In the dynamic landscape of modern technology, cloud computing has emerged as a pivotal force reshaping the way businesses and individuals manage, process, and store data. At its core, cloud computing refers to the delivery of computing services—such as storage, processing power, and applications—over the internet. Cloud services offer a flexible and cost-effective solution, enabling organizations to adapt to evolving technological demands without the constraints of traditional on-premises infrastructure.

To comprehend the diverse spectrum of cloud offerings, it’s essential to explore the three primary cloud service models: Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Software as a Service (SaaS). Each model represents a distinct layer of abstraction, providing users with varying levels of control and responsibility. Understanding these models is crucial for businesses seeking to leverage the benefits of the cloud while aligning their IT infrastructure with specific operational requirements.

Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) stands as a fundamental pillar within the realm of cloud computing, offering a robust framework that liberates organizations from the burden of managing and maintaining physical infrastructure. In essence, IaaS provides virtualized computing resources over the internet, allowing users to rent servers, storage, and networking components on a pay-as-you-go basis. One of the defining characteristics of IaaS lies in its scalability, granting users the flexibility to scale their infrastructure up or down based on demand. Use cases for IaaS range from hosting web applications and development environments to supporting complex data analytics and high-performance computing tasks. Prominent examples of IaaS providers include Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud Platform (GCP). Despite its advantages, IaaS comes with its set of considerations. While offering unparalleled control and customization, users bear the responsibility of managing the operating system, middleware, and applications, which could be seen as a drawback for those seeking a fully managed solution. Additionally, potential challenges include security concerns and the necessity for skilled IT personnel to effectively navigate and optimize the infrastructure. Despite these considerations, IaaS remains a powerful tool for organizations aiming to build a scalable, efficient, and tailored IT environment in the cloud.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) represents a pivotal advancement in cloud computing, streamlining the development and deployment of applications without the intricacies of managing the underlying infrastructure. At its core, PaaS provides a comprehensive platform that includes not only computing resources but also the necessary tools, services, and frameworks for application development. This abstraction of infrastructure details allows developers to focus on coding and innovation, accelerating the development lifecycle. Key characteristics of PaaS include its seamless integration with development tools, automated scaling capabilities, and a shared development environment conducive to collaboration. PaaS finds its application in various use cases, ranging from web and mobile application development to data analytics and business process automation. Leading providers such as Heroku, Google App Engine, and Microsoft Azure App Services exemplify the diversity and effectiveness of PaaS solutions. The advantages of PaaS are evident in its ability to streamline development, reduce time to market, and simplify the overall application management process. However, this simplicity comes with trade-offs, as users relinquish some control over the underlying infrastructure, potentially limiting customization options. In essence, PaaS emerges as a compelling choice for those prioritizing efficiency and speed in application development, while acknowledging the trade-offs inherent in a more abstracted cloud service model.

Azure Integration Services is a set of application integration services within the wider Microsoft Azure offering. Hosted purely in the cloud, Azure iPaaS consists of four core elements:

• Logic Apps: creates workflows and business processes between services in the cloud and on-premises
• Service Bus: connects on-premises and cloud-based apps and services for secure messaging workflows
• API Management: publishes APIs securely for internal and external developers to use when connecting to back-end systems
• Event Grid: connects Azure and third-party services with a managed event-routing service, for event-based app development

These four are not packaged together, giving you the freedom to pick the components required for your particular use cases.

You can use Azure to connect virtually any cloud or on-premises applications, Microsoft or not. But naturally, Microsoft has made it easy to connect Azure iPaaS to other services within the Microsoft Azure platform. And organisations with a strong technical investment in Microsoft software often prefer the relative familiarity of Azure.

Azure Logic Apps connectors are available for Microsoft software such as Power BI, Outlook, SharePoint, and SQL Server, as well as for Salesforce, SAP, IBM, and Oracle.

You can also benefit from connectors for industry-standard business-to-business (B2B) formats such as XML, EDIFACT, and AS2. The FTP and File System connectors provide access to files and folders online and on-premises. When connecting less common applications, you have the ability to create custom connectors within Azure.

