Language: English

Ensuring Customer Trust: The Role of Security in Integration

Posted on February 5, 2024 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT, Legacy systems

In this episode of “Integration. Redesigned.,” our host, Chief Marketing Officer Cait Porte, meets with Travis Morrow, Head of Security at Digibee, to discuss the critical topic of data security. The conversation covers the top priorities for security departments and their alignment with customer trust, lessons learned, the importance of hiring a well-rounded security team, and the significance of secure tools and capabilities for application integration, especially when accommodating legacy integrations. Overall, the episode provides insights into the intersection of security and integration in today’s digital landscape, highlighting Digibee’s commitment to our customers.

More on this subject

Digibee completes SOC 2® Type 1 Certification

Digibee announces completing SOC 2 Type 1 certification, demonstrating its commitment to the highest standards of data security and managing customer data.

Read the press release

Our Platform

Learn more about our platform and get an overview of how we provide security at every level with flexibility to accommodate every customer’s unique security needs.

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Security White Paper

Digibee’s platform provides a safe and security environment with security protocols that are well-defined, documented, and that meet or exceed industry best practices.

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Full transcript

CAIT PORTE

Hello, and welcome back to Integration. Redesigned. I’m your host, Cait Port, and today I am joined by Digibee’s Head of Security, Travis. Welcome, Travis.

TRAVIS MORROW

Thank you, Cait. Happy to be here.

CAIT PORTE

Very happy to have you. I’m sure it will not be the last time you’re on.

Security, hot topic every time of year, all the time, whether you’re at home, whether you’re at work, traveling around, security, data, privacy, top of mind for consumers, top of mind for businesses. We hear about all kinds of breaches. I think the latest one had to do with Xfinity or Comcast customers exposing all kinds of data and information. So, I’m certainly looking forward to learning a little bit more about security and how that gets processed. Of course, I know the insider scoop because Travis and I work together every day.

But Travis, from your perspective, what are the top priorities for a head of security?

TRAVIS MORROW

Thanks, Cait. So yeah, it’s a pretty wide range, but specifically here at Digibee, I really base all my priorities off of customer trust. Working at Amazon, that was a big piece and a big takeaway there. And so what are things that provide confidence in our product? And so, you know, my top priorities are really everything that is gonna enable our customers to be secure. So, some of the really great initiatives we have coming down in ’24 is gonna be like our ZTNA story, right? Where we can allow individual workloads to have only access to very specific resources. And it allows for a really great authorization authentication model.

We’re looking to bring your own key. So, that’s a hot item where customers want to maintain sovereignty of their keys and so that if they move elsewhere or they have other workloads, they’re able to maintain and ensure for their compliance that their keys never left premise.

As well as identity. So that’s a major topic here. It enables everyone’s identity life cycle, their management of users, meets their compliance initiatives. And so we just released self-service for SSO. And there’s a bunch of new work that we’re looking to do in 2024 around able to manage those identities, utilizing a SCIM integration so that groups and users can auto be provisioned and removed so that, you know, it just helps the individual customer’s lifecycle there and their security compliance story.

Some of the areas that I am, you know, I’m very concerned about as well and things that we’re going to dive into in 2024 is going to be supply chain security. So source validation, runtime reviews, as well as even safeguards and restrictions on what can be launched if it’s not been reviewed, secured, and signed. As well as Digibee’s very own internal Zero Trust journey, where we are making sure that from the endpoint all the way to attestation to users that everything is at the highest level before allowing authorization or access to any systems in our premise. So, those are some of the top priorities I have for 2024.

CAIT PORTE

I love that you’re framing this in terms of our priorities are dictated by customer requirements or asks, right? Of course, it’s never a, “hey, build me this so that I’ll buy your platform or renew it” or whatever, there’s always a negotiation. But I love that we’re taking the lens of the customer and saying, “okay, what’s important to you? What will make it easier? How can we help accelerate your business? And how can we help simplify the process by which integration happens?” And that’s a really important piece.

We were talking about our value pillars and security came up as one of the things were said, hey, is keeping this secure one of the top things that we think about? And Peter’s response, who’s our co-founder and CTO said, “security is at the helm of everything we do,” right? We’re thinking about that every step along the way. And I think that that really speaks to some of the things that you’re thinking about. So, I love that answer.

TRAVIS MORROW

Awesome. Thank you.

CAIT PORTE

You’ve got this amazing background. You referenced Amazon. I know you’ve worked at several other big names. I love to ask this question, but what are some of the hard lessons that you learned that you’re making sure to avoid not only in this role, but in future roles as well?

TRAVIS MORROW

Like you mentioned, I do have a range of experience over the years. And so one of the things that I’ve seen time and time again is burning resources on improbable issues. And so very simply, that is tackling the wrong thing. So things that either aren’t important to our customers and/or are not likely to happen. So if we spend lots of resources and time worrying about what if the US sank, right? I mean, that’s not a really good use of our time. We’re better off looking at more like attack vectors and where are we commonly seeing attacks, where are peers seeing attacks, and how do we make sure that we aren’t vulnerable?

