Why You Need a Cloud Integration Platform

As Organizations move past their underlying Software as a Service (SaaS) systems, they perceive the expanding need to incorporate information and procedures between the open cloud and their on-premises databases and applications. The pain point was the development cost of creating the entire design of the middleware to connect one to another and of course, security. Identifying the gap, many vendors have moved to address the issue.

Most Organizations, when they buy a SaaS solution, start looking into the possibility of connecting the system to their existing IT environment. It could be a CRM to an Accounting system or an ERP system to a database. The complexity of the integration varies with the type of business domain and the number of systems they use.

It started with connectors rendering the open APIs of systems. Contrasted with the single “connectors” that sellers create to empower integration, cloud integration platforms are increasingly programmable and progressively adaptable to deal with not just one system but with a more extensive arrangement of off the rack applications. Here a large grouping of custom applications is created inside one environment. Thus, you utilize a platform that can be connected to meet the requirements of multiple systems.

The cloud integration platforms gain importance when the SaaS solutions or applications become popular and when cross-functional processes need to exchange data among several disparate on-premises and SaaS offerings. Moreover, many applications are offloaded to Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) or Platform as a Service (PaaS) clouds. The integration has to be contained in the circle of an enterprise’s overall business strategy, processes, and operations. Progressively, they should fit into a prior domain and potentially interoperate with extra SaaS or On-premise applications that may be added to that condition.

Who are there in the market?

There are two types of vendors in the segment:

• Vendors who are very specific to data integration or middleware market For eg: DBSync a middleware technology used for data and application integration
• Vendors who started as a cloud application

Regardless of the type of vendors, nowadays most of technology can run on-premises, cloud or both. It’s winding up progressively prevalent to build up the integration in the cloud, at that point run it on-premises or in the cloud, at that point report back to an administrator console for execution monitoring, which can be either on-premises or in the cloud.

Run your Cloud Integration Platform:

One of the key benefits in running Cloud Integration Platform is less hassle of running an application from clients server utilizing the on-premise resources, including installing the platform and managing the integration process. If the use case is the connection between two cloud application, Cloud Integration platform is the best option. In a hybrid environment, the cloud platform services will call the service APIs running on the ground. E.g., web connector in QuickBooks. The value proposition is more than ever that; they need to be able to fit into a pre-existing environment and possibly interoperate with new SaaS apps that might be added to that environment.

Conclusion:

It’s imperative for IT groups to seriously investigate the alternatives a particular seller offers, which is primarily on platform capabilities. The second is a way of deployment which should address the compatibility questions. The last but essential is packages and pricing associated.

You can learn more about various apps offered by DBSync here

What is CRON and how it can greatly help you schedule Cloud Workflow jobs

Introduction

Cloud Workflow presents a scheduler that allows automating the execution of a task over time. The corresponding schedule can be defined via a menu, where the user selects the necessary time expression or via a CRON expression.

This article explains what a CRON expression is, and how to create a valid one for Cloud Workflow.

What is CRON

CRON is a time-based software utility, usually available in Unix-like machines, which can be used to schedule the execution of computer tasks.

According to Wikipedia, the origin of the name cron is from the Greek word for time, χρόνος (Chronos).

The Unix version of CRON uses a file named crontab, where all automated tasks are listed, accompanied by a time tag, which defines the execution rule.

Advantages of using a CRON expression

Although not always so evident, CRON expressions can be beneficial when defining repetitive tasks. The syntax is straightforward and gives the user a good command over the automation of tasks.  

Even easier, the Cloud Workflow’s Scheduler uses only the time section of a CRON expression.

How to add a CRON expression in Cloud Workflow

Adding a CRON expression in Cloud Workflow is straightforward. From the Repeat menu present in the Scheduler, select CRON and then add your CRON expression in the CRON Expression text box.

CRON expressions

The diagram below summarizes the time section of a CRON expression.

Source: Wikipedia

As the reader can see, the time section of a CRON expression consists of five fields, representing minutes, hours, day of the month, month, and day of the week, in that order.

The possible values for each field are defined in the figure above — a star or asterisk (*) represents all possible values.

Some examples of the time section of a CRON expression are:

1 0 * * *

With indicates the first minute, of the first hour, of every day, of every month, of every day of the week.

1 0 1 * *

The above expression has added 1 to the day of the month field. Thus, it indicates the first minute, of the first hour, of the very first day of each month.

1 0 1 1 *

The above expression has added 1 to the month field. Thus, it indicates the 1^st minute, of the first hour, of the 1^st of January.

1 0 1 1 6

The above expression has added 6 to the day of the week field. Thus, it indicates the 1^st minute, of the first hour, of the 1^st of January, which must be Saturday.

It should be noticed that the Scheduler accepts standard CRON expressions. Non-standard CRON commands, such as @yearly, are not considered.

To learn more, please visit our site - DBSync

A 10 Minute Guide To Hybrid Integration Platform (HIP)

Are you interested to know what the newest thing in integration is? The answer to your question is Hybrid Integration Platform, better known as HIP. This integration approach is fast becoming the new wave in integration.

By 2022, Gartner predicts at least 65% of large organizations will have implemented an HIP to power their digital transformation

This article is a step-by-step explanation of what HIP is, why you should consider it, what will you need to implement it, and how to choose the right implementation approach according to your business reality.

So, let’s start by explaining what HIP is.

What is HIP?