While the core services above only deal with application integration, Azure also provides data integration capabilities. This is required if your application needs to store unstructured data, for example, or include custom code for specialised data transformations.

To achieve these, you simply connect the Azure iPaaS to a service such as Azure Data Lake Store or Azure Functions. To work with unstructured big data in a traditional extract, transform, load (ETL) process, you should use Azure Data Factory.

Below are a few of the benefits our clients have seen from Azure-based integration solutions.

• Consumption-based pricing: With Azure, you pay for only what you use. If you have an Office 365 connector that’s triggered when a file is modified, for example, you only pay for when that trigger occurs. This makes it easy to start with a small budget and ramp up as your business needs expand.
• Test for free: Because you only pay for live consumption, your developers can build and test integrations in Azure without paying a penny.
• Little coding required: Azure services are low-code, meaning you create integrations with a drag-and-drop interface. This speeds up development and mitigates the need for lengthy testing.
• Maintenance included: Microsoft takes care of all the computing infrastructure, such as scalability and virtual machines. It would be much more expensive to retain your own IT maintenance team.
• Professional security: Microsoft has a team of 3,500 cyber security experts protecting Azure from global threats, so your integrations are in safe hands.
• Environmental transparency: Those with environmental targets can use Microsoft Sustainability Calculator to calculate the impact of Azure services.

Given the over 300 connectors available, virtually any integration is achievable with Azure iPaaS. Our digital integration team has used Azure to connect systems such as SAP, Excel, Power BI, SQL Server, and Oracle HCM Cloud. A few of the business solutions we’ve achieved with Azure include:

• providing field workers with up-to-date stock inventory information
• enabling customers around the world to track their orders online
• unifying disparate HR, payroll, and pensions data into a single HR platform
• automating the transfer of warranty claims data into a central ERP

For a detailed understanding of what we can achieve with Azure integration, read our Tullis Russell Azure integration case study.

Boomi is one of the most highly-popular iPaaS, having been a leader in Gartner’s Enterprise iPaaS Magic Quadrant for many years. Boomi is an all-in-one integration platform consisting of five capabilities:

• integrating applications and data across the cloud and on-premises
• synchronising and enriching trusted data with master data management
• designing, securing, and scaling APIs with API management
• providing secure integration with partners through B2B/EDI management
• automating workflows and developing applications with low-code tools

Your level of access to these components depends on your chosen Boomi edition (Professional, Professional Plus, Enterprise, or Enterprise Plus).

Boomi offers two types of connector: application connectors, which connect to specific software, and technology connectors, which use standard data formats and drivers.

All in all, there are over 100 standard application connectors for Microsoft, SAP, Amazon, Oracle, Google, Salesforce, Workday, Sage, Jira, Quickbooks, and more. Combined with the technology connectors, it’s possible to connect almost any cloud or on-premises data and applications with Boomi.

Below are a few reasons why Boomi is the platform of choice for many of our clients.

• High customer satisfaction: Boomi has long been considered an iPaaS leader, and has a customer renewal rate of 97 percent.
• Established community: With over 10,000 customers globally, Boomi’s platform provides intelligent recommendations crowd-sourced from its large development community.
• Connection-based pricing: You only pay for the initial licence and the number of unique connections deployed. There is no additional charge for the number of application or technology connectors used in each connection.
• Flexible billing: Boomi users can choose between monthly or annual billing, to suit their financial preferences.
• Low-code development: An intuitive interface, with pre-made templates for the most common scenarios, allows you to create integrations in a fraction of the usual time.
• Frequent updates: Boomi updates its iPaaS with the latest features on a monthly basis, freeing up your IT team to focus on delivery.

Boomi’s connectors provide near-total flexibility for application and data integration. On top of the branded connectors, Boomi successfully connects to hundreds more applications via its standards-based technology connectors.

