What Is the Role of Security in an Integration and Automation Platform?

The more organizations seek to integrate their application portfolios with critical data and automate the processes that govern it, the more important security becomes. And, as GenAI enhances software platforms with greater speed and efficiency, security needs to be built into the DNA of an integration and automation platform. In this blog, we’ll cover the importance of certifications and governance.

Enterprise iPaaS Security Certifications

Constantly changing industry standards and regulatory requirements, not to mention rapidly proliferating cybersecurity risks, make integration platform security especially vital. Your integration platform is the conduit for connecting data and applications, acting as the backbone of your technology architecture. One way of ensuring platform security is through certifications. Security certifications provide independent validation and verification of vendor claims — so you know for sure that your data is safe, rather than just relying on what your vendor tells you about their security measures.

Platforms accessing, modifying, and transferring data should have the following certifications:

Standard Certifications

• ISO Certification: This certification is performed by third-party auditors evaluating the privacy and security practices of a business. The ISO audit assesses the secure handling of personally identifying information (PII).
• SOC I/SOC II: SOC 1 examines internal controls over financial reporting, while SOC 2 reviews a service organization’s controls relevant to their operations and compliance.
• Consensus Assessment Initiative Questionnaire (CAIQ): CAIQ provides a questionnaire for cloud service providers, buyers, and auditors to use when evaluating the practices of a provider. The CAIQ and Version 4 of the Cloud Controls Matrix have been combined. These are self-reported security assessments, which focus on the unique needs of cloud service customers. They are not as rigorous as ISO and SOC, but are still important for validation.
• PCI-DSS: This certification ensures that proper storage and processing practices to protect against theft and fraud are in place for any sensitive financial data in a payment card transaction environment.

Specialty Certifications

• FedRAMP/StateRAMP: In the United States, these certifications allow a cloud service, such as an iPaaS, to be used by government agencies, ensuring cloud service providers adhere to mandated security and compliance policies. These are among the most challenging certifications to achieve, due to the government’s stringent security requirements.
• Federal Information Processing Standards (FIPS): The FIPS are a set of publicly announced standards the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed for use in computer systems of non-military United States government agencies and contractors. Boomi adheres to FIPS 140-2, which defines standards for cryptography.
• HIPAA/HITECH: The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) Act and subsequent Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act defines policies, procedures, and processes that are required to protect electronic protected health information (ePHI).

To learn how Boomi manages these certification requirements, please visit https://boomi.com/compliance/

Five Must-Have Tools for Integration Platform Governance

Enterprise companies have internal data security and encryption processes that require a high level of control over iPaaS data processing, transfer, and storage, as well as user management. These five must-have tools allow developers to customize functionality in the platform to conform to internal security and compliance policies:

1. Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC): Perhaps the most fundamental tool for safeguarding integration platform security is role-based access controls. Following the principle of least privilege, Boomi RBAC administrators assign users to roles that give them the minimum level of access to applications and data necessary to perform their jobs.
2. User credential encryption: To safeguard access to sensitive data and applications, Boomi user credentials are encrypted with a unique key, regardless of whether the deployment is on-premises or in the cloud. This security measure adds a critical layer of protection. Even if an unauthorized user gains access to the system, the encrypted credentials are useless without the decryption key, significantly reducing the risk of compromised data or unauthorized access.
3. Data encryption: Data being passed through Boomi to other platforms should be encrypted while in transit, for example if traveling across firewalls to cloud storage. Boomi has a process built for PGP encryption, encrypting any data being sent over TLS/SSL connections. Developers can also implement AES symmetric encryption with Boomi. While some integration platform providers “own” the methodology of encryption, Boomi customers are able to take control of the encryption/decryption process for data traveling between sources with an external keystore.
4. Key management: Boomi provides a key management service with a Boomi-controlled HashiCorp vault for protecting data and authenticating users. It also enables bring-your-own-vault and secrets management.
5. Deployment flexibility: With deployment on premises or in the cloud, Boomi’s distributed runtime can help customers maintain security wherever they choose to house their data by giving them the power to process sensitive data on-premises, and distribute less sensitive workloads to the cloud.

Enterprise Data Control

Since security is not “one size fits all,” Boomi enables developers and managers to customize the platform to fit their security standards, processes, and expectations. Boomi’s integration and automation platform gives authorized users a layer of control for all their integrated applications, business processes and data flows. This layer sits above (is abstracted from) the ongoing operations of the business and it offers:

• Visibility. Monitoring application and data traffic for unusual activity, allowing for swift detection and mitigation
• Control. Fine-grained role-based access control (RBAC) for access to data and applications, minimizing the risk of unauthorized access or data breaches
• Auditability. A data trail for PII and other highly regulated data transactions simplifies compliance efforts and allows for forensic analysis in the case of security incidents

Boomi’s commitment to security gives customers the freedom to move applications, data, and processes wherever makes the most sense — in the cloud, on-premises, or in a hybrid configuration — with the confidence that, regardless of which approach they choose, their data is secure.

Find out why Gartner® positioned Boomi highest for Ability to Execute in the Magic Quadrant™ for Integration Platform as a Service, February 2024.