Cloud App Integration .com

Director of Integration at Workday talks Integration as a Service (IaaS) [ZDnet]

In this transcribed interview, analyst Dana Gardner talks with David Clarke, director of integration at Workday, about the rise of integration in the cloud. Clarke suggests that the surprising rise of mobile technology and pressure from open source providers has made integration as a service a reality much sooner than he initially expected. The entire middleware stack may one day become available in the cloud, which presents new considerations for deployment, pricing, and development of applications. It also means that middleware may not long remain so arcane and esoteric to non-IT professionals.

Identity and access orchestration, compliance at top of list [Information Week]

In this information week article, author Michael Biddick lists six problems many CIOs encounter when integration SaaS applications. But more than echoing security and reliability concerns, Biddick digs up real problems, such as business process management implementation and data enrichment, and discusses how to address them. He acknowledges that hand-coded point-to-point integration can get the job done when only a few SaaS integrations are used, but also shares considerations when choosing software for larger integration projects.

Former Informatica CEO says hybrid approach to integration is a must [CNET]

SnapLogic CEO and former CEO and cofounder of Informatica Gaurav Dhillon spoke with CNET.com about cloud integration. From the interview:

With the influx of SaaS applications entering the enterprise, companies don’t have the resources or expertise to hand code heavy integrations between each and every application or data source. That means that integration has to be easy to accomplish. It also means that integration has to be able to scale.

Read the full interview for more insight on integration. We spoke with SnapLogic last month about the importance of the integration marketplace.

WSO2 Carbon 3.2 also includes Complex Event Processing (CEP) engine. [Press Release]

WSO2 today announced the release of WSO2 Carbon 3.2, an upgrade to its SOA middleware system. The release includes WSO2 ESB 4.0, an enterprise service bus built on Apache Synapse and featuring a new routing system designed to improve processing speed. The release also includes an updated governance registry that adds a new API and support for UDDI.

With the release WSO2 adds to the platform a Complex Event Processing (CEP) engine and a new message broker. WSO2 Carbon 3.2 is available for free download or as cloud virtual machines.

Analytics firm CFO highlights importance of iteration and automation [Information Week]

Author Kevin Casey here speaks with Host Analytics CFO Kelly Battles about different ways to maximize the value of SaaS applications. Casey describes how battles implemented SaaS applications at her own firm, including the very applications her company created but until her arrival had not used, to improve processes and save money.

Battles herself describes integration as an often missed step in SaaS implementation. Says Battles in the article: “The integration step is often missed or ignored as an extra cost that’s not needed. To the extent you can pick a few major applications and integrate those, there’s a ton of hidden value there.”

Recent VMware acquisitions include Zimbra, CloudRocket, and Mozy. [SearchCloudComputing]

Author Jo Maitland here details how VMware’s recent acquisitions will be integrated into their primary offerings. Much of the technology acquired when VMware bought Springsource, for example, was simply being offered as virtual machines without deep integration with some of VMware’s other offerings, particularly vCloud Director.

VMware last week announced an update to vFabric, which is designed to more fully integrate VMware tools with Springsource ones. According to the press release, vFabric introduces several new features, but makes no mention of integration vCloud Director. vFabric works on top of VMware’s virtualization platform, vSphere. It also adds a new licensing model and scalabity options.

In her story, Maitland points out that VMware has discussed integrating vFabric with other PaaS offerings, including those from Google and Salesforce. Integration with VMware’s own PaaS services is yet to be a point of focus.

Security, cost, and integration are barriers to widespread SaaS ERP use [ComputerWeekly]

Author Jenny Williams here speaks with analysts, users, and providers about SaaS ERP adoption. Despite a growing number of options, many in the industry do not see SaaS ERP adoption growing at the same rate of other enterprise applications. A survey referenced says that only 15% of respondents plan to adopt SaaS ERP in the near future, and most will use it to complement existing ERP systems. Security, vendor lock-in, and the added cost of deep integration with legacy systems may be holding SaaS ERP adoption back.

Cloud interoperability: Problems and best practices [ComputerWorld]

In this article from ComputerWorld the author speaks with a range of thought leaders about the challenges surrounding cloud interoperability. Chief among them are a lack of standards and even a lack of definition for what interoperability truly is. Beyond semantic challenges, users looking for interoperability need to make sure they have a destination and a plan for getting there. Migration, integration, security, and other concerns about adopting cloud computing are heightened when an organization wants the freedom to use multiple cloud providers. This article comprehensively covers these topics as they relate to cloud interoperability.

Enterprise application marketplaces facilitate use of mobile technology [ZDNet]

Enterprises are using the application marketplace model to deploy business applications to users. The use of application stores facilitates the adoption of mobile technology for businesses, as users can download applications remotely from smartphones or tablets. In this interview series, ZDNet’s Dana Gardner speaks with several experts in enterprise app stores about the challenges facing adoption and development.

Zuora adds integration with NetSuite as well as additional upgrades [Press release]

Zuora this month announced integration with NetSuite. According to the release, the introduction of Z-NetSuite means subscription businesses can use Zuora to integrate mixed cloud application environments, including cloud CRM, Zuora Z-Commerce for subscription management and billing, and NetSuite ERP/Financials for order management, finance and accounting. Zuora announced other additional upgrades to its Z-Force SaaS billing platform.