Monday 30 June 2014

How to Integrate Applications Productively In The Cloud

In today's business environment, where organizations have to access and manage voluminous amount of data from multiple data sources such as cloud, social networks, Software as a Service(SaaS), web data sources and others, effective application integration is decisive to ensure seamless transmission of information. Application integration which is also known as enterprise application integration encompasses integrating different applications within an enterprise  to make sure that there is an liberal flow of data and seamless integration of business processes. Application integration is implemented to simplify business processes by automating the entire process but without much extensive changes either to the application or data structures.

Traditional Approach
Application integration is a composite process relating integration of numerous applications running on many systems and these systems could be in various locations and could be utilizing multiple files and databases. The challenge is to efficiently unite multiple applications to make sure of uninterrupted data flow. Traditionally, integration was made through middleware, which was either bought from a program vendor or code written on a convention basis. However, this approach had its own share of shortcomings, which made it costly.

Application Integration versus Cloud Computing
The introduction of cloud computing brought a new approach for enterprises who were displeased with the pain points of the traditional method. Today more enterprises are taking application integration into the cloud.

Challenge of Application Integration in the Cloud
What is diverse about cloud integration is that it offers a new mode for delivering integration. Nevertheless, the main issue of propagation of business data, which the traditional solutions are incapable to control, remains unresolved. Though we have made great innovation in certain references, the dependence on hand coded and point-to-point solutions is the utmost drawback of application integration. As far as programming languages are involved there are several easy to use languages like Perl, PHP, Python and ROR available, however these don't make integration easier in any means This is because the hand coded solutions are easily broken, not reusable, hard to maintain and not effortlessly extensible as requirements alter. The greatest drawback of hand-coded solutions is the price of development and the much greater cost of maintenance. Hence, what is required is an enhanced solution that is capable of handling the data deluge and the different data sources.

Resolution to Cloud Application Integration Challenge
The resolution to this challenge of cloud integration is a latest approach or business model that can present an easy consistent, straightforward, reusable, and infinitely extensible option to assist easier integration between applications. The accessibility of new integration software in the market has made things easier for enterprises as it manages integration needs of the entire kinds. What is significant about this platform is that it excludes hand-coded solutions and in its place brings custom-made data packets that can integrate any kind of applications. In addition, these data packets can read, write and transform from any place allowing databases, web, files and SaaS data to be shared and utilized by applications as desired. What is exceptional about these data packets is that some of these are available free of cost.

Nowadays integration solutions are not restricted to traditional Extract, Transform, Load (ETL), Enterprise Application Integration (EAI), or Enterprise Information Integration (EII) alone. The data needs to be incorporated with various end points such as files, reports, spreadsheets, public websites, cloud-based applications, social media, web services and others. In such a situation, the accessibility of this modern technology is a respite for all enterprises exhausted of facing the various integration issues.

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