Cloud Integration Do’s and Don’ts

I moderated a webinar today with a Director of IT who is truly cloud first.  The topic was cloud data integration and the impact the right strategy can have on your Salesforce.com and overall SaaS application implementation success. The discussion also featured implementation guidance from one the top systems integrator partners of both Informatica Cloud and Salesforce – Silverline. Gireesh Sonnad, a partner at the firm, outlined what he sees as the Top Cloud Integration Do’s and Don’ts.

Cloud Integration Do’s:

1. Build well rounded, cross-functionalimplementation core team
2. Pay special attention to understanding your complete process and data workflow
3. Make sure to compare your legacy application accessibility to the integration platform capabilities
4. Take advantage of  SaaS application (in this case Salesforce CRM) and Informatica Cloud native functionality (External IDs, Upserts, Error Logging, etc.)
5. Document what you build (You will need to refer to it often)

Cloud Integration Don’ts:

1. DON’T underestimate value of integration to overall SaaS adoption (Workflows are cross platform in real life, your systems should be also!)
2. DON’T ignore the value of detailed use cases and end-to-end testing with the entire team
3. DON’T try this without a full sandbox!
4. DON’T Worry, it WILL all work out in the end

Here’s the recording. Do you agree/disagree with this list? What else would you add?

Related articles

• Why I Sold Oracle (dailyfinance.com)