The Dell Boomi Blog

Integration IS the Application

Integration Is the Application

 

Ok – that statement may be a little over the top but I make it in the same spirit as Sun’s vision for so many years that “the network is the computer.” Using that analogy, I absolutely believe that integration is the application in the SaaS paradigm.

 

I was speaking with the CEO of one of our partner companies last week. He was excited because they had an interesting prospect for their SaaS application and were very close to closing the deal. The prospect liked the functionality of the application and felt it was a good fit for their business. So, the CEO said, all we need to do is integrate them with a few things and we’re all set… 

 

Well the few things turned out to be the prospect’s website, several online trading marketplaces, an on prem point-of-sale system, an on prem financial system, and an online third-party shipping system. Oh and of course the partner’s SaaS application. And please deliver all of that without adding any appreciable cost to my solution such that I get priced out of the deal. Sure – no problem!

 

In the SaaS world of APIs, web services, and interoperability, it is increasingly common to see highly specialized applications focused on solving a specific business requirement but with very deep and rich functionality. That’s the beauty of a service oriented approach. However, this approach relies heavily on the ability to integrate with other highly specialized apps to deliver a complete and holistic solution to the end customer.

 

We get calls almost weekly from SaaS ISVs who have built really ingenious and innovative applications for the Web assuming there would be a way to solve their integration needs. They need to get data from multiple disparate data sources both in the cloud and behind the firewall to make their application “sing” and find that traditional on premise integration software packages or hardware appliances have become a sales and implementation hurdle as well as a long term scaling issue.

 

Integration, and the ability to deliver integration as a service, is quickly becoming a competitive imperative. It’s not enough to just offer APIs to your customers. Increasingly consumers of software as a service also want to buy integration as a service as well. They want a complete and integrated solution that works “out of the box,” can be deployed rapidly, and begins delivering value immediately. When you buy appliances for your house, they come with cords and plugs – you don’t need to be an electrician to use them. Integration is the application…

New Features, Faster Integration Deployment

We are happy to announce some exciting features that we've released this week.  The three major enhancements have been Test Mode, Cross Reference Tables and Flat File Import.  We are always looking at ways to reduce the time it takes to setup an integration and get it working.  You find that as a common theme in our latest feature releases.

Test Mode

The first enhancement, Test Mode, is by far the most exciting.  There is no longer the need to build a process, deploy, execute & wait for the results in the Manage tab.  You now actually have the ability to test a process right from the Build tab while the process is open!  You simply need to click 'Test Mode' located in the upper right hand corner of your process and the screen will transform for you.  Choose your atom, hit the play button and watch it run.  You'll even see each shape hilight green and red based on the status of the run.  Logging also occurs at each shape, so debugging becomes very easy.  There are some data & size limitations for testing, but it comes in handy during development.

Cross Reference Tables

Next is our Cross Reference Table functionality.  Ever have some referencable lists that you'd like to maintain, but dont want to create a database table somewhere or write code?  For example, System A may have our country code defined as "_unitedStates", while System B defines it as "US", and System C may be "United States".  You no longer need to waste time on a database on your network, or write code to cross reference these values.  You can just create a table in your process and use/reuse in your maps, decisions, message shapes, etc.

Flat File Importer

Last but not least is our flat file importer.  We've heard the requests of our users and delivered.  You no longer have to manually build out your flat file mapping structures by hand.  In the flat file profile, you simply need to click the import button and pick a CSV file that is representative of your sample data.  Bingo, fields get populated for you!  Now all thats left is to define your length and mandatory field level rules.  We have now taken the fastest-to-deploy integration service and made it even faster!

We hope you all enjoy these recent additions and there are much more to come.  If you have any feedback on these, or other recommendations, please join our forums (www.boomi.com/bod_forums) and chime in.  Or if you're working in the application, feel free to ping our support team via live chat with your ideas as well (8am-8pm ET)  We truly welcome your thoughts!