Microsoft offers the Azure Logic Apps as a cloud-based integration service, supporting data and application integration.
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Ellucian Ethos
Score 7.0 out of 10
N/A
The Ellucian Ethos Framework is a data integration platform designed for higher education institutions and their business structures. The Ethos Framework can be extended to include other Ellucian products for greater analytics, workflow, and mobile capacities.
Microsoft Azure Logic Apps was a perfect solution for us to integrate the apps and products we used in our business to create automated workflows which were also complex and very advanced. This was a very new feature for us, and also it reduced our software costs massively and also saved us a lot of time. With the crisis, we were in back then Azure turned out to be the best cost-friendly solution because we only had to pay for what we used!
Ethos Integration is a work in progress. Some API's are still not available under this framework. However, it has the advantage of being an abstraction layer on top of the database, supports the publish-subscribe model. Since some Banner 9 modules still do not support the direct SAML2 connection, Ethos Identity (EIS Server) is a necessity for SSO.
Microsoft Azure should be unclouded with its pricing. We don't always know how much an inclusion will affect the monthly price. So we have to speculate where we are with the price and if we can afford to include another asset.
Operational reporting: This does not replace or provide an easy platform for operational reports or warehousing. It would be nice if they provided a full stack.
Learning curve: Training and documentation are minimal.
Azure Logic Apps on the surface are very intuitive. There is definitely room for improvement but it was very well laid out. The main thing with the UI is that its baked into Azure which at times can be a confusing platform to navigate. This is not the fault of Azure Logic Apps for the Azure platform.
As with other Microsoft Azure support, Microsoft Logic Apps is hit or miss depending on the issue you are having. If it's simple then the resolution can be very quick. If it requires an engineer to review, then it will take them quite a while to look up a solution as they dig through.
Support from Ellucian for Ethos Integration was generally good. The help in building Ethos was adequate, and resolving issues were handled professionally. However, for Ethos Identity module, the support in building the cluster failover architecture was lacking. After over a month of open engagement, the issue still has not been resolved.
This is very dependent on the line of work you are in and the unique company requirements, as is the case with everything. We utilize Azure Logic Apps for all of our computing solutions within our domain, and it has always worked flawlessly. One of the simplest clouds to set up and use is by far the most popular.
We have not used any other product similar to this, but for us, it made sense that the first product we tried was made by the company who developed our ERP system because they know the system inside/out. Solutions made by other companies that only look into documentation does not mean they would be able to create a product that could do such integration well.
Moving to Serverless Computing obviously makes the organization get rid of dependent Infra.
ROI can be seen immediately as the required infra can be decommissioned after a successful quarter run.
Being deployed as a single entity or single app on Azure Logic Apps, Organizations need to be more careful with controls applied to meet compliance and security posture.