In our position as a Boomi Advanced Partner, we have achieved the following solutions with Boomi:

• eliminating manual data entry between sales, finance, and education software
• connecting a global payment platform with legacy databases through API-led connectivity
• integrating 22 disparate applications and databases for a national delivery company
• enabling targeted marketing by linking a travel booking system to a marketing platform

To learn more about what Boomi can achieve, take a look at our Boomi case study.

With companies increasingly having to store and access large amounts of data, managing it effectively has become difficult. This holds true for companies that have data spread across various systems, held in separate locations. Enterprise data integration is a way of unifying these disparate data sets in a single location. The “enterprise” classification infers that the systems are more complex and expansive than standard data integration processes.

Why is it important?

With organisations that have a continuous requirement of collecting data, their priority lies in finding a solution to bring together large quantities of data effectively. The following are some of the key reasons for why enterprise data integration is important:

Cloud and on-premise inconsistencies
Many organisations have their systems and data both in the cloud and on-premises, leading to a hybrid cloud solution. Connecting such systems is not straightforward especially as cloud solutions are typically newer and may not work well with legacy on-premise solutions.

Manual processes
Automation is a key feature in assisting organisations in handling mass sets of data. For those that don’t have automation or intelligence capabilities, manual processes are a hindrance and blocker with a large amount of time and resources wasted.

Siloed data
As mentioned above, data is being spread across different systems and platforms making it difficult to easily locate and access it when needed. Data may also be held in non-standard formats making it impossible to make sense of.

Technical difficulties
A traditional IT department will not be equipped with the right tools or knowledge to perform enterprise data integration due to the complexity of the challenges. Purpose-built enterprise data integration tools will be necessary to manage existing integrations and to streamline the process.

Regulations
With compliance becoming an increasing factor in data privacy, companies have to proactively ensure they are adhering to regulations set around the world, including EU’s GDPR laws and CCPA. Enterprise data integration helps to ensure systems become and stay compliant across all regulations.

Benefits of enterprise data integration

Increased productivity
Free up the resources and time wasted on manual processes and focus on business critical tasks. Achieve better and faster output from your teams.

Greater visibility
Unify your data and get an overview in a single location, leading to empowered business decisions for stakeholders.

Faster time to value
Accelerate integration and share synchronised insights across teams. Derive key points of actions from data quickly and effectively.

Future planning
With centralised data comes better reporting capabilities, leading to successful decision making. With new data sources continuously being added, your system will ensure no data sets are siloed ever again.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is the process of recording and understanding how customers interact with your business. Importantly, organisations need to implement CRM integration, which means connecting all data sources within the business. By ensuring CRM integration is fully realised in your business, you will get the most out of your base CRM solution.

CRM integration allows for powerful interactions across applications and devices including reporting software, e-commerce systems, calendars, lead generation, ERP. Crucially, CRM integration will grant your business 360 degree view of customers and allows users to find information in a centralised location, improving productivity, and reducing complexity. However, it can benefit you in even more ways.

Capture data easily

Customer data captured in one location will synchronise across locations. Traditionally, data is collected in spreadsheets and manually uploaded to a CRM system at irregular intervals. With automated CRM processes, you can save time and increase productivity.

Centralise data and prevent data silos

CRM integration eliminates the need to manually navigate between data sources to find information. This means large data pools merge together and ensures all teams have access to the same up-to-date customer information.

Better campaign planning

With in-depth customer data, your business will be able to customise campaigns to match customer trends. With extensive data, marketers can fine-tune messaging and ensure content fits what customers want to see.

Track customer journeys

Find out where your customers are in their purchasing/sales journey and target them with the right tactics. By integrating your CRM with other business-critical systems such as e-commerce, marketing automation, and CMS, you can easily record every customer interaction.

In an age of abundant customer data, it’s essential that businesses can manage and utilise this data to their advantage. Strategic use of ETL solutions helps collect data from potentially hundreds of sources and reformat it into actionable reports. This brings tangible benefits in the form of speed, savings, with strong customer data integration.