Similarly, also hiring in the wrong locations. So, for instance, you know, the typical cartoon character that has the giant arms, but the little stick legs. I’ve seen this over and over and over again in a lot of different organizations where maybe you have a leader that really dislikes certain disciplines of security. And so, for whatever reason, they don’t hire in those areas. And so, what inevitably happens is that’s where you start having problems. And so, like if you didn’t hire in defense, then as soon as you have an incident, you know, you have a massive problem because you haven’t invested and haven’t put that time in and built those leg muscles up, for instance. So making sure that we have a well-rounded program and that we’re hiring in all the areas to ensure that, you know, we are moving forward in a healthy and structured way based on our risk tolerances and our customer needs.

CAIT PORTE

Huge one, right? Having the right team. I just came off of a meeting earlier today where you have a newer team member over on the product marketing side and having a really strong resource in any role makes a huge difference not only for the leadership because it gives you sort of that peace of mind of someone owning it, but also because you can then allow yourself to focus on the things that are really important in your role. And I think it’s a really good call-out that says, look, you’ve got to take that ego out of it and say, where do we need to hire for the best interest of the business? So I really like that example.

Integration. Let’s take it more specifically to the work that we’re doing. Application integration, we’re dealing with all kinds of sensitive data. When we think about security within integration, what does that mean to you? And what about security and the future of Digibee? I mean, obviously we talked about the priorities, but when you think about the things that are top of mind within integration, what does that mean to you?

TRAVIS MORROW

And so, like I mentioned, some of the FY24 priorities definitely will play into that specifically around integration. But to me, security and integration means providing the tools, the guardrails and capabilities so customers can have a default secure development practice, lifecycle, and deployment.

However, we also have to allow for legacy integrations. And sometimes, as we all know, those may not be able to meet those security standards. And so allowing customers to, by default, have the strongest, say, TLS ciphers or the best, you know, like the strongest AES levels of encryption that we can provide, but also understanding and allowing them to utilize older protocols so that they are able to do their integrations.

Now, that also means that, you know, on our side, when they’ve built these integrations, we make sure that they have a secure platform to run it on. And so all that goes on behind the scenes, we take care of that. And so making sure that there is confidence in our infrastructure, our uptime, our ability to handle incidents, and denial of service attacks even, because these customer workloads are business critical. So that’s all kind of wrapped up in what does security mean for integration.

CAIT PORTE

And it’s so important because again, while Digibee can of course handle these B2B application to application integrations, we’re very much focused on those complex business-critical, mission-critical use cases. And you have to be thinking about that along the way.

So what I love that you’ve brought to the organization is that we’re thinking about integration from the, excuse me, security, from the very start of the process, as opposed to an afterthought like, “oh yeah, we should have this.” And I think that that becomes sort of that ethos where it’s a part of what we do and how we do it.

TRAVIS MORROW

Right. Absolutely.

CAIT PORTE

Well, Travis, thank you so much for joining us today.

TRAVIS MORROW

Thank you, Cait.

CAIT PORTE

And for those at home listening, or wherever you are, take a look at the link in this episode, you can you can get a little bit more on Travis’s bio. Thank you for joining. And that’s it for this episode of Integration. Redesigned.

The Future of Integration: AI Insights from Digibee’s Head of Education & AI

Posted on January 23, 2024 by - AI

In this episode of “Integration. Redesigned.,” our host, Chief Marketing Officer Cait Porte, talks with Fabricio Inocêncio, Head of Education & AI at Digibee, on the role of AI in integration. The discussion covers Digibee’s innovative approach – leveraging AI in integrations and simplifying development processes. They discuss the impact of AI on the developer community, and the potential future directions of AI in both business and personal tasks. As Digibee aims to simplify tasks for and empower development teams, the episode also highlights how AI has been a natural evolution for Digibee in achieving that goal.

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Full transcript

CAIT PORTE

Hello and welcome back to Integration. Redesigned. I’m your host, Cait Porte, and it is wonderful to have Digibee’s Head of Education and AI on the podcast today. Welcome back, Fabricio.

Fabricio Inocêncio

Hi, Cait. Thanks for having me.

CAIT PORTE

Thanks for being here. Today we’re going to talk about AI related to integration, and you’ve been doing a lot of work related to integration. Digibee has launched and will be launching some amazing new features related to AI. To start off, talk about the process that you use, and the team uses, in coming up with innovative ideas around AI.

Fabricio Inocêncio

Okay, perfect. When we think about product innovation, it’s fundamentally to identify and cover pains and unmet needs, and there’s a lot of opportunities there, right? But, when we see some technology emerging, we have some other opportunities for a more technology-driven approach. What we are doing right now is reassessing the existing problems that we already identified from customers and figuring out how we can address new solutions for these problems with deep learning, machine learning techniques, and AI. This can provide an opportunity by reshaping these existing problems with completely new things and how we can come up with different solutions and rethinking the features that we already have planned.

Imagine what could not possibly be done before smartphones. Just because we have smartphones, all the products and innovations that were created just addressing existing pains, but with a different solution because we have a new tech in place. Basically, this is what we are doing right now, is what can we do differently with AI? Addressing an existing pain, existing unmet needs from our customers.

CAIT PORTE

I think it’s really important when you think about the advent of technology to help enable others. One of the things that we often talk about is how AI is transformative here at Digibee, specifically on this podcast and of course in the news. We’ve launched new functionality around documentation for a variety of integration flows, making it easier to communicate what a process is doing and how and why.

