In this modern era of business, companies from small mom & pop shops to global corporations are recognizing the importance of having control of their data and business processes. It’s within data that connections can be found to better workflow and reduce the need for on-premise applications to have to drive business decisions. At the heart of these technological innovations are integration platforms-as-a-service, better known as iPaaS.
What is iPaaS?
When exploring the iPaaS tools that are out on the market, companies should understand the benefit of these microservices. IPaaS is a cloud-based service that integrates an organization’s data, applications, and processes. IPaaS automates and simplifies integration activities, making it easy to connect applications and data deployed in any environment. With iPaaS, integrations can be built between cloud and on-premises applications and data—without having to install or manage any middleware or hardware. This saves time while putting functionality at the forefront.
These tools can be used in a variety of scenarios to connect, migrate and replicate data between applications. An iPaaS is a Software-as-a-Service offering that inherits all of the characteristics of the cloud. A robust application system provides a library of connectors that lets applications talk to each other regardless of format. This moves data seamlessly from applications, transforming this information into a specific layout that makes it easier to understand the mechanisms of these complex workflows, creating better data integration in real time.
How does iPaaS help exchange data?
The advent of iPaaS platforms has allowed for the exchange of data between various applications in near real time to streamline business processes, enhancing customer and employee experiences to empower decision-makers. For example, companies have integrated their Salesforce Sales Cloud with on-premises ERP platforms to give end-users of both systems complete views into customer and order-fulfillment activities. Beyond the exchange and integration of data, there is so much more than the right iPaaS architecture can do for an organization.
This ecosystem allows for the migration of data from legacy applications to cloud services for greater business agility. This allows a small or large business to map, transform, and move data such as accounts, contacts, and opportunities to preserve relationships between the data in the new system. Many companies opt for custom fields, which the iPaaS can discover and include in the migration process. From there, businesses can turn to their analytics to uncover new insights, driven by multiple data sources within a data lake, driving artificial intelligence within an integration solution.
What else can iPaaS do for data integration?
With the installation of an iPaaS system, businesses can accelerate their integration initiatives, reducing the time it takes to integrate and make that volume of data readily available. This allows organizations to spend more time on higher-value integration activities, as iPaaS provides pre-built, validated connectors that are already intertwined with application-specific APIs to maintain connectors and ensure compatibility. This software is also a good way for companies to expand their data integration capacity, expanding the pool of people and data sources at a company’s disposal.
The ability to expand quicker also makes for quick changes to these data integrations. With businesses and technologies constantly evolving in this 21st-century market, iPaaS helps adapt to change with a consistent user interface that lets users update and evolve integrations to match. This requirement of digital transformation makes for better digital business. This allows companies to operate at a high speed and efficiency, breaking down barriers between data silos. This makes the right information available to the right people instantly while maintaining protocols for proper governance of software applications. With constant evolution, a business can take its own data and stand tall in the marketplace in no time at all.
