Key considerations for choosing a cloud integration (iPaaS) solution

Digital Transformation is the only way forward for any company wishing to become data-driven and survive in today’s world. And “Move to the cloud” is the first item on the strategic agenda. Companies in healthcare, banking, retail, and transportation are all exploring different paths to the cloud to fit their specific needs and data ecosystem.

Today, the data ecosystem of most organizations combines Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications, some Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) like Platform.sh or OpenShift with social, mobile, and web data. In this situation, the ability to integrate legacy data from siloed on-premises applications with new data from emerging digital technologies is a deciding factor for a successful digital transformation.

The reality is that many organizations still use hand-coding or ad hoc integration tools to solve immediate and specific needs, often leading to an integration nightmare. They suffer the consequences of an uncontrolled set of access, potential risks in regulatory compliance or audit practices, inability to easily scale with the data volume surge, etc. Organizations need an enterprise strategy to address the changes brought on by the hybrid era of cloud and on-premises integration scenarios. Through this, organizations can unlock the true value of the data to accelerate digital transformation. A key enabling component in such a strategy is a cloud integration platform or Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS).

iPaaS solutions have started to go mainstream in recent years. The iPaaS market is set to be worth 2998.3 million US dollars by 2021 with a 41.5% market growth between 2016 and 2021, according to a study from MarketsandMarkets .

So, what exactly is an iPaaS?

An iPaaS, in simplest terms, is a cloud-based platform that supports any combination of on-premises, cloud data, and application integration scenarios. With an iPaaS, users can develop, deploy, execute, and govern cloud and hybrid integration flows without installing or managing any hardware or middleware. There are many benefits iPaaS offers: faster time to data value, reduced costs, accelerated time to market, reduced DevOps headaches, etc.

However, the more complex the data ecosystem, the more complex the integration challenges. Therefore, for most companies, the question is not whether to adopt an iPaaS solution but how to pick the right iPaaS?

Key areas for considerations when choosing an iPaaS

Does it support Big Data and Data Lake?

If you are embarking on an initiative to utilize your big data, you will need a solution that can handle the volume, velocity, and variety requirements of big data integration use cases. The solution should be able to support a data lake with complex data ingestion, transformation, and work well with the Hadoop ecosystems.

Does it support broad hybrid integration scenarios?

Although SaaS and cloud apps are widely adopted across organizations, on-premises apps are not likely to go away anytime soon. Because hybrid integration scenarios are still the norm, it’s important to have a solution that supports cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-ground, ground-to-ground, multi-point, and multi-cloud integrations.

Can it empower my LoB and analyst teams in the project?

In most cases, an integration project is initiated to better serve business units to enable new business models, better serve customers, make more effective marketing and sales strategies, etc. Lines of Business (LoBs) are increasingly involved in integration work. To get your projects moving forward quickly, you need a solution with an easy-to-use UI, self-service capabilities like data prep, and data governance that don’t require extensive technical training.

Will multiple teams collaborate on the integration project?

If your integration projects require multiple teams, you may want to consider SDLC (software development life cycle) capabilities. This will allow you to create separate environments for each stage of SDLC like development such as QA, and production. So, your teams can plan and execute integrations more frequently and efficiently.

How do I ensure real-time data delivery?

Business agility, real-time decision making, and customer and partner interactions depend on the analytics from data delivered in real-time. To make fast and timely decisions, you will want to consider a solution that delivers data anytime with both batch or real-time streaming data processing.

What about data quality?

A critical capability that you also want in an iPaaS is built-in data quality that allows you to create clean and trusted data for analytics and decision making. You will want a solution that can handle different types and formats of data and ensure consistent quality throughout your data’s lifecycle.

An IPaaS is the best way to get the modern integration infrastructure modern businesses need for their digital transformation. Take a look at TDWI’s Cloud Data Integration Primer, which discusses how to implement multi-cloud data integration and self-service data access while reducing downtime and risk.

Read more about the cloud integration and the Talend cloud solution at the sources listed below.

References

• The Cloud Data Integration primer https://www.talend.com/resources/cloud-data-integration-primer/?utm_medium=corpad&utm_source=datanami&utm_campaign=resource
• TDWI’s webinar on Cloud Data Integration https://www.talend.com/resources/getting-started-data-integration-in-the-cloud/?utm_medium=corpad&utm_source=datanami&utm_campaign=resource
• Evaluating tools for cloud-based ETL https://www.talend.com/resources/etl-tools/?utm_medium=corpad&utm_source=datanami&utm_campaign=resource
• Talend Cloud solution https://www.talend.com/products/integration-cloud/?utm_medium=corpad&utm_source=datanami&utm_campaign=resource

About Talend

Talend (Nasdaq: TLND), a leader in cloud integration solutions, puts more of the right data to work for your business, faster. Talend Cloud delivers a single platform for simple and complex data integration tasks across public, private, and hybrid cloud, as well as on-premises environments, and enables greater collaboration between IT and business teams. Combined with self-service solutions and hundreds of pre-built connectors from SaaS applications to cloud data warehouses, Talend allows you to cost-effectively meet the demands of ever-increasing data volumes, users, and use cases.

Almost 3,000 global enterprise customers have chosen Talend to put their data to work including GE, HP Inc., and Domino’s. Talend has been recognized as a leader in its field by leading analyst firms and industry publications including Forbes, InfoWorld, and SD Times. For more information, please visit www.talend.com and follow us on Twitter: @Talend.