Talk a little bit about what AI means at Digibee. When you think about integration and AI, what gets you excited or looking forward to the future?

Fabricio Inocêncio

Great. I think that AI, it’s part of the natural evolution of Digibee. When we see why Digibee and we see all the things that we can solve in reducing the friction from the developers in building integrations, because alternatively they have a lot of hard work on coding and because we have a low-code platform and we make that easier. The next step when we see AI-assisted products, it’s a natural evolution.

AI is definitely part of the future of Digibee when we see that we can add more capabilities and make the life easier of the developers. Some examples that you mentioned and things that we are planning, for example, integrations are messy and complex. How can we provide clarity so the developers can have better decisions related to integration? This is one of the reasons that we provide an AI assistant so the users can retrieve information about how to use the product, but also how they can retrieve information about the integration so they can better understand what’s happening in the integration. We want to avoid that AI can be like a black box. They need to audit, they need to understand what is happening. This is why we use AI in that favor, not to make that complex even more.

Finally, of course, when we see this fusion in making the life easier of the developers, how can we assist them in designing and building integration? With smart recommendations, with optimizations, but even always in the sense that we provide suggestions but the developers that have the final call related to what should be done in a specific integration context.

CAIT PORTE

Of course, there has to be human interaction. You touched upon the developer and the importance of aligning AI with developer, making an AI assistant. We know AI can be, will be transformative. Where do you see AI going in the development community over the next 6 to 18 months?

Fabricio Inocêncio

Interestingly, because we have seen a lot of good stuff being developed in the code generation. The providers are doing a great job on that, but the development community is realizing that, “okay, I can speed up my coding process, but reviewing and debugging is still painful,” mainly when this came from AI. I think that this is a great opportunity for the providers, and I mean copilots, code whisperers, and AI code generation to focus on how, from now on, AI can be less painful in reviewing debugging phase. AI can generate code, but do not provide this drawback for the users to, okay, I need to check what AI did. “Okay, I still need to check, but how can I easily check that?” I think that this is going to be the next thing, right? How can AI-generated code can be easily revealed and debugged by the user?

CAIT PORTE

I think it really speaks to adding AI as a copilot or a partner in that process, as opposed to letting AI drive everything, and I’m, of course, very excited about where we’re going.

When I think about AI, of course, I think about it in the business sense, but I also think about it in the personal sense. One thing I use AI for recently was generating a grocery store list and a meal plan for the week. If you could do one thing with AI, what would it be?

Fabricio Inocêncio

So Cait, definitely I would create a digital twin of myself. So imagine an AI version of myself, equipped with all my skills, knowledge, and even my jokes, so I can delegate some tasks for this digital twin, and even though free up time. So how can I delegate to myself and free up time at the same time? So for me, this is amazing.

Putting the joke aside, actually, this is what AI is doing, right? Climbing the cognitive ladder, but actually step by step, and task by task. We already can delegate tasks, right? But we are still delegating under adult supervision. But sooner, when we have something called AGI, artificial general intelligence, and this arises, probably this product of digital twin of ourselves can be possible, right? But, we are still already seeing things coming in that way. Right?

CAIT PORTE

AI is still in its early days. We, of course, want to make sure that we’re policing what’s going on, right? Being a little careful about how we’re using it, but always fun to dream.

Fabricio, thank you so much for joining today.

Fabricio Inocêncio

Thank you. Thank you, Cait.

CAIT PORTE

Thank you all for joining. This has been another episode of Integration. Redesigned. We’ll talk to you next time.

5 Good Reasons Not to Displace a Deployed Technology

Posted on January 18, 2024 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT, Legacy systems

Let me start this blog post by stating that some of our most pleased customers here at Digibee are former users of legacy iPaaS platforms. You may have seen the news of our feature release using AI to seamlessly migrate integrations from other platforms to Digibee.

Or some of our customer stories of already using iPaaS technology, turning to Digibee to overcome major integration challenges. Plenty of proof that Digibee can help, even if you already run an iPaaS.

But change is hard. That phrase is a cliche because it’s so true. And most technology professionals have at least one terrible memory associated with the phrase ‘rip and replace’ – where a technology replacement is so difficult that the new solution ultimately underwhelms in comparison to the toil in the transition.

Add to this the reality of how busy IT and development teams constantly are, juggling priorities and scrambling to meet deadlines. Technology replacements need to be prompted by a justifiable, quantifiable reason to act, with a defined set of desired business outcomes. If an embedded solution is “just good enough” then its replacement plan can get delayed and delayed. The true benefits of a better alternative will have to wait for a crisis.

Indeed, most Digibee customers who leave another iPaaS are doing so for a specific reason – be it end of support of a legacy on-prem iPaaS solution, a new technology deployment that demands a modern approach to integration, or frustration with ever increasing costs with no commiserate increase in benefit. 

All Digibee users enjoy the scalability and agility of our iPaaS not just as backend infrastructure but as a platform for innovation. But to get to that plateau of composability, you need to start with the decision to move. So, in this post, we’re sharing the 5 reasons to not replace an established technology, as included in our eBook, ‘Does your integration strategy inspire or impede?’

