What Is iPaaS? Exploring Integration Platform as a Service

Cloud services power many industries, but they are often scattered across different applications. To integrate everything across multiple clouds, organizations use an integration platform as a service (iPaaS).

Modern companies rely on a mixture of on-premises, public, and private clouds, necessitating data transfer between applications. This is where iPaaS can help. But what is iPaaS, and why do so many organizations depend on it?

iPaaS definition

iPaaS is a set of tools organizations can use to seamlessly integrate applications and data across multiple clouds.

Rather than asking their IT departments to build a custom solution from different software applications, organizations can leverage iPaaS's pre-built set of tools, rules, connectors, and transformations to make integrating applications more manageable.

How does iPaaS work?

iPaaS solutions free businesses from managing the technical side of application integration. The iPaaS provider handles the management and governance of the services used by the business.

Although the in-house IT team must guide the implementation by sending feature requests and specifying any custom requirements, this solution requires much less of their time. Therefore, your team can focus on other essential tasks, such as managing in-house services and supporting employees.

The main functions of iPaaS

iPaaS has many uses within an organization, including the following:

• Application integration: iPaaS helps businesses integrate their applications and systems by enabling data exchange and automation.
• Data integration: Using iPaaS services, companies can reliably and accurately consolidate data from multiple sources.
• Workflow orchestration: iPaaS helps businesses create and manage complex workflows, automating critical business processes.
• API management: Businesses that rely on multiple applications must often manage several APIs. iPaaS provides tools for this purpose.
• Support for multiple protocols: Communication may occur over various protocols, including HTTP, FTP, and ODP. iPaaS can help implement the required systems for communication.
• Processing various data formats: iPaaS providers can assist with integrating applications that provide data in XML, JSON, CSV, and even proprietary formats.
• Resource monitoring: Providers can monitor applications for downtime and latency.

5 iPaaS benefits

Working with an iPaaS provider offers significant advantages, including:

• Simple integration: The iPaaS provider sets up and monitors your applications, which reduces the burden on your in-house IT team.
• Increased scalability: iPaaS offers scalability for growth and increased data transfer requirements.
• Greater flexibility: You'll have robust and well-documented integrations, so you can easily adapt if you change your workflows or requirements.
• Save time: iPaaS tools reduce time spent on development and deployment with enterprise-grade tools and ready-made workflows.
• Save money: Faster, more reliable implementations will save you money in the long term.

Challenges of iPaaS

Although iPaaS is a powerful and valuable tool, there are some potential roadblocks to consider:

• Data security: You must choose your provider carefully to ensure compliance with local data security and privacy regulations.
• Vendor lock-in: Take care to understand the systems used by your provider to ensure you can switch platforms without another complex and costly conversion process.
• Communication issues: If your data integration requirements are complex, ensure the provider understands them and communicates with you promptly and efficiently.

8 use cases of iPaaS

Businesses in a variety of sectors can benefit from iPaaS. Here are some typical use cases:

E-commerce integration

iPaaS companies can integrate e-commerce platforms with back-end systems. For example, iPaaS can connect an e-commerce system with an external inventory management system or an online POS.

Cloud migration

iPaaS streamlines the migration of applications and data from older legacy desktop/intranet systems to cloud/SaaS platforms. It may be helpful for migrating CRM systems or data from financial platforms.

Internet of things (IoT) integration

iPaaS connects and integrates IoT devices, enabling real-time data collection and automation. Today, various industries employ IoT devices, including supply-chain management, medical systems, and more.

Connecting to external APIs

Businesses that rely heavily on external APIs, such as public databases or information from suppliers, can use iPaaS services to streamline their connectivity.

Merging hybrid clouds

Many businesses end up with hybrid clouds (i.e., cloud services offering features of both public and private clouds) either by design or because of the natural evolution of their cloud services. iPaaS can reduce the friction of that evolution.

BYOD environments

Businesses that let employees bring their own devices may struggle to support Apple, Linux, and Microsoft applications. An iPaaS service may improve the support for these systems.

Adopting modern standards

Businesses seeking to update their software to modern standards may benefit from the advice of iPaaS experts so they can future-proof any data they're working with.

Best practices for iPaaS

Some essential best practices to consider when working on iPaaS include the following:

• Understand your requirements: Do you fully grasp the stack of applications you're working with? Identify each application and how they're connected before you start.
• Ask your iPaaS provider to explain their work: iPaaS providers are good at making things work, but your administrators must understand how the interconnectivity was achieved in order to change things or fix issues.
• Use multiple providers if necessary: You may need multiple providers to achieve full coverage of your stack. With good communication between your team and the providers, this solution will prove more reliable than contracting one provider who lacks the tools for all your applications or services.
• Be prepared for disruption: iPaaS providers often use online tools, which are vulnerable to outages. Have a plan for when those outages occur.
• Reevaluate your integrations regularly: Even if your integrations are working, there may be opportunities to increase their efficiency. Stay up to date with the latest technologies.

iPaaS vs. PaaS vs. SaaS

The acronyms iPaaS, PaaS, and SaaS may look similar, but they aren't interchangeable. iPaaS, as we already discussed, covers integration; noteworthy examples of iPaaS platforms include Workato, Celigo, Boomi, and Tray.io.

Meanwhile, cloud service providers like Stripe, Salesforce, and AWS Elastic Beanstalk offer platform as a service (PaaS) so developers can quickly access the infrastructure and development/deployment environments they need to create software and apps in the cloud.

Finally, SaaS refers to software as a service. Cloud-based applications, such as Microsoft Office 365 and Salesforce, are well-known examples of SaaS.

iPaaS platforms often work with PaaS and SaaS technologies. For example, they can help businesses transfer data from an older desktop application into SaaS apps or help a company reliably connect two SaaS apps.

Orderful and iPaaS help your organization grow

As businesses settle into hybrid and remote working, demand for cloud integration continues to grow. Orderful provides one of the most useful cloud-based integrations: electronic data interchange (EDI).

If you'd like to learn more about cloud-based EDI and forge stronger connections with your industry partners, contact us today to book a consultation with one of our EDI experts.