A Hybrid Integration Platform or HIP is a framework for system integration that was developed by Gartner, and considers the following four dimensions.

1. Constituents: are stakeholders in the integration project.
2. Endpoints: are where the systems to be integrated reside.
3. Integration models: are the entities to be integrated.
4. Deployment models: are the different connection environments.

Now, let’s see each dimension in detail.

Figure 1: An HIP example

Constituents

One of the most important characteristics of HIP is the inclusion of new stakeholders, who are now involved in integration. Together, they join forces by forming a “facilitation team” that assists and performs the integration task. This team is composed of the following roles:

1. Integration specialists: people with technical knowledge involved in the integration project.
2. Citizen integrators: people that participate in the integration project, but are not technically strong. For example, business unit managers, people from marketing, etc. This group participation will increase in the future.
3. “ad hoc” integrators: people who participate in the project without a specific role.
4. Smart machines: their importance is increasing, and will increase even more with the advances in IT. Typical examples are delivery trucks, production machines and pool cars.

Endpoints

The endpoints define where the systems reside. HIP innovates, when compared with other integration approaches, in that it basically includes all possible hosting methods. These are:

• On premises devices: includes systems that are available on site. An example is custom made legacy systems.
• Cloud: includes systems that are available through the internet, usually as a service. A typical example is Salesforce.
• Mobile: includes systems that are available on mobile platforms, such as Android.
• IoT: includes systems used to manage things, such as security cameras and automobiles. With the advance of IoT in recent years, systems integration will increasingly consider including these elements.

Integration models

An important aspect of HIP is that it considers not only the integration of data, but a vast range of entities. These are:

1. Applications: applications that need communication with each other.
2. Data: data available on databases and generated by different systems.
3. B2B: systems across different businesses.
4. Processes: business and operation processes.

Deployment models

Similarly, HIP connects systems residing on different deployment settings. The main ones are:

1.  
1. On-premises: systems residing on site.
2. Cloud: systems hosted on the cloud.
3. Hybrid: systems on the cloud and on site.
4. Embedded: systems embedded in IoT devices.

Now that we know what HIP is about, we can move to the next important question: why you must consider HIP in order to survive in the present competitive market?

Why HIP? Breaking the boundaries

In today’s world of hyper-competition, businesses need a powerful competitive edge to survive. In order to have it, businesses cannot fall behind in the quality of their software systems. They need the best software available, development speed in custom software, and data sharing among different systems.

In order to achieve this, technology ecosystems are converging more and more towards using a common data source, which is administered in an efficient and focused manner, according to the priority needs of the businesses.

In these ecosystems, operational, transactional and analytical apps feed from and contribute to the same pool of data sources. For example, apps such as Salesforce, which are used by the Marketing and Sales department, draw data from the same pool that BI and analytics do.

This unified data source results not only out of the need to reduce data silos, but also from the necessity for updated information that prompts the right business decisions and thus, increases in sales and profits.

  

Figure 2: Apps connected to a unified data source

Now that you are aware of the importance of HIP, let’s analyze how to implement it. In order to do this, first we need to consider what factors are important when deciding on an HIP approach.

3 Implementation key factors

The main points to consider when implementing an integration implementation are:

1. Business priorities: functional and timing requirements, considering the better ROI for your business. Based on these priorities, integration should be considered as a “product” that drives business value.
2. Available skills: certainly a very important aspect, as integration specialists are a scarce resource.
3. Allocated budget: particularly important for the small and medium enterprise.

Figure 3:  Implementation factors

How to implement HIP

There are three main ways to implement HIP. How to choose among them depends mainly on the size and level of homogeneity / heterogeneity of your business.

The first one is Centralized. It includes a single implementation and a centralized governance. The implementation is done by a centralized team. Thus, it is best for small to medium enterprises that, due to their size, are highly homogeneous.

The second implementation method is Shared. This method also has a single implementation and a centralized governance. However, it is implemented by several teams, usually located at the different business’ subsidiaries. Therefore, it is ideal for large and global organizations that are homogeneous in nature.

Finally, there is the Federated model. It involves multiple HIP implementations, a federated governance (from which its name derives), and it is implemented by several teams. Thus, it is the characteristic implementation model for large, global and heterogeneous businesses.

Table 1: Implementation approaches

DBSync and HIP

HIP is the future in integration, and DBSync is already there. Our three main products are: Cloud Workflow, CDM and Replication.

Cloud Workflow lets you connect two or more apps via connectors. A typical example would be reading data from Salesforce and feeding it into a database or another app.

CDM and Replication are two powerful tools that help you create snapshots of your Salesforce data and replicate it. There is an on-premises version and a recently released cloud version.

There are several characteristics that define our tools as hybrid. First of all, their user friendliness that basically creates an environment that does the job for you. Secondly, the capabilities to work both, on the cloud and on-premises. And finally, the capacity to create custom connectors and thus, to basically connect anywhere.

The benefits of these tools are legion: reducing admins’ and developers’ wasted time, reducing data duplication, reducing storage needs, creating continuous workflows that can run from lead to sale, coordinating data sources for Analytics and AI, and many more.

Table 2: DBSync main connectors

Conclusion

There are many reasons to understand what Hybrid Integration Platform is about. In this article, you have seen some key concepts that define HIP, and which can also help you analyze how you can apply this approach.

Ready to learn more? Check out our website at http://www.mydbsync.com/ which features many more knowledge resources, and try hybrid integration with our product for free.