My goal is to show that our team and our technology are poised to help to not only improve your development team’s resourcing and output, but to get you there more quickly and easily than you might have thought possible. 

>> Book a personalized demo with our team of experts and see how Digibee’s iPaaS will bring efficiency to your business. 

5 Reasons to NOT replace your iPaaS

Change is never easy. Whether you choose to rip and replace an existing system or implement a contemporary integration solution to coexist with an incumbent, it’s likely you will encounter some (if not all) of these objections:

1. “Ripping and replacing an established technology is too disruptive. The resources should be invested elsewhere.”

As with any proposed business investment, a detailed ROI will provide you with a strong position in countering this objection. As you research vendors, ask them to explain how their implementation model will ensure disruptions and downtime are minimized. Emphasize these capabilities within your ROI analysis, including a detailed offboarding strategy.

2. “The existing integration solution is too convoluted and interconnected. We will never unravel the coding that’s been created over the years.”

This is a common hurdle, especially for enterprises that have built some or all of their integration infrastructure in-house. Raise this in your discussions with potential vendors and ask how each would approach this scenario. Vendor responses should be constructive, including step-by-step details of how they will support this phase of the transition.

3. “We stand by our decision to invest in the incumbent solution and we’re not backing down.”

Personalities play a big part in decision-making. When you encounter a stakeholder who’s digging in their heels, take the time to understand their rationale when they selected the existing product. Often, the business case they made (efficiencies, cost savings, innovation, etc.) aligns with your project, potentially converting them to a proponent. If they are intransigent in their position, propose a hybrid model where old and new co-exist, with the new iPaaS focused on work that needs to be done, such as IT backlog projects.

4. “We don’t need to add even more vendors, especially when we already have an integration provider.”

Similar to the first objection, share a detailed ROI plan that reflects the savings in time, resources, and money that will be achieved with a new iPaaS, whether working in tandem with the old system or as a replacement. It’s difficult to counter a proposal that delivers measurable benefits to the business.

5. “Budgets are tight and it will be difficult to justify the spend when we already have a solution in place.”

Again, a strong ROI model will distinguish how the upside outweighs the downside when it comes to the spend. Modern-day iPaaS (unlike legacy integration) is extremely cost-effective, providing a simple pricing model that delivers all capabilities such as implementation and support services. For many enterprises, the shift from on-premises to the cloud converts the investment from CapEx to OpEx, delivering additional financial upsides.

Digibee: 2 paths to modernizing your integration strategy

All 5 of the above reasons to not change are valid. Yet, as our descriptions under each statement suggest, each is addressable in the vetting process of a potential replacement. 

When that replacement is Digibee, development and IT teams are commonly attracted by a few specific aspects of our iPaaS that legacy, monolithic integration providers can’t provide. One is the empowerment of all developers – not just integration specialists – to easily build, monitor and adapt integrations. Another is the composable nature of our platform. The serverless, born in the cloud architecture is built on microservices, so change management is easy and repeatable without the usual degree of code customization enterprises have become used to.

Sometimes wholesale replacement of an iPaaS is justifiable, and in many situations necessary. The speed in which Digibee can empower that change to meet deadlines imposed by end of support or other urgent, time-sensitive needs is well established. 

The other option is to use Digibee in conjunction with established iPaaS to burn down the backlog of integrations that legacy technology and not-enough-integration-specialists simply can’t get to. This provides an alternate path to utilize Digibee to empower your developers and modernize your integration strategy in phases.

Next steps with Digibee

We always love to hear from architecture and development leaders about how you’re currently approaching integration strategy, and how you anticipate that strategy’s evolution. If this blog struck a chord with pain points that you know your development team is enduring, but haven’t found a sufficient way to address them, then let’s talk. 

If you’re interested in learning more about Digibee’s born in the cloud iPaaS for a simpler, faster, and modern approach to integration, then contact us for a demonstration or, if you prefer, visit our product page.

5 Best Integration Platforms 2024

Posted on January 8, 2024 by - Uncategorized

The rapid pace of innovation for integration technology continues unabated. Just a few short years ago, enterprises were committed to cumbersome, on-premises products that required a significant (and ongoing) investment of time, resources, and budget.

Today, enterprise integration is an innovation enabler, helping organizations to digitally transform while accelerating critical technology advances. 

No longer married to legacy on-premises technology, enterprises are rapidly shifting to the cloud. Modular IT infrastructure supports greater agility and speed, ensuring a profitable and enduring successful business. 

This updated buyers guide provides a detailed overview of integration platforms so you can compare vendors based on these important key considerations:

  • Ease of implementation
  • Price
  • Scalability
  • Security
  • Compliance

What is an integration platform?

Platform integration connects independent software applications to streamline interactions between each app. 

There are many different types of integration technology available today, including:

  • iPaaS: A suite of cloud services enabling development, execution, and governance of integration flows connecting any combination of on premises and cloud-based processes, services, applications, and data within individual or across multiple organizations. [1]
  • Enterprise service bus (ESB): An architecture that supports centralized components that perform application integrations.
  • API management platforms: Connecting two or more applications using their application programming interfaces (APIs) to exchange data.

With the shift to cloud-based operations, iPaaS technology is leading the trend.

