Modern organizations leverage multiple applications to perform their every day. Different platforms and applications have different data formats which results in data silos. Cloud integration is revolutionizing the way organizations approach data integration and enable them to win against data silos. Cloud integration brings together the data that enables businesses to operate seamlessly – from strategy to sales, operations, and financial planning. Communication becomes easier which ensures that workflows get smoother. Businesses can deliver goods and services efficiently and also predict the needs of their customers better which results in improved customer service.
Cloud integration comprises technologies and tools that connect various systems, applications, IT environments, and repositories for real-time data exchanges. These solutions help to improve connectivity, enhance visibility, break down silos, and optimize business processes. Besides improved customer service and increased flexibility, cloud integration also ensures hybrid cloud security for better data management and safety.
With the evolution of IT infrastructures, we have now entered a digital era of virtualized environments and cloud systems. By positioning cloud infrastructure services in private, public, or hybrid deployments, businesses can mitigate incidents, crises, and emergencies, and even reduce money spending. It brings unparalleled flexibility and scalability to the organization.
The steps and timelines of the cloud application integration process will depend on various factors such as their architecture, integration approach, number of applications integrated, complexity of compliance and security requirements, etc. Usually, there are two major types of cloud integration:
- Cloud application integration in which different applications work together. The functions of these systems are not just limited to data integration but also handle complex tasks like application requests for interoperability.
- Cloud data integration helps in synchronizing data between multiple warehouses for data analysis and other tasks.
Here are some of the steps that developers follow when integrating cloud systems for organizations:
Planning and Designing
Your developer will define the data to be shared and processes or systems to be integrated. They will extract existing security and compliance issues and manage them effectively in the integrated system.
They will define the infrastructure constraints and capabilities of the system to be integrated and figure out how data should flow. New types of standards that will be leveraged in the cloud integration architecture such as message formats, enterprise metadata models, process models, application interfaces, etc to be examined. In this stage, non-functional requirements for the cloud-based integrated system such as availability, security, and performance are defined.
In this stage, the right integration approach will also be selected (direct or mediated integration) after considering factors such as non-functional requirements, overall IT strategy, etc.
Implementation and Testing
If you have opted for direct integration, then in this stage your developer will design and install tailor-made APIs or implement pre-existing ones. However, if you have opted for mediated integration, your developer will buy or build a glue layer to handle message routing, aggregation, and modification of the data. Your developer will build or select adapters for your applications to communicate with your glue layer.
The development team will verify all bidirectional or unidirectional queries between your connected interfaces. They will check the accuracy of distributed transactions and ensure appropriate exception handling. They will verify the functionality of recovery and failover mechanisms.
Your development team will also check how well the cloud-based integrated system is working within your established bandwidth limitations.
Support and Evolution
In this stage, the support team will monitor the performance of the integrated system and handle its scale-outs and scale-ups.
Cloud Integration Platform Elements
If you are thinking of which cloud integration platform would be ideal for your business, the first step would be to understand all the essential elements. We have listed below the key capabilities and components of a comprehensive cloud integration platform that should be prioritized when making a decision:
Security: It safeguards sensitive and confidential data from hackers or unauthorized users.
Built-in Connector: This component leverages API integration functionalities for better management of complex business environments.
Virtual Infrastructure: It streamlines your cloud integration processes without the requirement of custom coding.
Automation: This feature ensures efficient integration of your online services and improves both client experience and productivity.
Speed: Enables easy and quick connectivity for integrating data, apps, and systems.
Conclusion
When it comes to cloud integration, broadly speaking, enterprises have two options. Either they can use existing integration platforms or develop a custom integration solution in-house. However, as the number of applications in your business stack increases, developing or handling an in-house solution can become resource-intensive and cumbersome. Developers will have to perform various functions such as network integration, resource integration, elasticity integration, and control integration to effectively integrate cloud systems into your business. However, it is essential to work with a reliable and experienced cloud development and integration team to ensure operational efficiency, network efficiency, and data security.
