By 2025, over 95% of new digital workloads will move to the cloud, but many of them operate in silos. This fragmentation means every interaction between systems comes with delays and errors. Businesses need a solution that integrates different platforms and applications, sets up workflows, syncs data, automates tasks, and builds a uniform system that all teams can access without the hassle.
Learn the value of cloud integration and the benefits of constant cloud connectivity.
What Is Cloud Integration?
Cloud integration connects your applications and data sources, whether in the cloud or on-premises. It helps simplify operations across cloud platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud, and Salesforce. By integrating disconnected systems, businesses can automate processes and collect up-to-the-minute information.
The Basics of Cloud Integration
Cloud integration is the act of identifying business needs, selecting tools, connecting systems, and testing them.
Along the way, teams may face challenges like data security concerns, compatibility issues, and training requirements. However, thorough integration can improve efficiency, strengthen collaboration, and help businesses provide customer service. Here is how this technology works in practice:
- Data Synchronization: Integration tools help simplify working with data. This sync keeps information consistent and ensures that all users have the latest data regardless of which application they use.
- API Management: Through this feature, you can control access to your systems and data. This allows for secure and governed communication between separate components.
- Workflow Automation: Workflow automation is able to automatically trigger processes and tasks across all of your integrated cloud applications.
- Security and Compliance: With cloud integration, you can use features like single sign-on and access control to stay secure. You can also implement policies to govern usage and comply with regulatory standards.
- Scalability: Your integration must scale as the business grows. It should be easy to add new tools, locations, and data without disrupting operations.
The Top 6 Use Cases for Cloud Integration
Any business running multiple applications stands to benefit from integration. This is especially true for manufacturing and healthcare, where operations hinge on connected systems and accurate data. A few examples where this approach proves particularly valuable include the following:
- Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Integration: This technology ensures that CRM data like sales records call histories, or support cases are visible from any access point, such as an ERP.
- E-commerce Integration: This framework ties your online storefronts to inventory management, payment gateways, and shipping/delivery providers to manage it from one interface.
- Supply Chain Management: Cloud-based solutions link your ERP to suppliers, manufacturers, and distributors to keep you updated on your products, materials, and fleets.
- Human Resources (HR) Integration: This unifies applicant tracking, payroll, and employee profiles. Your staff gains access to essential documents, and HR leaders obtain a centralized view of workforce planning.
- Financial Systems Integration: This approach connects your accounting software, expense management, banking, and reporting, to give you a complete picture of your finances.
- Internet of Things (IoT) Integration: Manufacturers and distributors can integrate IoT with devices and sensors to receive timely updates on product maintenance needs, faults, and part lifespans. This approach reduces costs and downtime by preventing equipment failure.
To further enhance flexibility and scalability, companies are turning to hybrid deployment models. This approach combines the versatility of cloud computing with the control of on-premises servers, allowing businesses to tailor their IT infrastructure.
The Benefits of Cloud Integration to Your Business
Cloud integration unifies your technology infrastructure, making it easier to manage systems and monitor operations. It also helps teams get a complete view of operations by helping identify bottlenecks, track progress, and better allocate resources. Here are some more benefits:
- Improves Operations: Tasks move swiftly from one system to the next without redundant data entry or manual handoffs.
- Ensures Data Accuracy: A single version of accurate information is accessible to all, as data is consistent and current across systems.
- Reduces Tech Costs: Cloud solutions minimize the need to maintain multiple separate systems and legacy infrastructure, lowering business expenses over time.
- Increases Scalability: Cloud integration allows businesses to adjust capacity as needed, expanding or contracting resources, or applications, without disrupting operations.
- Improves Customer Experience: Integrated systems give teams access to customer data, and help with quick, personalized responses to inquiries and issues.
- Promotes Innovation: Integration allows focusing on forward-thinking pursuits rather than spending resources on maintenance.
- Simplifies Compliance: A unified approach improves compliance by providing clear visibility, and consistent control, and automates your ability to enforce policies.
How to Implement Cloud Integration
To get the most from connecting your applications and data, start with strong foundations. Follow best practices for assessment, tool selection, and migration to ensure a smooth transition. Here are key steps to consider when launching an integration effort:
1. Assess Your Current Infrastructure
Audit your systems to identify their capabilities, what purpose they serve, and how users interact with all your applications. This is done to create a catalog of tools that will be integrated.
2. Choose the Right Integration Model
Select a model that fits your organization’s unique requirements, whether public, private, or hybrid cloud solutions. As you balance cost, flexibility, and control over your data, you should also keep your security and compliance needs in mind.
3. Select Appropriate Integration Tools
Research integration platforms to better understand which best serve your needs. Choose solutions that easily sync with your infrastructure and offer the shallowest possible learning curve for your teams. Consider small-scale trial runs to identify the best fit.
4. Develop a Phased Migration Strategy
To avoid resistance to change, consider rolling out your cloud migration gradually. Start by prioritizing systems that offer the most value when connected. Migrating one application at a time to reduce risks, give your teams time to adapt, and make course corrections in case issues come up during integration.
5. Implement Security Measures
Integration must not compromise safety or security. Your data must be encrypted, and only authenticated and authorized users should have access to systems.
6. Provide Training and Support
Train your teams on any new workflows. Provide resources to help address adoption challenges and collect feedback to help improve the process.
Challenges of Cloud Integration
Moving to an integrated cloud system means you could face a disconnect between vendors, run into security issues, experience latency, or run into a variety of other compliance issues. Planning for these bottlenecks can help you make the transition smoother. Here are some possible challenges to integration:
- Data Security and Privacy Concerns: Protecting privacy and preventing unauthorized access becomes harder with distributed systems.
- Complexity of Multicloud Environments: Managing applications and data across different clouds from various vendors often limits visibility and control for IT teams.
- Performance and Latency Issues: Network delays can slow down data exchange between on-premises systems and cloud platforms.
- Compliance and Regulatory Requirements: Following industry rules across systems adds complexity to auditing.
- Skills Gap and Resource Constraints: Building expertise to connect cloud and legacy systems is challenging, especially for smaller teams with limited budgets and resources.
How Boomi Solves Cloud Integration Challenges
Cloud integration connects applications and data across systems, creating a unified setup that streamlines workflows, keeps information consistent, and automates tasks. This approach simplifies managing hybrid systems, improves efficiency, and supports better customer service.
The Boomi integration platform connects all your tools, regardless of location or vendor. The solution provides your teams with a unified view of critical information through advanced protection, simplified multicloud management, and optimized performance. You gain the following benefits and features by using the platform:
1. Ensures Data Security and Privacy
Boomi protects data transfers with strict safety standards and adapts to complex environments, scaling as needed to maintain performance.
2. Simplifies Multicloud Environments
Boomi’s architecture supports over 300,000 applications, making it easier to manage integrations across multiple clouds and legacy systems.
3. Increases Performance and Lowers Latency
Boomi provides fast, reliable data processing, scaling automatically to keep latency low, even with high data volumes.
4. Improves Compliance
Boomi includes tools for regulatory compliance and data governance, giving centralized control to meet industry standards.
5. Bridges the Skills Gap
Boomi’s low-code platform allows users to build solutions without advanced skills, with training and partner resources available for support.
Learn more about how to implement a successful transition to cloud systems with The Integration Checklist for Cloud Migration