“iPaaS has moved to early mainstream adoption globally, reaching 20% to 50% of the global target audience who will use iPaaS offerings to integrate not only applications and data, but also ecosystems, APIs, and business processes.”

Gartner Hype Cycle for Cloud Platform Services 2022

Top Five Enterprise Integration Tools

The Digibee Integration Platform

KEY FEATURES

  • Born-in-the-cloud platform: easily build integrations with reusable pipelines and capsules
  • Low-code interface: No specialized training required, all developers familiar with JSON will be comfortable with Digibee
  • Automated alerts: Pre-emptive monitoring of mistakes for immediate resolution
  • Global configurations: Manage accounts, API keys, and multiple instances from a single dashboard with on/off toggles for common settings
  • Digibee execution panel: Safely test integrations and apply global parameters, deploy in seconds
  • Single real-time dashboard: Monitor and troubleshoot integration pipelines across multiple projects, view performance metrics at a glance,classify errors and automate response mechanisms, use pre-built connectors to send data to ticketing systems such as JIRA
  • Learn more

REVIEWS

PROSCONS
– Authentically born-in-the-cloud platform
– Implement in weeks versus months (or years)
– Works in tandem with existing legacy iPaaS solutions to fast-track stalled innovation initiatives
– Accessible to developers of all skill levels, no expensive training or certification required
– Simple, all-inclusive pricing model that includes maintenance and support		– While rapidly gaining market share, Digibee is new to the market
– Technology focuses exclusively on integration versus broader capabilities such as API management

CUSTOMERS

PRICING

Digibee pricing reflects a contemporary “all in one” model that provides free access to the most recent product innovations and capabilities. The pricing is incredibly simple, requiring only three SKUs with no limitations. Rather than charging for potential maximum usage (typical pricing model for legacy iPaaS solutions), Digibee customers pay only for what they consume.

The pricing model is based on the provision of pipelines and Runtime Units (RTUs), as follows:

  • Pipeline: An integration pathway that uses a sequence of components to connect systems and establish data flow between them
  • RTUs: Runtime Units that support capacity requirements based on concurrent transactions and/or memory

SKU #1

Get Started Bundle

10 pipelines, 20 production RTUs, 10 test RTUs

SKU #2

Additional Pipeline

Additional pipeline, includes production/test RTUs

SKU #3

Additional Capacity

More RTUs as needed within production/test environments

As the customer’s integration strategy expands, additional pipelines and RTUs are added as needed. This ensures the customer only pays for what they use, with per unit pricing going down as the implementation grows.

Digibee customers access all features and capabilities at no extra charge. A new customer can get started with SKU #1 for less than $60,000 USD, including:  

  • Digibee-hosted iPaaS
  • All support and maintenance, 24/7/365, including all new features and upgrades
  • Continuous education
  • Customer enablement with direct Digibee support to design, build, test, and run integrations

Digibee provides an interactive product tour of the Integration Platform.

RATING

  • G2 rating = 4.7 out of 5

MuleSoft: Anypoint Platform for Integration

KEY FEATURES

  • Anypoint API Designer: Library of APIs, templates, examples, and connectors
  • Anypoint Studio: IDE for integration and API development with prebuilt modules
  • Anypoint Connectors: Use a web interface or a desktop IDE to integrate systems)
  • Anypoint Exchange: Marketplace for connectors, templates, examples, and APIs)
  • Anypoint DataGraph: Reuse, consume, unify multiple APIs
  • Anypoint Partner Manager: Accelerate partner onboarding, simplify partner management
  • Anypoint MQ: Messaging service for asynchronous communication patterns
  • Anypoint Code Builder: IDE to design, develop, deploy APIs, integrations, and automations

REVIEWS

PROSCONS
– A legacy industry veteran, MuleSoft has a strong roster of established customers that have invested heavily in the technology
– Mulesoft feature set is deep, extending well beyond iPaaS capabilities		– Complicated and expensive pricing model
– All software developers and architects must be MuleSoft-certified to use the technology and to engage with customer support on any matter
– End-of-life cycles are chronic and time-consuming, monopolizing expensive developer resources

CUSTOMERS

As a legacy technology vendor, the MuleSoft customer base is broad and varied. Customers featured on the company’s website include:

  • Airbus
  • Barclays
  • Citrix

PRICING

MuleSoft pricing is complicated, incorporating two different pricing models: usage-based and tiered. Customers must pay for:

  • VCore (to support product usage)
  • Edition (gold, platinum, titanium)
  • API management (based on usage and volume)
  • Integration (three different tiers)
  • API Experience Hub (for full API management capabilities)
  • Additional capabilities and add-ons are optional

MuleSoft provides a free trial of its Anypoint platform.

RATING

  • G2 rating = 4.5 out of 5
  • Capterra rating = 4.4 out of 5

For a deep dive of MuleSoft’s legacy iPaaS, read the research paper.

