Learn More About iPaaS Software
What is iPaaS?
Technology evolution has led enterprises to continuously evaluate their digital transformation strategies to stay ahead of the competition. This has led to the increased adoption of cloud solutions like platform-as-a-service (PaaS), software-as-a-service (SaaS), and more. Data within an organization is often disparate and distributed across various applications and platforms. One of the major challenges organizations face is integrating all this data from different applications deployed both on-premises and on the cloud to enable smooth and efficient data exchange and syncing, internally as well as externally.
The main purpose of an iPaaS solution is to connect applications and systems deployed across various environments like on-premises or in the cloud. An iPaaS solution makes integration work across organizations easier as it requires little to no knowledge of programming languages.
iPaaS platforms allow users to streamline the process of developing, managing, and governing integration flows, thus enabling teams and customers to connect applications. The modern workplace relies on digital solutions to work together; implementing software applications at work is only half the battle—there is an increasing demand for robust, stable integrations that allow these systems to seamlessly communicate and perform.
With new applications being introduced, a company’s existing connectors become outdated as they upgrade to different solutions or integrate new technology into their IT infrastructure. As new cloud services and applications are released, the need for updated application program interfaces (APIs) and other integrations that allow free-flowing data increases. iPaaS’ advanced integration platforms help businesses design and deploy solutions that link disparate platforms across systems. Seamless integrations can be crafted with these intuitive tools rather than performing extensive coding. Many platforms help build and distribute integrations and allow users to monitor the integration’s performance and activity. Whether deploying proprietary, on-premises solutions or bridging the gaps between third-party platforms and data sources, the right integration platform greatly assists with this process.
What Does iPaaS Stand For?
iPaaS stands for integration platform as a service. However, enabling data integration across an organization irrespective of the deployment model is just one of many things that this software can do. It also offers features to support business development, and manage and govern their integration flows from a centralized console system. Typical use cases of iPaaS solutions include cloud service integration, application integration, B2B ecosystem integration, and more.
What are the Common Features of iPaaS?
iPaaS solutions can help users build, govern, and manage integrations across various deployments. Whether applications reside on-premises or in the cloud, an iPaaS solution can provide seamless integration, thus allowing effective access and sharing of data in real time. Following are some core features within iPaaS solutions:
API designer: iPaaS solutions provide a web-based interface for designing, documenting, and testing APIs.
Flow designer: The technology allows workflow automation with the help of a drag-and-drop interface.
Prebuilt connectors: iPaaS facilitates API development and integrations with prebuilt connectors, templates, and examples.
Custom connectors: Custom connectors provide the ability to create connectors from existing services and APIs in catalogs.
Monitoring and notification: iPaaS solutions provide a console for monitoring resource utilization, system health, ability to start and stop processes, and more.
Reporting and analytics: Reporting and analytics feature provides dashboards to gain real-time insights into API performance, usage, and errors.
Routing and orchestration: iPaaS enables data routing on a configuration basis and management of complex workflows through an orchestration engine.
Data mapping: Data mapping facilitates to and fro data map according to the data model between applications or web services.
Data transformation: Standard tools and functions are available to convert data values from the data format of a source system into the data format of a destination system.
Data encryption: iPaaS solutions employ data encryption both at rest and in transit.
Role-based control: iPaaS controls access to integration functionalities by assigning roles to the users.
Security standards: Security standards in iPaaS solutions comply with key industry standards like SOC 2, ISO 27001, PCI DSS, HIPAA, and more to protect and safeguard data.
Communication protocol: iPaaS supports secure communication protocols like FTPS, SFTP, and more.
Data virtualization: The software integrates data from disparate sources, without physical data movement.
Master data management: iPaaS supports managing master data by removing duplicates, standardizing data in mass, using rules, and more to eliminate incorrect data from entering the system.
Big data processing: Big data processing features provide integration to big data sources such as Hadoop and other NoSQL sources (MongoDB, Cassandra, and HBase).
Electronic data interchange (EDI): The software provides integrations to EDI service providers.
