IPAAS: A Comprehensive Guide For 2021

Introduction

IPAAS( Integration Platform as a service) is basically a data integration service usually provided by cloud companies such as Google, where organizations are provided with infrastructure and tools to aid the integration/collaboration of their on-premises applications with the service provider’s cloud-based applications. It helps the organizations move their data between their applications, which helps the organization coordinate the workflows both from juniors to seniors and vice versa. It helps the organization’s employees consolidate/Integrate their work and duties irrespective of their geographical location. Also, as an added advantage, organizations can monitor and manage the cycle of integrations that took place. It can also be said that it is the step of the organization towards cloud computing.

In this article let us look at:

1. Related terms to know
2. How does IPAAS work?
3. IPAAS vs PAAS
4. Why IPAAS?
5. Benefits
6. IPAAS Integration Patterns
7. What to look for while incorporating IPAAS

1. Related terms to know

1) Platform: Platform is basically a central component responsible for maintaining the connection between different devices.

2) Integration Platform: As the name suggests, it refers to the platform where all the connections are integrated.

3) Platform as a Service (PAAS): It is a platform where the service vendor keeps all the elements of the service, from where services are provided to the user.

2. How does IPAAS work?

An IPAAS provider offers services on an integration platform in the public or private cloud. The platform is a complete IT infrastructure, including solutions and tools for integration work, available online. The provider is also responsible for maintenance, updates, upgrades, security, scalability, and platform reliability.

An IPAAS service provider is like a contractor who has been hired to look after the construction work. All the required materials and appliances are looked after by the homeowner. Similar is the case with its service providers, where the organizations take care of all the services and add-on services they require. It is the duty of the service provider to provide the organization with the model as demanded by the organization.

3. IPAAS vs PAAS

Talking about PAAS, it is basically a group of tools required by the users (especially developers) to build applications. On the other hand, IPAAS integrates all the applications developed via PAAS and provides a complete set of services to its users.

4. Why IPAAS?

IPAAS allows users to stay focused longer during a task and provides better visibility of the business operations via comprehensive reports from the IPAAS solution. The user-friendly design enables businesses to speed up their linking process with multiple other systems effectively and efficiently.  In today’s scenarios, to make up for the competition present in the market, it is a must for businesses to have an enterprise integration solution that can help to increase both the effectiveness and efficiency of the business in its operations. Though there are different cloud application designs available, still Integration Platform as a service stands out.

5. Benefits

There are many benefits of IPAAS, which make it one of the most used Cloud Applications Design among businesses. Some key benefits are listed below:-

1) Fast to Adopt:  It is easier and time-efficient for traditional business practices to adopt and incorporate IPAAS into their systems. This helps organizations to focus on their core business practices without causing any disturbance or harm to their IT infrastructure. This benefit stands out and makes it one of the most accepted Cloud Computing Application Design. 

2) Cost-Effective: Unlike the organizations’ costs to maintain their own IT team, IPAAS is used like a service providing the organization more convenience to offset their exponential costs of the traditional integration. It gives organizations the advantage of reducing their human capital expenses as the maintenance of its systems requires a fraction of human capital force compared to traditional integration practices.

3) Security of Enterprise: We all know that in the 21st Century, ‘Data is the new Oil’. Hence security for an organization of its affairs and its database is of utmost importance. IPAAS solves this issue to the greatest extent to date. An IPAAS solution almost eliminates the issue of data compromisation by an attacker as the vendor of the service constantly manages the system and infrastructure.  

4) Better Connectivity: One of the key components of an organization’s success includes its speed of delivering services to its customers. The basic utility/USP of IPAAS is that it can connect everything that is potentially essential for the organization’s performance.  It allows organizations to integrate a wide variety of cloud and premise applications to facilitate data flow and synchronization.

5) API Fluency:  API stands for Application Programming Interface. API is the standard way of connecting systems, from cloud and mobile to back-end applications. This helps organizations combine the rapid development and deployment of APIs to power mobile and web applications safely and securely. IPAAS makes this process seamless and stands out in its performance.

6. IPAAS Integration Patterns

Certain well-known patterns are listed below:

1) B2B (Business to Business) Ecosystem Integrations Pattern: This pattern, as the name suggests, helps the organizations to communicate with other organizations, which in turn helps to take care of and automate data transfers beyond the walls of the organization.

2) Hybrid Integrations Pattern: As the name suggests, hybrid integration is a combination of both cloud-to-cloud and ground-to-cloud integration. Through IPAAS, it’s easier than implementing this solution than (SaaS) and other cloud applications with a secure method to access on-premise applications.

3) Applications Integration Pattern: IPAAS is the one that helps in providing the ability to unify integrations between applications and provide some coherence across all the data flowing through the enterprise.

7. What to look for while incorporating IPAAS

From above, it is quite evident that IPAAS architecture offers a lot of promise. But some common features and capabilities that organizations usually prefer are:

1) Nowadays, it usually comes with the ability to integrate new data sources with numerous business processes, which becomes an essential component to take care of while incorporating an IPAAS solution 

2) Organizations demand greater data reliability along with higher security and uptime.

3) In order to compete in the market, it very essential for the vendor to provide API management to the organizations

4) In order to viable in the market, the vendor must provide their IPAAS solution with the ability to adapt to the organization’s needs

5) Also, in order to increase the value of the IPAAS solution, the vendor can provide a hybrid solution to the organizations by storing data both on-premises and on the cloud.

Conclusion

Its quite understood to everyone that everything in the technological field has its own pros and cons. Nothing in the technology is perfect. Hence, if we talk about the integration of traditional and cloud applications, it is becoming a necessity for the organization to be dynamic in their decisions and match steps with technological evolution to sustain their business. It can be easily predicted that how these technologies will become more prevalent with the passage of time. Also, having been discussed, the benefits that IPAAS design offers are better as compared to the other available. The truth can never be forgone that automation and technology are the future drivers of humanity.

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