The Dell Boomi Blog

Dell Boomi Named Value Leader in New EMA Radar for Integration Technologies for Hybrid Cloud

The EMA Radar for Integration Technologies for Hybrid Cloud: Q4 2012 is out, and I’m excited to report that Dell Boomi is recognized as a ‘value leader,’ the highest possible classification, and awarded “Best SaaS/PaaS Coverage and Support.”

According to the EMA Radar, Dell Boomi supports the broadest range of cloud use cases (such as cloud to cloud, on-premise to cloud, on-premise to on-premise and EDI/B2B) and public cloud providers (such as Salesforce.com, NetSuite, Workday and Success Factors) of any vendor in the study.

Specifically, Dell Boomi was recognized for:

• Functionality: the number of pre-built public cloud connectors and for breadth of security functions. In addition, the Boomi Suggest feature uses the intelligence power of the Dell Boomi community to recommend data mappings based on successful customer use cases, leading to much shorter time to value.
• Architecture: the breadth of cloud integration use cases, ability to scale, and volume of data flow, and very broad support for public SaaS and Iaas vendors.
• Deployment & Administration: the ability to deploy in an hour, plus the availability of extensive training and support.
• Cost Advantage: there is no annual maintenance fee, reducing the overall cost of ownership compared to competing products. Dell Boomi publishes pricing at www.boomi.com/products/editions/pricing

The world of cloud computing is maturing and enterprises are moving more of their business critical applications and data to the cloud. The growth that Dell Boomi is experiencing since being acquired in 2010 is a testament to enterprise trust of the cloud, and the recognition from EMA reinforces why Dell customers trust Boomi with their most important applications.

New Gartner Research on Embedded iPaaS

Gartner recently released a new report titled Benefits and Drawbacks of iPaaS as an 'Embedded' Feature of Cloud Services, which will prove interesting reading for Dell Boomi followers. So interesting that Dell Boomi is making it available to you for complimentary viewing.

Many ISVs are embedding iPaaS integration services into their solutions. They understand the value that integration adds to their core offerings, and they are bundling, implementing and managing integrations as part of their offerings. Several major ISVs have selected Dell Boomi’s iPaaS solution (e.g., Dell Boomi AtomSphere) to power these integration offerings.

In this important research paper Garter urges organizations to embrace a holistic cloud services integration strategy .As you begin thinking about a more holistic integration strategy, please engage with Dell Boomi. Our iPaaS platform delivers comprehensive integration capabilities for cloud integration, on-premise data integration (e.g., ETL use cases), as well as EDI/B2B. Dell Boomi provides one platform requiring only one skill set for all your integration needs.

One of the most compelling elements of a holistic strategy powered by Dell Boomi is centralized management and monitoring of all your distributed integration processes. This gives you a single dashboard—as well as email alerts—to always know the health of your active integrations regardless of where they are executing: in the cloud, on-premise or at your ISV’s facility. Yes, if one of our ISV partners is managing integrations for you, we can pull that process into your dashboard—that’s a holistic integration strategy!

An Open Letter to Enterprise Application Leaders

Dear Enterprise Application Leader,

You know better than anyone that in your role you have the opportunity to impact your organization by revolutionizing business processes that create new business opportunities. But, you also face obstacles when deciding how to make the bold move of modernizing your current application integration platform.

When it comes to these types of transitions, the Dell Boomi team is particularly aware of the challenge of integrating on-premise and cloud-based  applications, automating businesses processes in order to facilitate information flow, and bridging gaps with your legacy applications. In hopes of making your life a little easier, we thought we’d point you to this new research report from analyst firm Ovum.

Without giving it all away, here are some findings from Ovum that you might find interesting:

• Dell Boomi caters to a wide range of application and data integration needs, including cloud-to-cloud, cloud-to-on-premise, on-premise-to-on-premise, and B2B integration.
• Del Boomi provides an easy-to-use configuration interface for faster development of integration flows.
• Dell Boomi offers pre-built connectors and processes for a wide range of enterprise applications, including CRM and ERP.

Additionally, we’re strong believers that a solid application modernization strategy begins with data and application integration. So, another section of the report worth checking out is the integration solution implementation guide. Think of it as a checklist of the implications and considerations of this important first step.

There are many benefits to be reaped from new applications and an updated integration platform. You have the opportunity to build an innovative environment that drives new business, improves process accuracy and efficiency, and reduces costs. Knowing that it’s no easy feat, we want to help you get your hands on the right tools and knowledge to help you take the reins and get the most out of your application modernization efforts, so we’ve made Ovum’s report available for free on our website.

We hope you find it helpful!

Sincerely,

The Dell Boomi Team

 

 

Beyond the Numbers: Real World Perspectives on Dell Boomi Total Cost of Ownership

Hot on the tail of our last blog post, we can’t help but do a little more highlighting about Bloor Research’s findings on Dell Boomi’s time-to-value and total cost of ownership (TCO) benefits – there’s no denying that we’re proud to be saving our clients time and money!  

