Modern challenges need modern solutions. And that’s exactly why businesses worldwide are looking for an integration platform as a service (iPaaS) to help them deal with the complexities of integration.
Don’t be misled into thinking iPaaS is just another fancy acronym or fad. Integration platforms are fast becoming essential fixtures, and in some cases transformative difference-makers, for today’s growth-minded companies.
Is your business one that stands to benefit from an integration platform as a service, now or in the future? Read on and we’ll cover bottlenecks, challenges, and pain points that can be addressed in powerful ways by the right iPaaS.
Why Is iPaaS Growing So Fast?
Google searches for “iPaaS” have significantly increased over the past six years, perhaps driven in part by the advent and subsequent releases of analyst firm Gartner’s annual Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service. The term can be used to describe both the technology and a specific instance of it, like the Boomi iPaaS.
Why are more and more people seeking to learn about iPaaS? And which changes in the business environment are driving this need?
Let’s first explore the benefits of this type of integration platform, and then identify the specific needs they align with.
Key iPaaS Benefits for Modern Businesses
Why adopt an iPaaS like the Boomi platform? These are a few of the advantages organizations using the technology gain:
- Centralization. Bringing all creation, deployment, monitoring, and management into one single web-based interface, iPaaS enables businesses to connect fragmented and distributed integrations and processes.
- Convenience and Intuitiveness. Ease of use and manual coding reduction are primary focuses for iPaaS solutions, helping reduce strain on the IT department. Boomi’s multi-tenant structure also allows your customers to securely share the same computing resources.
- Seamless Connection Between Cloud-Based and On-Premises Integrations. With applications, data, and processes increasingly living in the cloud, iPaaS creates crucial connectivity and smoothly links your apps, wherever they are hosted.
- Speed and Scalability. iPaaS can support orchestrations, real-time integrations, and low-latency information exchange so there’s no need to wait through delays and drawn-out processes. Additionally, the ability to batch integrations is critical for scaling large volumes of data to keep pace with the needs of enterprises and fast-growing startups.
- Cost Savings. iPaaS yields numerous operational efficiencies, reducing the need for developer effort in customized integrations and giving your team the freedom to focus on work that moves the business forward.
When Do I Need an iPaaS ?
Waiting until it’s too late to bring in the support your business needs can be a costly mistake. Here are a few scenarios and indicators that generally point to the need for an iPaaS.
Our company uses multiple cloud and on-premises services or applications, but they don’t integrate or cooperate cleanly
This is the core issue iPaaS seeks to solve. Manually configuring these integrations is painstaking and time-consuming. iPaaS can offer universal translation capabilities for non-standard data formats, and support a variety of enterprise integration scenarios including B2B, EDI, and standards-based web services.
We’re going through a cloud migration
There are many recommended steps when migrating data to the cloud, and the structural support of iPaaS is high among priorities. An integration platform makes one-off integrations easier, reduces overhead and loss, and centralizes data management.
The discord in our technology integration is manifesting negatively in customer experiences
The expectations for customer experience have never been higher, and those companies that aren’t able to deliver put themselves at risk. Slow, inconsistent, or incomplete service stemming from integration turmoil can be a frequent impetus to implement iPaaS, which enables faster time to delivery and greater satisfaction.
Our IT department is committing too much time and resources to manual integrations
Perhaps you’re getting by without iPaaS, but the burden on your tech team is taking a toll. Unfortunately, it’s not a problem that will solve itself, as new applications and data sources are constantly emerging and entering the fold. iPaaS automates and streamlines much of the work, freeing up your IT pros to make impacts and solve business problems elsewhere.
We’re growing quickly, bringing to light issues of operational scalability going forward
Integration platforms like Boomi’s are built to be enterprise-grade, agile, and scalable enough to handle rapidly increasing demands. The architecture supports virtually any integration pattern and allows you to carry out integrations wherever needed, even behind a firewall or in a private cloud, with speed and ease.
Our data is distributed and difficult to wrangle when we need it
This is a very common dilemma for modern businesses in the age of big data. With information living in various formats, applications, and sources, it can be extremely difficult to quickly find what you (or your customers, or partners) need without a connective platform that unites everything. Data wrangling is significantly easier through iPaaS.
iPaaS Helps Your Business Grow
We’ve said it before, and we’ll say it again: If you’re not talking integration, you need to be.
The bottom line is that growth in the modern environment brings with it a number of new-age challenges and complexities. A reliable integration platform as a service helps you overcome them and prepares you for whatever is next. With an iPaaS like the Boomi platform, you can eliminate silos, maximize agility, embrace emerging technologies, and develop new efficiencies throughout your business.
Ready to learn more? Watch a demo to see Boomi’s drag-and-drop integration and data mapping in action.