Azure Integration Services

KEY FEATURES

  • Logic Apps: Create workflows and orchestrate business processes to connect hundreds of services in the cloud and on-premises
  • Service Bus: Connect on premises and cloud-based applications and services to implement highly secure messaging workflows
  • API Management: Publish APIs securely for internal and external developers to use when connecting to backend systems hosted anywhere
  • Event Grid: Connect supported Azure and third-party services using a fully managed event-routing service with a publish-subscribe model that simplifies event-based app development
  • Azure Functions: Simplify complex orchestration problems with an event-driven
  • Azure Data Factory: Visually integrate data sources to construct ETL and ELT processes, accelerate data transformation

REVIEWS

PROSCONS
– Developers working within an existing Azure environment are loyal and may prefer to build and code with Azure tools
– Strong API management tools
– A large existing Microsoft customer base provides a stable foundation upon which Azure can build		– Simple tools incapable of supporting sophisticated enterprise use cases, with prebuilt connectors limited beyond the Azure ecosystem, difficult with non-API-led connections
– Each tool has its own interface to learn and manage; a deep learning curve for all users
– Numerous, complex pricing models make it difficult to monitor and control costs

CUSTOMERS

The large, existing Microsoft customer base presents significant add-on opportunities for the Azure Integration Services. Customers featured on the company’s website include:

  • Swiss Re
  • Quest
  • Mission Linen Supply

PRICING

Azure Integration Services pricing is variable. During implementation, Azure cloud services are required. Additional costs depend upon the number of paid services deployed. Ongoing costs include additional Azure cloud services. 

Azure Integration Services offers a free trial or a pay-as-you-go account to test the product.

RATING

  • G2 rating = 4.4 out of 5
  • Capterra rating = 4.6 out of 5

boomi

KEY FEATURES

  • Intelligence: Embedded AI capabilities to build faster and manage easier
  • Composability: Reusable building blocks and powerful automatability
  • Democratization: UX for all roles and skills supporting role-based access control and team-based development
  • Scale: Elastically scale as needed to handle varying workloads
  • Security: Built with enterprise-grade security and reliability
  • Lifecycle Management: Built-in versioning and governance controls of integrations, workflows, APIs, and data models

REVIEWS

PROSCONS
– Well-established within the industry with a large customer base
– Strong support for remote businesses with infrastructure that requires totally on-premises connectivity
– A viable choice for organizations that prefer to outsource integration and instead rely upon Boomi’s prebuilt connections, network of SIs and ISVs, and the Boomi marketplace		– Complexity of use with seven different point products
– Expensive with complicated pricing and licensing, each tool has its own volume-based pricing model, all support is paid
– Product roadmap weighted towards citizen developers and automation

CUSTOMERS

  • Red Cross Australia
  • MOD Pizza
  • Boise State University

PRICING

Boomi pricing incorporates a mix of tiered and volume-based pricing. Versions include Professional, Pro Plus, Enterprise, and Enterprise Plus with features varying by version.

Customers must pay for:

  • Integration (features and numbers of connectors)
  • Master Data Hub (increases in data volume)
  • B2B/EDI Management (number of trading partners connected)
  • API Management (number of API calls made)
  • Flow (number of apps built)
  • Data Catalog and Preparation (number of connectors and users)

RATING

  • G2 rating = 4.2 out of 5
  • Capterra rating = 4.5 out of 5

Workato

KEY FEATURES

  • Recipe Design: Customize recipes with different triggers, actions, and other steps
  • Connectors: Includes a method of authentication, triggers, and actions for a specific app
  • On-prem Connectivity: A secure connection from within a private IT environment to connect to Workato cloud
  • API Platform: Turn API recipes into endpoints so others can easily consume data without access to a specific Workato account
  • Workbot: Build customizable workflows

REVIEWS

PROSCONS
– Known for ease of use in building automation in less sophisticated lines of business use cases that focus on citizen developers
– Majority of business is embedded with ISVs to support expansion
– Especially popular with small to medium enterprises		– Difficulty executing sophisticated enterprise integrations
– Reputation of accelerating pricing once deployed (charges for tasks and connectors)
– Incapable of deploying in a private cloud, must host everything

CUSTOMERS

Customers featured on the company’s website include:

  • Broadcom
  • Atlassian
  • MGM

PRICING

Workato pricing varies based on integrations for the business or a product:

  • Workato for Business: Start with a workspace, including unlimited apps, connections, and users. Recipes added individually or in packs (10, 25, 50, 100)
  • Workato for Products: Integrations and workflow automations built for products. Connect to thousands of apps with 24×7 support

Options include:

  • Cloud or on-premises, subscription
  • On-prem apps, databases, custom apps (connected with REST, SOAP)
  • Optional add-ons include security, operations, and more (for Business)

RATING

  • G2 rating = 4.7 out of 5
  • Capterra rating = 4.6 out of 5

What to look for in an integration platform

Clearly, integration technology platforms vary by feature set, pricing models, and other differentiators. As you build your enterprise integration strategy, consider these universal benefits: 

Compatibility

Your integration platform software must be compatible with the systems and applications you use today, as well as new innovations you will implement in the future. 

Born-in-the-cloud iPaaS systems such as Digibee natively support a composable IT infrastructure. This agile environment makes it easy to connect all systems and applications– legacy or cutting edge new –regardless if they are legacy, on-premises, or already in the cloud.

Ease of Use

Complicated technology that requires significant training and expensive certification limits the resources available to perform the work. It also results in very long implementation times for an extended go to market. 