At the same time however, we also recognize that although numbers are important, they aren’t everything. No matter how much the time or money savings, if customers aren’t happy, return on investment is still jeopardized. That’s why Bloor Research went beyond the numbers, and explored qualitative benefits through conversations with several Dell Boomi customers.

Of course, we want you to read the paper for the whole story, but here’s what a few of our customers included in the findings had to say:

Panasas – who is a provider of high performance parallel storage solutions for technical computing applications and big data workloads – uses Dell Boomi for integration between its on-premise and cloud applications, and to support B2B communications with manufacturing partners. Panasas reported to Bloor Research that Dell Boomi’s 30 day trial offering was a major factor in the decision to select Dell Boomi for cloud integration, stating, “We have found the product very easy to use and the business has been able to automate processes that previously required the manual re-entry of data, allowing us to reduce errors and become more efficient. Improved resource utilization has been a major benefit for us along with cost savings.”

The second example is Brady Corporation, a manufacturer of products to help customers increase safety, security, productivity and performance, including high-performance labels and signs, safety devices, printing systems and software, and precision die-cut materials. Brady Corporation had previously used IBM products to support application integration, but now it’s using Dell Boomi to integrate cloud-based applications with on-premise systems. They told Bloor Research that they’re fans of Dell Boomi’s subscription-based model, and that the solution “has a very small footprint, is very lightweight, is very scalable and ‘it just runs’.”

These are just two examples of our customer success. To read about more customer perspectives on Dell Boomi, including AAA of Northern California, Nevada and Utah and Enterprise Business Partners, check out the Bloor Research white paper, available now on the Dell Boomi website.

 

What Does it Cost to Get to the Cloud? The Economics of Cloud Managed Integration

Have you ever wonder what it REALLY costs to integrate old applications with new ones in the cloud?

It is a question we hear often at Dell Boomi when discussing with enterprises their concerns regarding moving data, and applications, to the cloud. Enterprises wonder about both time-to-value and total cost of ownership (TCO), and so Dell Boomi decided to do something about it. We reached out to leading research firm Bloor Research to investigate the cost of ownership for Dell Boomi, and how Dell Boomi compares to competitors…and we like what we found out.

In the paper, Bloor Research considers what is required to enable Cloud-managed integration from a technical perspective, noting that while much of the base functionality needed will be similar to that required of any data integration environment; they do not dwell on those details. Instead, Bloor Research focuses on the elements of a Cloud-managed integration solution that differ from traditional offerings and what these mean to enterprises.

So what are the findings? Well, while we of course want you to give the paper a read, here are a few tidbits to whet the appetite.

First is a look at Dell Boomi’s time-to-value, that is to say how long and what resources were required to complete the user’s first project. Bloor discovered that Dell Boomi is around 2.5 times faster than the average for competitive data integration solutions, with an average initial implementation cost is approximately $7,500.  

Now how about TCO? On average, the cumulative competitor average cost is almost 1.7 times greater than Dell Boomi Enterprise Edition over five years. Combining this stat with the fact that Bloor Research also found that cost per end-point can be as much as three times or more Dell Boomi Enterprise Edition speaks volumes about our success and continued dedication to provide customers with the latest innovation at a great value.

Still, don’t just take it from us. Check out the Bloor Research findings for more insight into ownership. The paper also provides great insight into customer reactions and evaluations of Dell Boomi that we think you will find interesting, but let’s save that topic for another day.

New Training Course: Boomi Boot Camp Advanced

You asked for it and we delivered.  Announcing our newest addition to the Boomi Boot Camp training series, Boomi Boot Camp Advanced. This 4-day event is built for Process Developers to explore the advanced AtomSphere feature set in order to successfully implement enterprise integrations. Attendees are encouraged to dictate the course flow based on a series of guided exercise modules that cover web service integration and enterprise project management. After learning common process building techniques, attendees will choose to build pieces of an overarching integration project from start to finish. Customers with common integration scenarios can collaborate in a lab environment to architect and present a final in-class solution demonstrating true knowledge of advanced AtomSphere design.  The launch of our first class is set for August 27-30, 2012.

 

Innovation in the Cloud – Dell Boomi Summer 12

At Dell Boomi, we love the dynamic and fast-paced cloud computing landscape. It changes often and quickly, with the passionate cloud community introducing new and better applications and services in the cloud. While this can make the industry tough to keep up with, the Dell Boomi team is up for the challenge and committed to our role as a trail-blazer in cloud computing – always aiming to not only meet, but also stay ahead of our client’s needs, so they can do the same for their clients. And the best way to do this is to listen to our community.

That said, we’re pleased to announce, the Dell Boomi Summer 12 release, our latest set of innovations aimed at simplifying and optimizing application and data integration processes.

One of the new features we’re most excited about, and a wonderful testament to Dell Boomi’s commitment to its community, is Boomi Assure. An industry first, Boomi Assure uses crowd-sourced regression testing to ensure pre-testing and support of all kinds of customer scenarios in future Dell Boomi releases. The Boomi user community submits their integration processes with test data to a regression testing framework. As a result, users can rest assured that their specific processes are considered, tested and ultimately supported every time our product is updated.

