If you lifted the hood on just about any company’s IT environment, you’d find an engine that houses legacy systems, databases, and an abundance applications that live both on-premise and in the cloud. While the technology engine is powerful, much of it can’t talk to each other. This integration deficit means a lot of organizations today have enough horsepower to cruise but not enough to compete long-term.
How did we get here? In the last decade, the rate of technology and acceleration of in-cloud app use has caused a proliferation of data silos to spring up within organizations. The result is a lot of powerful business on-premise and cloud applications that generate an ocean of disparate data we can’t align to drive business results.
So, many of these engines are running at a fraction of their capacity as their IT departments scramble to respond to the demand with traditional integration methods that can impede a company’s efficiency and time to market.
One place businesses are turning to solve the integration dilemma is the iPaaS industry; a market Gartner predicts will become the preferred choice for new integration projects and render “traditional methodologies obsolete.”
iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) is a cloud-based set of automated tools for connecting software applications deployed in different environments. It enables subscribers (also called cloud ‘tenants’ or ‘residents’) to implement data, applications, API and process integration projects involving any combination of cloud and on-premise endpoints. It achieves this by connecting multiple endpoints so that all applications can work together.
In short, iPaaS is a single platform that has the power to connect multiple data sources so a company can work and compete at peak efficiency.
Dell Boomi is one of a handful of companies leading the iPaaS market. Pioneers in the field, Boomi has generated an unshakable buzz around its ability to connect all segments of a company’s digital ecosystem: Its people, its processes, its applications, its data, its devices, and its digital things (IoT).
On the integration front, Boomi stands out from the iPaaS pack in several ways.
Easy, no coding UI. Integrations without complex coding? Yes. Boomi has developed a series of common integration components that allows users to create end-to-end integration workflows easily. Its intuitive UI includes drag-and-drop mapping tools, pre-built integration processes, reusable components, and a library of connectors. The biggest perk: Users can easily build integrations without the cost and time of coding.
The Atom. The platform’s power source is The Boomi Atom, which is a patented, lightweight run-time engine that can be deployed in the cloud or behind a firewall to manage business processes. Once an integration is built, The Boomi Atom is deployed to integrate applications. The Atom works independently to initiate all connectivity to the platform and communicates integration activity for centralized monitoring, checks for process changes, and updates itself as needed.
The AtomSphere. This is the platform’s work area where real-time, scalable enterprise app integration happens. Here, users can design cloud-based integration processes (Atoms) and transfer data between cloud and on-premise applications. They can easily drag and drop integration components such as connectors, maps, document property elements, and start and endpoints. The interface allows a user to model an integration process between two applications visually.
Centralized Management. No matter where Boomi Atoms are deployed or how many processes are deployed, The Atom’s unique architecture enables centralized management of all integrations from the Boomi AtomSphere platform. This gives users a 360-degree view of their business and the insight to address critical problems.
Full, Diverse Integration. Boomi allows users to integrate multiple SaaS applications or SaaS to on-premise systems or even applications hosted on different public or private clouds. The platform has been built to support diverse integration and communication patterns, including application-to-application, pub-sub, real-time and event-driven web services, streaming, batch, ETL integrations, and more.
Boomi Suggest. Users call this Boomi’s true magic. Boomi Suggest is the industry’s first crowd-sourced suggestion wizard for data mapping. Boomi Suggest anonymously indexes and leverages millions of previously built maps for new integrations automatically. According to Boomi, users accept 90 percent of these suggestions, which dramatically speeds up the integration process and boosts internal efficiencies.
Boomi Resolve. Boomi Resolve automatically suggests resolutions for common error messages. It becomes more intelligent and helpful as it identifies common issues and recommends solutions, which accelerates the integration process.
Boomi Assure. Boomi Assure allows users to submit integration processes and test data to AtomSphere. That test data will be run against every future AtomSphere release. Boomi won’t release new versions of the AtomSphere platform until all regression tests are passed. This function gives users confidence that changes to the platform will not break their integration processes.
Trust and Compliance. Boomi’s support system automatically analyzes customer usage metrics, identifies potential issues, and suggest ways customers can increase their platform efficiency. It takes care of maintenance and upgrades regardless of location and automatically updates security and compliance issues.
This is just a snapshot of what Dell Boomi’s iPaaS platform offers and how it’s forcing companies to re-imagine traditional technology infrastructures. Over the next few weeks, we continue to dive into the Boomi platform as it applies to Kronos Dimensions users and explore its ability to unify data, processes, and people.
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