With one of the fastest implementation times in the market, Digibee is 70% faster than legacy integration solutions. Watch the video to see how quickly developers build integrations with Digibee.

Price

For most companies, investing in platform integration is an expensive proposition. According to the Digibee State of Enterprise Integration survey in 2023, 59% of survey respondents invest up to one quarter of their IT budget on integration. 

Avoid complex pricing models, especially common with legacy solutions that tend to combine usage based with tiered pricing–a model that is difficult to monitor and control. Gartner best practices when evaluating iPaaS pricing is a helpful resource.

Maintenance & Support

Often overlooked during negotiations are ongoing costs related to maintenance and support. 

Modern born-in-the-cloud integration solutions update seamlessly, ensuring all users have access to the latest features and capabilities without investing resources (and potential downtime) to support a new software version. 

Contemporary iPaaS technology lessens the reliance on a vendor for support. This is reflected in Digibee’s support offering which is provided free of charge. With an intuitive interface and drag and drop capabilities, developers quickly learn and work on their own for expedited results. 

Try Before You Buy

Every vendor showcased in this buyers guide offers a demo and/or trial so you can test-drive the technology before you commit. Many Digibee customers began their journey with a guided, interactive tour, transitioning to a 60-minute tailored demo designed to address their specific use cases within their existing environment.

Use these resources to help inform your enterprise integration strategy:

For more information, take a look at our website or contact us to talk to our team. Good luck with your integration project!

[1] Gartner Glossary: Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)

Everything you Need to Know About Integration Architecture

Posted on January 2, 2024 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT

Integration architecture is a collection of strategically selected infrastructure, services, protocols, and systems that serves as the foundation for integrating enterprise applications and data. Often the domain of an enterprise IT architect or integration leader, integration architecture facilitates automation, real-time data and analytics, and connected business workflows. 

Companies that have well-designed integration architecture in place have the flexibility to experiment and scale with all kinds of connected workflows. Because data moves freely through their systems and applications can communicate with one another efficiently, these companies are more likely to succeed at digital transformation and achieve more faster than their less streamlined counterparts. 

>> Book a personalized demo with our team of experts and see how Digibee’s iPaaS will bring efficiency to your business. 

Comparing different types of integration architecture

Integration architecture has advanced from simple, point-to-point connections to enterprise integration platforms that support thousands of services and applications. Companies with complex integration needs often run multiple models, from hard-coded legacy deployments to a collection of modern APIs.  

Point-to-point vs. hub-and-spoke

Point-to-point (P2P) integration is a traditional method that connects two applications with either custom code or APIs, syncing data between them in regular intervals. Point-to-point doesn’t handle complexity and volume well, so engineering teams usually adopt other models as their integration needs grow.

Hub-and-spoke architecture is a common alternative to P2P. Traditionally, the hub-and-spoke model creates a central hub through which all integrations pass. In this case, the hub acts as the primary point of processing and routing for data exchanged between various applications (“spokes”). Over the years, the hub-and-spoke model has evolved to meet the needs of companies that have migrated some or all of their systems to the cloud, an improvement made possible by modern integration platforms.

The evolution of service-oriented architecture (SOA)

Service-oriented architecture (SOA) is an approach to development that relies on reusable, connected services to run business processes and build software functionality. Both hub-and-spoke and enterprise service bus (ESB) models apply this approach in different ways—in hub-and-spoke, each service is a spoke that sends data through the centralized hub, while an ESB allows services to integrate more modularly.  

A simple example of SOA’s benefits lies in authentication. Rather than hard-code authentication into each application, developers use an enterprise service like Okta or auth0, connecting it once to integration platform and applying it wherever it’s needed. 

Implementing SOA architecture used to require a top-down, expensive overhaul with major time and vendor commitments, but today’s integration platforms allow for cost-effective, incremental improvements at scale. Most enterprises use an iPaaS, ESB, or both to manage integrations within this framework. 

The enterprise service bus (ESB)

The enterprise service bus, or ESB, came about as a new way of exposing integrations synchronously across older and newer enterprise systems through a message bus. As they evolved, ESBs became more decentralized to eliminate single points of failure, allowing developers to plug different applications into the bus without necessarily needing an infrastructure component.

The integration platform as a service (iPaaS)

An integration platform as a service, or iPaaS, is a platform developers use to build and manage any combination of these architectures and models in a scalable way. It includes features like reusable components, a low-code interface, managed infrastructure, prebuilt integrations, and enterprise support. 

Integration platforms enable a more flexible iteration of hub-and-spoke architecture, where not every integration is required to run through a single, centralized location. Instead, developers can manage multiple integration patterns on a single platform, applying global rules and configurations across the entire system. This allows for a more distributed and efficient flow of data, tailored to specific business needs.

For example, consider a scenario where data from a product analytics tool is sent to a data lake for use in a business intelligence (BI) platform, as well as triggering actions in the product itself. Simultaneously, structured data from your CRM might be directed to a separate data warehouse, but eventually, it also feeds into the same BI tool to provide a fuller picture of customer activity in your product. In this case, the “hub” is the integration platform—within this hub, data flows in various ways, each optimized for specific goals and efficiencies.

