Data Integration in a Software as a Service World – Time for Data Services

What does data integration look like when you’re inside a Software as a Service (SaaS) world? Some things look very much the same, and some things look quite a bit different.

What looks the same are the issues. Simply put, how do I get data into the application, how do I get information out of the application, and how do I make sure that it’s the right information? The last item can often be the trickiest, dealing with semantics and data quality issues.

The ways you get data in and out, and how you deal with data quality, look quite a bit different. Most applications offered as a service have a set of APIs available for integration, and most are available as some kind of Web Service. Though Web Services have been around for a few years now, the average IT department does not have the same level of experience with them. So we have a whole new paradigm for dealing with applications that looks a lot different than using an ETL tool, building a data warehouse, or using the TIB.

The other thing to think about is that SaaS applications do not live in a vacuum. The main driver is to connect existing applications (Software as Itself?) with SaaS applications. So now we have to combine old school integration (ETL, EDW, TIB, SQL) with the newer SOA-based integration. Not as easy as it may sound. (In fact, one customer mentioned that the group dynamics among Salesforce.com admins, SOA gurus, and the EDW crew is a challenge in itself.).

All of this got me to thinking that this may be the perfect time for ‘Data Services.’ The term has been gaining momentum since Gartner started talking about it a while back. It’s what we do here at Ipedo.  The basic idea is to take integration functions and make them available as a service via a platform. So the goal is not to move bulk data in batch, but to expose information and make it accessible on demand.  Included in the data service are security, performance optimization, semantic mediation, and potentially even data quality.

To make things more concrete, here are a few examples. You want to combine information from Oracle, DB2 and an order management application available as a Web Services, apply some logic, and update a customer record in Salesforce.com. Right there you have two kinds of SQL, SOAP/WSDL, and the Salesforce.com API (SOQL) to deal with. Or go the opposite direction. Your company is moving from Siebel to Salesforce.com, and you still need to create those weekly reports in Crystal. So you need to deal with the Siebel API or data mart, the Salesforce.com API and somehow get it to output in SQL (and it would be nice if you didn’t have to start from scratch).

There are more examples, to be sure. But one thing becomes clear to me. In the future, there may be no way stations for data. It’s needed inside the firewall, outside the firewall, in the applications you own and the ones you rent. So it would seem data services offer the perfect solution.

Software as a Service requires ‘Integration as a Service,’ aka Data Services. But unlike SaaS, Data Services also need to deal with the past twenty years of application data inside your company. So while I’ll never bet against there someday being a new startup called Integration.com, for the foreseeable future a Data Services platform inside your firewall that can deal easily with both internal applications and rented SaaS applications seems like just the ticket.

I’ll be digging into this idea in more depth. Watch this space.

Comments

[daryl]

do you have any data on projected growth of this market and what current players have in terms of market share?

[Venki Muthanna]

We at AppPoint are working on a platform BizAPP Studio which offers a modelling driven approach to enabling integration as a service. We and our partners have successfully delivered solutions which break the integration barrier between OnPremise and OnDemand/SaaS solutions. Would be happy to demonstrate some of the solutions we have delivered and get your thoughts about the same.

Thank you,
Venki

[Venki Muthanna]

Also, please do visit www.synchosoft.com where we leverage the modeling driven approach & other unique capabilities of our business process platform to address the integration needs of those companies which have adopted SalesForce & need to enhance and integrate SF solution with other OnPemise solutions.