What is iPaaS Software?

Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) or Cloud Data Integration tools are platforms for building and deploying integrations. These can be built both within the cloud and between the cloud and enterprise on-premise applications.

iPaaS Software Features & Capabilities

Pre-built, tested connectors to a wide variety of applications such as CRM, ERP, HCM, Marketing Automation, etc.
Provision for modification of pre-built connectors to suit unique environments
Support for real-time and batch integration
Ability to perform data profiling, deduplication, cleansing, etc.
Security features including rights management, LDAP integration, password encryption, etc.
Console for monitoring resource utilization, system health, ability to start and stop processes, etc.
Support for other integration processes such as EDI and ETL

Why Integration Platforms Matter

Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) have radically simplified the deployment of consumption of business applications and development platforms. They have also created silos of data that remain difficult to access by other systems.

For example, customer data from an application like Salesforce.com may need to flow to an online accounting system for invoicing and billing. It may also need to flow to an ERP system for purchasing. Additionally, a business intelligence system might need to extract data from all of these systems and more, to build a data warehouse for the purpose of decision-making. None of this is currently easy to accomplish without an integration platform.

iPaaS solutions are also gaining traction as important tools for managing the exponentially-growing Internet of Things. As the number of autonomously-communicating devices grows, on a consumer and business level, iPaaS solutions are poised as key resources for facilitating and managing the communications and integrating the data within the IoT that is growing both in scale and complexity.

Evolution of iPaaS Tools

iPaaS solutions were developed to help SMBs that had little-specialized knowledge of data integration, how to support data synchronization between on-premise ERP systems and early SaaS offerings like Salesforce. Vendors that emerged in this space allowed SMBs to achieve integration at relatively low cost.

It is no longer necessary to have specialists with knowledge of SOA and enterprise service bus (ESB) integration technologies. These integration platforms allow systems to be integrated much more rapidly, by using a multi-tenant cloud service.

iPaaS cloud solutions are now challenging traditional on-premise middleware solutions like service bus products, due to their relative agility and ease-of use. Integration Platform as a service software typically has an intuitive console for deploying and managing integrations across the enterprise. Within iPaaS, there are enterprise, IT-centric tools and a new generation of simpler, self-service tools designed for citizen developers. The growth of low-code or no-code interfaces within the market is a key facet of the development of self-service platforms.

iPaaS Software Comparison

To compare different iPaaS products, consider these common facets of the software:

Target user size: iPaaS products can range in target user size from personal and small business use to enormous enterprises. If you already have some idea of the scope of the ecosystem you need to integrate, eliminating outlier products for your use case should be fairly clear. Looking at the trends in reviewers’ companies’ sizes can be a helpful signpost for which iPaaS products could be appropriately scaled for you.
Ease of use: iPaaS’s market vision is to not need IT specialists to manage integration- this is understandably easier to achieve at smaller scales, but as you grow into larger iPaaS products, look for reviewer insights into how user-friendly the product is. For instance, investigate whether Line of Business users would work with the iPaaS or whether they needed to bring on dedicated iPaaS managers.
Prebuilt integrations list or custom integrations options: Depending on the scale and complexity of the integrations you need, it will be helpful to know either the prebuilt integrations available or how easily and effectively you can build your own integrations on the platform. Most vendors advertise what prebuilt integrations are available, but the functionality of building your own integrations may be a more intensive process to discern.

Start an iPaaS comparison

Pricing Information

There are a number of inexpensive or freemium products like Zapier and IFTTT which are integration tools designed for non-technical “citizen” one-way integrations between widely-known apps like Slack and Salesforce. These are modern, relatively simple tools not always suitable for the enterprise. Enterprise-level tools tend to significantly more expensive, residing at the upper end of the market. These tools provide also provide support for API management, EDI transactions and other developer-heavy protocols. iPaaS pricing is based on the solutions feature completeness, as well as the size of business they can support.

What is iPaaS Software?

iPaaS Software Features & Capabilities

Why Integration Platforms Matter

Evolution of iPaaS Tools

iPaaS Software Comparison

Pricing Information

More Resources

Deployment Types	On-premise, Software as a Service (SaaS), Cloud, or Web-Based
Operating Systems	Windows, Linux, Mac
Mobile Application	No
Supported Countries	Worlwide

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