The iPaaS is the gold standard for enterprise integrations. It allows developers to connect applications and data without ripping and replacing legacy systems, adding technical debt, or requiring months of specialized training. No matter how complex integration needs, digital transformation can be done safely and modularly, protecting existing systems while modernizing business processes. 

Two key use cases of enterprise integration architecture

Your integration architecture should serve two main purposes: connect applications to enable process automation, and connect data to enable real-time analytics, transparency, and AI. 

Application integration

The first use case is application integration, or connecting the applications that power your business. This makes workflow automation and complex business processes possible at scale.

The average enterprise has thousands of applications deployed. Application integration is the process of connecting them using one or more of the aforementioned models, with the goal of optimizing efficiency and cost while protecting company data. 

Data integration

The second use case is data integration, or the process of connecting multiple sources and enabling the real-time flow of data across the organization. Enterprise integration architecture enables cloud integration, where data from both legacy and on-premise systems is securely integrated and accessible in the cloud. This opens up a world of possibilities where real-time data can be used to improve the customer experiment, implement AI workflows, and experiment freely with new technology while protecting underlying systems.

The benefits of enterprise integration architecture

When companies try to build their own integration architecture or make do with a budget solution, IT often spends more time managing it than putting their integrations to good use. As the number of systems that need integrating grows—especially a mix of legacy, on-prem, and cloud tools—the technical debt and workarounds become too cumbersome.   

Enterprise integration architecture is a secure, scalable solution set built for large companies that must manage hundreds or more applications and tools. iPaaS, API management, and [data] platforms typically have enterprise-grade features like built-in security and access controls, high availability and redundancy, and global configurations that let developers spend less time on maintenance and governance. Some also allow users to work in a low-code UI, allowing generalized and junior developers to build integrations without special training.  

By investing in enterprise integration architecture, IT teams see a host of benefits:

  • Reduced labor costs – Specialized integration developers are often hard to find or expensive to hire. Enterprise integration architecture already includes solutions for much of the work these developers would do—the in-house engineering team can build integrations using resources they already have. 
  • Scalability and performance – Enterprise platforms like the iPaaS are built on cloud-native, managed infrastructure that scales as integration needs expand. These services provide more reliability than something self-managed and often come with SLAs that guarantee uptime.  
  • Security and compliance – Another built-in feature of enterprise architecture, security controls and governance features make it easier for developers to adhere to privacy laws, manage access, and ensure data is encrypted as it flows through multiple applications and warehouses. 
  • Enhanced data visibility – When data from every source and application runs through a well-governed platform, analysts can confidently explore, share, and build products on top of it. 
  • Increased productivity – Enterprise architecture, especially its low-code components, takes a large portion of manual work and maintenance off developers’ plates. Not only do they have more time to dedicate to other development work, the integrations they build amplify productivity across any team using them.
  • Improved customer satisfaction – Connecting enterprise processes and data makes it easier to provide fully informed, real-time customer support. The product team can also use these integrations to build customer-facing dashboards and incorporate real-time data into the user experience. 

What to consider when choosing your integration architecture

To embrace enterprise integration architecture, you’ll need to invest in an integration platform as a service (iPaaS). An iPaaS typically has scalable, reusable components that make it easier for the general developer to manage multiple integration models and thousands of applications and services in one place, plus the ability to integrate with best-in-class API and ETL solutions.

The integration platform market is complex. Some solutions require specialists and extensive training, while others will help you move quickly and efficiently toward modernizing your integrations. Take a look at this guide to understand which iPaaS solutions are available, the pros and cons, and how to make a decision as an iPaaS buyer.

Here are some top features to look for:

  • A low-code integration builder – Any developer should be able to easily create integrations using a visual interface that requires no specialized training.
  • Composable building blocks – Pre-built connectors or Capsules that developers can use to quickly build complex, enterprise integrations. 
  • Ongoing integration monitoring: The ability to centrally monitor and manage integrations with automatic alerts for potential issues.
  • Built-in governance: Global security and access configurations, secure test and production environments, and audit intervals. 
  • Scale and high availability: Managed infrastructure that leverages autoscaling and load-balancing capabilities to ensure high performance.
  • Easy integration with API management and ETL solutions – the platform should allow you to connect the API and data services of your choice.

Digibee: an integration platform built for scale

Digibee is the only integration platform that scales application integration workflows while reducing cost, technical debt, and the burden on development teams. It allows developers to deploy any integration model they like, quickly building, testing, deploying, and monitoring every integration from one flexible platform. 

To learn more, take our product tour or request a personalized demo from our sales team.

How to Choose the Right Hybrid Integration Platform for your Business

Posted on December 21, 2023 by - Enterprise Integration Solutions, IT

As data volume and velocity continues to rocket up, companies are under increasing pressure to digitally transform, seamlessly connecting data, applications, systems, and other enterprise infrastructure to remain relevant and profitable. Hybrid integration – the integration of cloud-based services, on-premises systems, and applications – is key for ensuring this happens.

These systems serve as a bridge, connecting all of the moving pieces. Since most enterprises implement new technology as needed, it’s common to find legacy systems, on-premises applications rubbing shoulders with contemporary cloud systems. Hybrid integration platforms help bring these disparate models together.

>> Book a personalized demo with our team of experts and see how Digibee’s iPaaS will bring efficiency to your business.