Discover the ins and outs of an integration platform as a service
The
iPaaS
Guide:
What is an ipaas?
The iPaaS Guide:
What is an iPaaS?
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The term iPaaS stands for ‘integration Platform as a Service' and it is essentially a cloud-based integration platform. An iPaaS enables companies to connect any two or more software, systems, cloud applications, APIs, data points, or other digital business solutions, from one central hub. As a web-based, no-code, or low-code integration solution, an iPaaS presents a user-friendly interface to create, monitor, and manage software or system integrations, without any coding expertise.
Alumio’s iPaaS definition: a cloud-based integration Platform as a Service or ‘Middleware’ that simplifies connecting software, systems, and business processes, via a user-friendly interface
While the advisory firm Gartner is credited for coining the term iPaaS in November 2011, the company Boomi is known to have used the term even earlier in 2008.
Understanding the basics of next-gen system integrations for digital growth
The traditional way to integrate software involves writing custom code or using plugins, which entails expensive and extensive projects and results in third-party dependency. In contrast, an iPaaS is a no-code (or low-code) cloud integration platform that helps businesses create integrations via a user-friendly interface, without deep coding expertise or programming knowledge. This means non-developers, data experts, or even project managers can configure, monitor, and manage software integrations from one central dashboard.
An iPaaS integrates the APIs of your software or even the APIs of your relations to connect them via JSON, cXML, EDI, or other formats. Integrating APIs via an iPaaS allows users the advantage of adding or interchanging software seamlessly via its graphical user interface, and without the loss of data integrity. Centralizing all integrations on one central platform, an iPaaS prevents data silos and allows businesses full data control across all their connected software. By providing this holistic data access, an iPaaS also helps businesses be compliant and secure.
Digitalize your business, accelerate growth and achieve operational excellence by using an iPaaS. By helping you integrate with any software, systems, or even RPA (Robotic Process Automation), an iPaaS enables you to streamline and automate repetitive manual processes such as mails to systems, excel work, hiring, onboarding, payroll, customer support, invoice processing, inventory management, product optimization, and many other business processes.
By automating the monitoring and logging of your integrations, an iPaaS saves you the trouble of having to manually detect integration errors or API conflicts, and it also offers automatic updates. Apart from helping you troubleshoot integrations and reducing integration error costs, the iPaaS also enables 360-degree customer insights across all connections. The many other integration tools and key benefits that an iPaaS provides, enable organizations to steadily expand their system integrations in a scalable, sustainable, and future-proof way.
According to Gartner, “In 2020, iPaaS demonstrated impressive growth of 38% to reach $3.5 billion to become the largest stand-alone integration market."
From integrating enterprise systems to eCommerce, to being ready to integrate with AI & ML
It is important to emphasize that an iPaaS is not just a key next-gen tool, but rather a holistic, future-proof cloud integration solution that’s here to stay. Explore the advantages that an iPaaS provides organizations directly or helps agencies and system integrators to benefit their clients with.
Build an API-led and scalable IT landscape with an iPaaS
Digitalize rapidly by integrating with all kinds software or cloud applications from one central platform.
Leverage improved data access across your IT landscape, as the iPaaS evolves with predictive technology.
Integrate with the APIs of just about any software or system with an iPaaS, to expand your business’ digital growth.
Interchange or modify your software integrations flexibly to match your evolving business needs.
An iPaaS makes it easier to comply with privacy legislation like GDPR, SOC2, CCPA, FERPA, and HIPAA.
Benefit from a three-pronged security approach to safeguard your data across all connected systems.
Upscale and organize your integrations as you grow via the iPaaS, to create a future-proof IT landscape.
Get 360-degree customer insights across all connected systems, allowing you to calculate the total lifetime value of a customer.
Discover how much ROI you can earn on your integrations
Looking for better ways to develop and maintain cost-effective software integrations? Read more in-depth discussions about how an iPaaS helps increase ROI and reduce budget overruns:
Develop, orchestrate and govern your integrations and data from one platform
Once you recognize an iPaaS as a middleware that helps create connections with software, systems or data points on one central platform, how do you actually administer an iPaaS in your IT landscape? How quickly can you create a basic integration between two systems via the iPaaS interface? How technically skilled does a professional have to be to create or manage an integration using an iPaaS? And what advanced tools does an iPaaS offer skilled senior developers to create complex and custom integrations?
Alumio’s iPaaS is designed to simplify creating and managing software integrations in a fast and flexible way. Based on headless Symfony technology, it also provides an open framework to create customizations and tackle edge cases. It comes fully equipped with integration tools and SDK (software development kit) to help customize integration to suit evolving business needs.
To explore detailed demos on how an iPaaS works from a Beginner’s or Expert’s perspective, feel free to watch Alumio's 'Experience iPaaS' webinars on demand, to experience how an iPaaS actually looks and works first-hand:
Alumio vs Celigo vs Dell Boomi and other popular iPaaS solutions
Are your integrations mission critical? Do you have multiple systems or software that need to be integrated? Would you like to be able to manage, monitor or modify your integrations in-house? And are you looking for a solution to scale up or flexibly change your integrations as you grow? These are the the critical problems and needs that an iPaaS help solve as a next-gen data-integration and business automation solution.
An iPaaS provides key integration features and dedicated cloud-space for a company to integrate as many systems as they need, and centralizes all these connections on its platform. An increasing amount of companies are starting to use iPaaS solutions for how it simplifies the development and management of integrations, for the detailed monitoring and logging it offers, as well as the data security and management features it provides. The question then arises as to which iPaaS solution works best for their companies.
The choice isn’t easy since the digital market is replete with popular iPaaS vendors such as Alumio, Celigo, Dell Boomi, Mulesoft's Anypoint, Zapier and many other key players. Each of these brands present iPaaS solutions that offer their own unique variation of features, specializations and pricing models. The only way to choose an iPaaS vendor that works best for your business or integration requirements is to do so by comparing these differences in services and features offered, particularly from a purely customer-centric perspective.
