Quest Cloud Application Integration Platform

Cloud based data integration is effective in a number of things. But cloud based application integration (cloud-based EAI) is a bit of a new listing.

Vendors like Snaplogic and Boomi help us get into the cloud-based data integration field, and heavyweight players like Informatica are helping them become mainstream technology.

The first cloud based application integration platform

Mulesoft is a well-known open source message bus software vendor, ready to use its new ion cloud-based application integration platform to change the application integration and cluster into the field of the pattern. Mulesoft's ion is the first fully functional suite built for cloud application integration.

Data vs. Application integration

Data integration is a "batch mode" or a scheduled operation that synchronizes data between different data sources and targets, covering data manipulation, harmonization, duplicate deletion, purification, standardization, and other data-intensive operations. In essence, data integration provides the abstraction layer of the lowest data source. Data integration tasks can be run once a week, a day or an hour, or even a time. But it doesn't run millions of times an hour. Data integration tasks may contain data or a single record of bytes.

Application integration is about the reliability and punctuality of message exchange between applications, rather than data sources. Typically run at a near-real-time speed, typically including the functional workflow type at the top of the core message layer. Application integration allows business processes to span multiple different systems, providing an abstraction layer of underlying applications and business processes. Typically data synthesis is very small in a single application integration task (although there may be countless application integration tasks to process during an hour).

The following illustration shows a high-level description of the difference between two different types of integration. Data integration is about the transfer and transformation of data from one place to another, ignoring application or business logic, and application integration considers connecting systems together in the application logic layer, as a simple bystander.

Decision: Which integration method do you fit

As I've written before, data integration doesn't have to be as integrated or as poorly integrated as application integration. Depends only on the difference in demand. For example, if you need to populate a huge data warehouse from many trading systems, data integration may be more appropriate for you. If you want to build a simple business process that can span multiple independent applications, application integration is a viable path. Almost all enterprises with integration requirements need both types of integration technology.

Application integration Case

As well as interpreting the benefits of cloud-based application integration, it may be most effective to show it in the context of a common case.

Orders to Cash (order to Cash (OTC)) is the most common business process, and each commercial product exchange requires this type of business process to get paid. Considering such a scenario, the merchant sold a physical product to other merchants. They receive orders from customers. They process orders, invoicing, invoicing, and collecting money. This process spans many different systems and may also span multiple organizations (like many companies that outsource shipping). The chart for this process is as follows:

For business processes such as OTC, a single logical business process, application integration is more appropriate than data integration, mainly for the following reasons:

(1) Time: Application integration is an event-driven approach to real-time rather than scheduled. Faster process completion, enterprises will be faster access to revenue, shorten the number of accounts receivable days, better cash flow. Faster and more accurate orders, higher customer satisfaction.

(2) Process integrity is important. The application Integration Framework ensures that an event occurs and will occur in the correct order. The occurrence of an event in an order is important. For example, an order cannot be transported without an invoice. The order will be shipped together with the product and invoice. Get paid as soon as possible, financial data needs to be updated in multiple locations, customer records, contract accounts, etc.

Cloud based application integration will change EAI

Mulesoft's ion in the application integration market will be a subversion, mainly for the following reasons:

First, the local EAI platform has been around for a long, mainstream since the 1990s. They are highly capable, but they are very complex and expensive to achieve.

Quite a few enterprise-class software has been terminated by the cloud. Compare the local application of Siebel with the SaaS of Salesforce.

It is not the cloud that makes things come together, but the packages that are built for the cloud are a new, cleaner architecture that deals with legacy issues free of charge. For example, many of the local integration stacks have code that goes back to the 90 's, and the user interface is Windows 95.

Second, more and more operations and analytics applications in the enterprise are gradually moving to the cloud, and SaaS applications such as NetSuite or Salesforce are increasing, and cloud-based analytics platforms are the default choice for critical analytics and digital computing.

As the trajectory of applications and data gradually shifts to the cloud, integration continues to grow. Just as SaaS and Cloud will not only become mainstream, but will become a better choice for business applications, cloud based application integration will become a better choice for EAI.