5
Apr
Posted in Cloud app integration trends, Salesforce by Mike Ponta on Apr 5 2011
Users can overcome cloud data restrictions with parallel processing tools
As organizations look to store more and more data remotely with third party cloud applications, retrieving data has become a growing problem. Companies such as Salesforce.com must place limits on the amount of data a customer can request at one time to make sure that the application is available for all users. Because of that restriction, retrieving or updating large amounts of data can be time consuming and costly.
To meet this challenge, some integration providers now offer parallel processing tools. We recently spoke with Ilan Sehayek, CTO at integration software and services provider Jitterbit, about how parallel processing can improve data retrieval time. Jitterbit recently announced Jitterbit 4.0, which includes updated parallel processing tools. Read more… »
Some SaaS application databases have limited functionality compared to relational database with SQL
While many major cloud applications offer a database as part of a service, that database option may limit what can be done with the data.
We spoke with Jitterbit CTO Ilan Sehayek about the use cases for cloud data replication. He says that cloud data replication allows users to improve data usability. One example of how data usability can be improved with cloud data replication is by putting Salesforce.com data into a relational database.
“That way they have relational access to that data,” said Sehayek. “The query language in Salesforce doesn’t give the types of information that [some customers] are looking for,” said Sehayek.
Read more… »
Top SaaS applications feature platforms for extensibility
As the cloud application market matures, the top SaaS applications will be those that make it easy for users to customize the apps in order to fit their specific needs.
“I think that we’re starting to see certain leaders bubble to the top,” said Ilan Sehayek, CTO of Jitterbit. “I do think that within the cloud arena, these will be the vendors who have provided the more flexible solutions.”
Sehayek cited Salesforce.com, a popular SaaS CRM system, as an example. “The adoption of Salesforce.com started off with sales teams in pre-sales activities,” said Sehayek. “Maybe they took it down to establishing what the contract is—that was initially what people did.”
But Salesforce.com users quickly began to use the application for much more. “You start off with the front end part of the customer, but now you have customer support and contact centers using this product,” said Sehayek. Before long, Salesforce.com fledged from a sales tool to a CRM system.
“These cloud applications started to become platforms,” said Sehayek. “We have people that do human resources with Salesforce.com. That has nothing to do with sales at all.”
Sehayek does not suggest that more focused applications will not be succeed. “Point specific vendors that focus on their markets and serve a particular purpose will do just fine,” said Sehayek. “But I think over the time the ones that rise to the top are ones that offer easy and simple ways to build and extend what users need.”
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SaaS integration challenges arise from outdated processes
Software as a Service (SaaS) integration challenges arise from a number of places—out-of-date legacy systems, vendor lock-in, inconsistent data records—but the biggest SaaS integration challenge may be processual, not technological.
We recently spoke with Ilan Sehayek, CTO of cloud integration software and services provider Jitterbit, about how cloud computing is changing the way applications are integrated. Sehayek suggests that Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) integration challenges arise because traditional integration processes cannot match pace with SaaS integration needs.
“These SaaS applications are being adopted and modified so fast that they cannot keep up,” said Sehayek.
Sehayek suggested that the common integration model is too slow because there are too many steps involved. “Integration was always when the business decided they needed to change something. Then you have an analyst sit down and determine the new way data goes back and forth” said Sehayek. “This gets translated into requirements for developers.”
And those steps only bring the requirements to the developer. After the developer meets the requirements, it goes back to analyst for testing and, often, back to the developer.
Such a model for integration takes money, resources, and time. “The challenge for [cloud application integration] today isn’t that it cannot be done, but that it takes too long, is too expensive, and it requires too many resources,” Sehayek said.
Read more… »
30
Sep
Posted in Cloud app integration news by Mike Ponta on Sep 30 2010
NetSuite today released several new features to OneSuite, its cloud ERP tool. According to the author, OneSuite is now better targeted at larger, multinational corporations, not SMBs. The OneSuite enhancements include single-sign integration on with GoogleApps, including Google Calendar and GMail. Read original press release on OneSuite enchancements.
This blog post looks at the advantages of using pre-integrated SaaS tools as compared to integrating best-of-breed SaaS applications in-house. The blog explains how access to platforms can allow for customization of pre-integrated systems, for example, but proprietary development tools can be unfamiliar to third-party users.
SaaS integration service provider Jitterbit today announced Jitterbit Connect, a software wizard designed to simplify Salesforce.com integration. The Jitterbit Connect wizard is built into Jitterbit Enterprise Edition and is aimed at helping non-IT users integrate Salesforce.com with other applications.
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11
Aug
Posted in Cloud app integration news by Mike Ponta on Aug 11 2010
Legacy integration is one of the top reasons companies are wary of the migration from on-premise systems to the cloud and SaaS. Part of overcoming the integration problem will be the adoption of end-to-end SaaS functionality in the form of product suites and two-tier deployments during the transition.
Integration services provider Jitterbit announced this week a global partner program. The partnership program offers consulting/SI, OEM/VAR, and reseller models. Jitterbit has partnered already with Salesforce.com, Netsuite, Oracle, and InfoWelders.
Service-oriented architecture, which in terms of hype is the cloud computing of five years ago, has suffered because the ROI remains tough to identify. The advantages of SOA are largely measured in abstract concepts like agility and interoperability. But the author suggests the very real cost reductions of cloud computing might make SOA adoption, and its emphasis on Web services, more palatable.
27
Jul
Posted in Cloud app integration news by Mike Ponta on Jul 27 2010
A recent survey from Enterprise Irregulars suggests that hardware vendors and systems integrators should make a push to cloud application development and integration in order to open new revenue streams. The authors believe that a market exists for custom SaaS applications that “fill the white space” in a software stack through integration between existing applications.
LinMin today announced the release of Bare Metal Provisioning 6.0, a new version of the company’s flagship provisioning tool used for hosting automation and operating system installation. The release includes an upgraded API designed to help cloud, hosting, and corporate data centers add provisioning and imaging support to existing IT applications, including control panels and cloud orchestrators.
Jitterbit, a provider of open source intregration tools and services, decided to use their monthly blog post to clarify the differences between cloud integration and SaaS integration. Cloud, after all, can refer to storage, data, compute power, or something else. SaaS is strictly software. They end with an important and overarching point: SaaS is always cloud, but cloud is not always SaaS.
