloud. Still, the challenge of collecting information from these various systems and collating them to one master data source even in the cloud is a very difficult task for the company. As data continuously grows from the various systems, so is the task of maintaining, analyzing and collecting information becomes more difficult.
This is where integration services, particularly iPaaS, steps in. iPaaS is a special type of SaaS which enables interaction between cloud based systems and even on-premise applications. Integration services allows systems to interact with each other seamlessly and is done near real time. It allows business owners to collect data from their different systems (ERPs, CRMs, custom in house applications, etc.) and be presented with one solid master data source which they can use to create reports, manipulate simultaneously across the systems, or use the master data source in integrating to another system (i.e. connecting your own payroll system to Australian Taxation Office, sending data seamlessly and in real time). Additionally, developing iPaaS complements agile environment development and is a breeze to learn. Developers only need a browser, the internet and, subscription for iPaaS to craft integration services for their company needs.
Drag and drop data mappings provide developers to connect one API to various APIs thus combining data across various systems. Lastly, companies would save more money if they opt to use iPaaS for integration compared to creating and maintaining their own integration suites. Why? Because iPaaS is cloud based, the cost of maintaining servers are shouldered by the iPaaS provider and not by the business owners thus generating money in the long run.
Our industry is facing a growth in data size and connecting various data from various sources is a real challenge for organisations. Fortunately, iPaaS helps us in connecting these different data with speed and agility and, scalability to meet the ever-changing needs of the market.
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This post was written by Jonathan Martin, COO at Evolution Business Systems.
His expertise extends to software development, support, implementations and project management, he can envisage potential problems and identify them to improve the client experience and outcomes, like a mad scientist, behaviour, statistics and data are where he gets his insights from and lives by a golden rule to always start at the beginning as there are no shortcuts. Jonathan’s passion is to make a difference by assisting clients with their business problems.