Here’s how you can use ETL to improve your consumer experiences with customer data integration:

1. Improve CRM marketing strategy

CRM marketing is the tactics, and tech marketers use to manage their customer relationships throughout the lifecycle. With our ETL data integration services, you can bring your customer data together to drive more targeted CRM marketing. Using ETL, we can collect customer data from different locations and servers to help you make more informed marketing decisions. 

This data can include everything from keyword searches to shopping cart abandonment and how long users spent interacting with your site. So instead of wasting your budget on generic ads, you can create bespoke retargeting advertisements which will help bring your customers back.

2. Boost sales figures

You can automatically create complete profiles of your customers’ behaviour and buying habits with an ETL tool. Having access to automated customer profiles will improve your decision-making in everything from ordering stock to closing sales.

3. Improve customer service

Effective use of ETL will help you improve your customer service quality and speed. With an ETL tool, you can create a centralised access point for your customer service team to locate answers to customer enquiries. Time spent dealing with customers is reduced, and you can also use customer data to train staff to handle issues quicker.

4. Maintain your customer base

With our ETL services, you can track customer trends and use that data to maintain a loyal customer base. Access to this data will help provide a basis for positive customer relationships.

If you still aren’t sure if ETL can help you get more value from customer data, why not look at our case studies?

• Global publishers gain a 360-degree view of business with our ETL management

We’ve all seen how companies like Netflix and Stripe have benefited from API-led integration. APIs are the tool that enterprises use to enable digital interaction with their customers, employees, and partners. But manually ensuring the security and performance of hundreds of APIs is a time-consuming task. That’s why API management platforms are such a vital asset for all industries in today’s economy.

Microsoft Azure is our software of choice when it comes to helping our clients with their API management needs. That’s why we’ve decided to list some of the benefits we’ve found with the system for you.

Competitively priced API management

Like most Microsoft Azure services, this system is charged based on consumption and is, therefore, the perfect option for mid-level or enterprise businesses that are likely to evolve over the following months and years.

Depending on which Azure API management package you opt for, the price per hour varies from just £0.05 an hour (personal) to £2.86 an hour (premium).

If you need clarity about the likely cost of Azure API management for your business, we have a team of digital integration experts who will do the maths for you.

Save time through centralised access

Before software like Microsoft Azure API Management hit the market, developers would have to manually check through thousands of APIs to monitor their progress and ensure each one was performing at best capacity. Microsoft Azure API Management automates and facilitates the design, deployment, and maintenance of your APIs in one place, saving precious developer time.

Increased API security 

Microsoft Azure API Management has a range of security options that add an extra barrier around your sensitive data. These methods include authorisation keys, back-end API security, client certificates, and APIM to back-end API Mutual certification.

Optimising APIs with full visibility

For larger businesses, the process of manually checking in on APIs is very time-consuming. Thankfully, Azure API Management provides a single gateway for all API monitoring activities. Developers can check in on the progress of their APIs and view automatic reports to help ensure everything is optimised correctly. If there is an issue with an API, it can easily be fixed at an early stage and prevent a “domino effect” with other APIs later on.

Empower third parties with your APIs for free

Microsoft Azure API Management developer portal provides an easy way for third-party developers to understand your APIs and try them out before usage. With either a managed or a self-hosted version of the portal, you have plenty of options to customise and extend the functionality. And the best part? The portal is free to use and automatically generated.

So why use Microsoft Azure API Management?

APIs are about bringing applications together seamlessly, and Azure API Management platform makes that process fast, cost-effective, and secure. Having the ability to manage and control the entire API ecosystem through one “gateway” is essential for an enterprise to succeed and work effectively. 

The Azure API Management platform empowers developers to monitor the performance of APIs quickly and make simple tweaks early on. The software also adds an added level of security for businesses looking to protect valuable data.

Overall, effective API management is a vital part of a modern digital integration strategy. And a platform like Microsoft Azure API Management accelerates and secures the entire API lifecycle, so your business can thrive in the API-led marketplace.