Enhancements like Boomi Assure build upon earlier innovation like Boomi Suggest, which was introduced in our Summer 10 release and improved as part of our Fall 11 release. Boomi Suggest brings the collective intelligence of our community together to simplify data mapping for everybody.  By anonymously indexing over 2.6 million data mapping and 18,000 map functions created on the AtomSphere platform, Boomi Suggest leverages previously built maps to recommend and automatically generate mappings for new integrations that have worked for other customers with similar application integrations.

For more information on the new features in the Dell Boomi Summer 12 release, check out the press release we issued today.

Integration Without Borders

The global nature of business today means that IT operations are now distributed across a vast variety of locations – from retail and operations branches to corporate subsidiaries and even home offices. In each location, local applications are used, cloud services are accessed and – ultimately - valuable data is created and shared. With these distributed environments however, it is hard to address application and data integration – both local integration at each location and integration across multiple locations.

Luckily, Dell Boomi enables CIOs with the tools to regain control of their IT with integration strategies that span local and universal. By automating business processes and providing real-time visibility to information through application integration, Boomi allows organizations to manage their business better.

On this note of customers, I wanted to share some of my favorite recent customer stories and the press coverage of them that highlights how Boomi is delivering on businesses’ diverse integration goals, no matter the location or need.

First on the highlight list is oneworld, the world’s premier global airline alliance. UK-based oneworld implemented a new IT hub based on the Dell Boomi AtomSphere cloud integration platform, simplifying data integration between new and existing member airlines, which include operations in Europe, Asia, the Americas and the Pacific. As noted in analyst Mike West’s post on Saugatuck Technology Blog, Boomi’s solution provides substantial time and cost savings for member airlines and reduces cost barriers for new recruits to the alliance.

Thanks to Boomi’s ability to seamlessly integrate any number of applications in a dynamic environment, oneworld’s global IT resources can spend their time on other matters, like bringing Germany’s Air Berlin into their network, trusting Boomi to streamline their data integration.

Next up is the world’s largest talent management cloud Taleo, which standardized on Dell Boomi AtomSphere to seamlessly integrate data and applications within its cloud that serves more than 20 million live users and processes up to 68 million transactions a day. Boomi helps ensure Taleo’s customers that they always have access to the data and applications they rely on to know their people and grow their business. Discussed in this interview Boomi GM Rick Nucci did with Vance McCarthy of Integration Developer News, Boomi is also helping Taleo remain internally agile by deploying AtomSphere to optimize Taleo’s own business processes.

Last, though certainly not least, is the second largest AAA auto club in the United States, AAA Northern California, Nevada and Utah (AAA NCNU), which is using Boomi as a service-oriented architecture (SOA) platform to seamlessly deploy, monitor and maintain the flow of data between its IT infrastructure and over 50 SaaS applications including salesforce.com, Workday and Zuora.

Don’t just take it from me though. AAA NCNU’s application integration leader Kirk Heughens had the chance to speak with Search Data Management’s Mark Brunelli about why AAA NCNU chose Boomi, and noted that our truly cloud-based, multi-tenant architecture was a key differentiator from our competition like IBM’s Cast Iron and Jitterbit. He also called out something we are incredibly proud of, Boomi’s rapid process development and deployment, which in turn means less cost for our customers.

So there you have it. A few of our most recent customers that are using Boomi to solve their diverse, and often distributed, integration needs. But as you guessed, we are not stopping the train here. Dell Boomi continues to innovate and grow its solution and I can’t wait to tell you more soon, so stay tuned…we are only really just getting started.

 

Dell Boomi webinar: Enterprise Application Integration in the Cloud

Miss the live webinar? Click here to view the on-demand recording.
Duration: 60 minutes

Do your employees spend significant time re-entering order information in multiple systems? Are order details frequently incorrect? Is there confusion around a customer’s status or financial standing?

If you would benefit from a single dashboard of complete and correct customer data, Dell Boomi Senior Sales Manager JJ Ferroni and Dell Boomi Sales Engineer Steve Tseng will show you why large enterprises such as AAA, NASDAQ, Nutrisystem and Kodak have chosen Dell Boomi to integrate-critical data throughout their organizations.

Topics covered will include:

• Introduction to what the Dell Boomi AtomSphere platform can do for your business
• Enterprise features overview including SOA, parallel processing and environments
• Demonstration of SAP and Salesforce CRM integration

Miss the live webinar? Click here to view the on-demand recording.

Dell Boomi webinar: Salesforce.com Integration in 30 Minutes or Less

Miss the live webinar? Click here to view the on-demand recording.
Duration: 60 minutes

Integration frustration? Join Dell Boomi General Manager Rick Nucci and Dell Boomi Sales Engineer Wes Manning as they prove the days of painful, never-ending integration projects are gone forever with the latest cloud technology.

Watch as Nucci and Manning build and deploy a live integration between Salesforce Sales Cloud and Twilio Cloud Communications in 30 minutes or less. Don't believe it? Attendees can test the integration using their own mobile devices! This session first appeared live at Dreamforce 2011, and is back by popular demand.