Other Features of PaaS Software: Hybrid Capabilities, Reusable connectors Capabilities
What are the Benefits of iPaaS?
iPaaS solutions offer a centralized platform to deploy, manage, and integrate data from multiple clouds as well as on-premises applications and systems to create a single source of truth to access all the data resources across an organization in the most seamless and effortless manner possible. Organizations look for robust iPaaS solutions that are capable of supporting multiple integration patterns with enhanced flexibility. The benefits of using an iPaaS solution include:
Cost efficiency: An iPaaS solution can help save costs in hiring highly paid developers to build and deploy integrations. This software is available on a subscription basis in the cloud, therefore there are no additional costs associated with hardware or software.
Increased efficiency and productivity: An iPaaS solution typically helps enterprises seamlessly and efficiently integrate multiple applications and data irrespective of where they reside. This makes real-time data easily available and helps organizations save a lot of time for their IT teams to reduce juggling between applications and systems to search for information. The centralized dashboard made available through an iPaaS solution lets businesses have end-to-end visibility across their integration flows, thus making it easy for them to focus on other processes.
Less complex and easy to use: iPaaS solutions are mostly based on low-code or zero-code development, that is it doesn’t require employees to be highly specialized coders to be able to use the platform. The platform comes with prebuilt connectors which help accelerate integration projects, helping businesses cut time around building integrations with traditional techniques. Since the platform is on the cloud, the provider takes up the responsibility of maintenance, upgrades, security, and reliability of the solution.
Who Uses iPaaS?
The following are some common users based on profession and role within an organization:
Application developer: Application development teams have a huge stake in how applications communicate and function with others. This typically requires APIs and integrations to be included in an application or made easily available to the platform’s user base. An application developer may leverage one of the integration applications to create functional integrations based on the expected needs of the target audience. These integrations can be prebuilt and marketed as such, so potential customers know which of their existing applications can sync and exchange data with the new platform. In many cases, developers create new integrations for a product based on user demand or in response to popular applications on the market. iPaaS solutions allow application developers to do this with relative ease by using templates from past integrations; this enables them to deploy finished integrations to active users more efficiently.
Cloud architect: Cloud architects help organizations oversee cloud strategies, such as application design and updating system architectures based on evolving software and hardware across an organization. If a company updates a legacy system or introduces a new technology into their IT infrastructure, it may require additional steps. For example, a company may want to test new integrations before full deployment. Cloud architects can leverage iPaaS solutions to easily create new integrations while managing existing integrations when new technologies are introduced or old ones are altered. This ensures that company systems perform at the highest level, even as individual components undergo modifications.
Network engineer: Network engineers share similar responsibilities of cloud architects, but with more focus on on-premises technologies and their corresponding activities across an organization. There are both engineering and administration components to these roles, from the planning and design of system architectures to the management and troubleshooting of company systems. If employees encounter issues with interactions between separate applications, network engineers can create new integrations or manage existing ones to resolve communication issues. They may also proactively create new integrations for new applications in the company network.
What are the Alternatives to iPaaS?
Alternatives to iPaaS can replace this type of software, either partially or completely, include:
Enterprise service bus (ESB) software: ESB is an architectural pattern that enables applications to communicate easily and allow data transfers between them. These solutions are specifically designed to cater to on-premises integrations, although some solutions can manage cloud-based integrations also. iPaaS and ESB serve the same purpose of integration for enterprise applications and systems, however, the difference between them is with the type and level of integrations they handle and the deployment options they cater to. An iPaaS can manage both cloud and on-premises integrations, whereas ESB chiefly works on on-premises integrations.
Software Related to iPaaS
Related solutions that can be used together with iPaaS include:
API management software: API management software is perhaps the closest to iPaaS software, with a focus on the creation and management of (APIs. APIs are messengers that allow two software applications to communicate with each other and perform functions outside of an established network, enabling individuals and businesses to accomplish more tasks. API managers complement iPaaS software for businesses looking to create a seamless experience across as many platforms as possible, with similar creation, deployment, and management tools offered by iPaaS software.
API marketplace software: Some iPaaS companies provide access to user communities where templates and integration files can be uploaded and exchanged. API marketplaces offer similar functionality built around APIs, rather than integrations. Not only can application developers upload and distribute their API creations on these marketplaces, but in some cases, they can monetize them. These marketplaces are a significant resource for developers looking to increase the accessibility and practicality of these tools to a wider audience.
Challenges with iPaaS
Software solutions can come with their own set of challenges.
Custom requirements: Although iPaaS solutions cater to multiple integration needs and use cases in the market, there can be uncommon use cases where iPaaS has no solutions. This could be because the requirement is too customized technically. A major drawback of an iPaaS solution is that it is unable to serve highly specific functional and technical requirements at times which is when vendors need to look for other integration tools and techniques.
How to Buy iPaaS
Requirements Gathering (RFI/RFP) for iPaaS
If a company is just starting out and looking to purchase the first iPaaS solution, or maybe an organization needs to update a legacy system--wherever a business is in its buying process, g2.com can help select the best iPaaS software for the business.
The particular business pain points might be related to integrating data and applications deployed across the organization whether on-premises or in the cloud that must be connected well to attain a centralized real time view of all the data. Users should think about the pain points and jot them down; these should be used to help create a checklist of criteria. Additionally, the buyer must determine the number of employees who will need to use this software, as this drives the number of licenses they are likely to buy.
Taking a holistic overview of the business and identifying pain points can help the team springboard into creating a checklist of criteria. The checklist serves as a detailed guide that includes both necessary and nice-to-have features including budget, features, number of users, integrations, security requirements, cloud or on-premises solutions, and more.
Depending on the scope of the deployment, it might be helpful to produce a request for information (RFI), a one-page list with a few bullet points describing what is needed from the iPaaS software.
Compare iPaaS Products
Create a long list
From meeting the business functionality needs to implementation, vendor evaluations are an essential part of the software buying process. For ease of comparison after all demos are complete, it helps to prepare a consistent list of questions regarding specific needs and concerns to ask each vendor.
Create a short list
From the long list of vendors, it is helpful to narrow down the list of vendors and come up with a shorter list of contenders, preferably no more than three to five. With this list in hand, businesses can produce a matrix to compare the features and pricing of the various solutions.
Conduct demos
To ensure the comparison is thoroughgoing, the user should demo each solution on the shortlist with the same use case and datasets. This will allow the business to evaluate like for like and see how each vendor stacks up against the competition.
Selection of iPaaS
Choose a selection team
Before getting started, it's crucial to create a winning selection team that will work together throughout the entire process, from identifying pain points to implementation. The software selection team should consist of members of the organization who have the right interest, skills, and time to participate in this process. A good starting point is to aim for three to five people who fill roles such as the main decision maker, project manager, process owner, system owner, or staffing subject matter expert, as well as a technical lead, IT administrator, or security administrator. In smaller companies, the vendor selection team may be smaller, with fewer participants multitasking and taking on more responsibilities.
Negotiation
Just because something is written on a company’s pricing page, does not mean it is a hard and fast rule to follow (although some companies will not budge). It is imperative to open up a conversation regarding pricing and licensing. For example, the vendor may be willing to give a discount for multi-year contracts or for recommending the product to others.
Final decision
After this stage, and before going all in, it is recommended to roll out a test run or pilot program to test adoption with a small sample size of users. If the tool is well used and well received, the buyer can be confident that the selection was correct. If not, it might be time to go back to the drawing board.
What Does iPaaS Cost?
iPaaS solutions are mostly made available as subscription models along with pricing tiers which depend on parameters like the volume of data being moved, processing power utilized, number of connections, and so forth. Sometimes providers choose to include additional costs such as support and training provisions, building and deploying additional new integrations, and more.
iPaaS Trends
IPaaS solutions are overall very well positioned to solve the next-generation integration challenges. To stay ahead of the competition and achieve increased agility, businesses are opting to use an integration solution to effectively and seamlessly integrate applications, data, and systems.
Increase in e-commerce integration solutions
The movement of e-commerce toward B2B and B2C platforms is making them take hold of tasks such as order placing and delivery, inventory management, warehouse management, and more. iPaaS solutions are coming into the picture with integrations to unify back-end processes and systems like ERP. These integration tools will help streamline the processes involved in e-commerce management, thus reducing the burden on IT to manually manage data across systems.
