The Death of Traditional Integration

Recently I hosted a SnapLogic webinar featuring the company’s co-founder and CEO, Gaurav Dhillon, and industry analyst, author and practitioner David Linthicum called: The Death of Traditional Data Integration. The webinar was very well attended and the discussion was quite lively. I’ve posted sections of the transcript on the SnapLogic blog, you can also listen to the podcast on the company’s iTunes channel, and the slides are now on Slideshare. I’ve embedded the YouTube video below. Enjoy!

7 Things You Should Know About SnapLogic’s Elastic Integration Platform

In a series of recent posts on the SnapLogic blog, I’ve been reviewing the primary requirements of a modern integration platform. In this post I outlined some of the key principles behind SnapLogic’s Elastic Integration Platform, as well as the most popular posts on the blog. (Not surprisingly, 3 of the 5 most popular posts were written by the company’s Chief Scientist.)

The presentation below provides an overview of 7 things you should know about SnapLogic’s elastic integration platform as a service (iPaaS):

7 Things You Should Know About the SnapLogic Elastic Integration Platform from SnapLogic, Inc.

Still Stuggling with SaaS Silos?

Got SaaS? Salesforce? ServiceNow? Workday? Zuora? Amazon Redshift?

What about on-premises apps? SAP? Oracle? Microsoft Dynamics?

Don’t forget social media, big data, identity management, online storage and cloud analytics solutions…

I summarized 5 signs you need to re-think your cloud integration strategy on the SnapLogic blog today. Here’s an overview:

Better Business Analytics in the Cloud

I moderated a SnapLogic webinar today focused on the market shift to business intelligence, analytics and enterprise performance management delivered in the cloud. We discussed the trends, shared some industry analyst perspectives and demonstrated the importance of cloud integration to an overall business analytics as a service strategy. Here’s the presentation. You can watch the recording when it’s posted here. As always, feedback welcome.

Here are some of the links referenced in the presentation:

• What’s Driving the Shift to On-Demand BI
• Gartner predicts Business Intelligence and Analytics will Remain the Top Focus for CIOs through 2017
• Insights from Findings in Dresner Advisory Services’ 2013 Wisdom of Crowds Business Intelligence Market Study
• Big Business Intelligence Trends for 2014
• Petabyte Scale Data Warehousing with Amazon Redshift
• Business Intelligence Advances Into the Cloud with Some Caveats
• BI in the Cloud: Find Your Bliss
• SnapLogic Named EMA Vendor to Watch
• Ovum on the Radar: SnapLogic

Unfinished Business: Gaurav Dhillon Introduces @SnapLogic Integration Cloud

Gaurav Dhillon co-founded Informatica in 1992 and ran the company until 2004. In 2006 he co-founded SnapLogic, a data integration start-up in San Mateo, California. In 2010 he took over as the company’s Chairman and CEO and re-focused the company on tackling the emerging cloud data and application integration challenge in the enterprise.

Today SnapLogic introduced the SnapLogic Integration Cloud, with a focus on three key areas:

• Faster application and data integration in a single “snap and assemble” HTML5 web interface
• Multi-point integration with advanced orchestration for 160+ pre-built “Snaps”
• Modern integration with the introduction of the Snaplex, which scales out elastically

You can read more about the Winter 2014 release of the multi-tenant integration platform as a service (iPaaS) here. Here’s a video of Gaurav introducing the company out summarizing the importance of the right approach to cloud data and application integration in the API economy. He’s also presenting on that topic on a GigaOM webinar with David Linthicum later this week.

Related articles

• How will we integrate all these enterprise cloud apps? (pandodaily.com)
• SnapLogic Delivers RESTful PaaS Environment for the Cloud (programmableweb.com)
• SnapLogic (officially) raises $10M; investment titan Ben Horowitz joins board (venturebeat.com)
• SnapLogic Accelerates Cloud Integration Innovation and Momentum with Record Q3 Results (virtual-strategy.com)

Putting Information Potential To Work

Great video outlining the importance of data integration. Are you putting potential to work?

Related articles

• Informatica Launches Vibe, The Embeddable Virtual Data Machine (techweekeurope.co.uk)

Cloud Data Management in the Spotlight

This week I had the pleasure of hosting a webinar featuring two great subject matter experts on the topic of cloud data management in the era of hybrid IT:

• Mike West, VP and Distinguished Analyst at Saugatuck Research
• Andrew Bartels, former CIO, CTO and current Cloud consultant, guru and evangelist

Mike West outlined why “hybrid” (or highly interwoven) deployments are the new normal for enterprise IT. He reviewed how the coud is radically changing the role of enterprise IT and why data management must be a part of an overall cloud strategy. He identified 7 trends of the so-called Boundary Free Enterprise and pointed to these 5 best practices:

1. Commit to (Cloud) Data Management
2. Manage the Organizational Issues
3. Partner with a Data Management Provider
4. Manage Both Control and Access
5. Approach Data Management as Value Creation

Andrew Bartels shared the story of how he led the transition at his company to “cloud first” and drove Salesforce adoption from a peripheral system to a key driver of business performance and success. Andrew spoke passionately about the need to treat data as an asseet and concluded with the following words of advice:

• Communication is key
• Focus on real needs not just philosophy
• Establish a Data Committee
• Become a partner & not an obstacle
• Integration & accessibility is key
• Be prepared for a long road

I’ve embedded the video below and posted the slides on Slideshare. There’s some great insight here. I hope you find the discussion interesting and useful – I sure did!

Related articles

• Dirty Secret about Cloud and Data Integration (blogs.gartner.com)

Cloud Integration is Suddenly Cool

I started a blog post with an “is it me?” question once and got one comment:  “Yes, it’s you.”

With that as an intro and a risk, let me ask: “Is it me or is cloud integration suddenly cool?”

Okay, maybe “cool” is the wrong word. But take a look at the trend:

So what’s so hot about cloud integration? In May 2010 I wrote about Phase Two Cloud Integration and The Dangers of Delaying Cloud Integration.

What’s changed?

Here’s how I answered the question in a recent interview:

“The first wave of cloud adoption was driven by software as a service (SaaS) applications. Pioneered by companies like salesforce.com, these applications typically were sold directly to the business, with minimal (if any) involvement from the traditional IT department. While there was a great deal of small to mid-sized company adoption early on, there was just as much departmental purchasing taking place in larger companies due to the benefits of ease of use, the promise of rapid deployments and the operational expense appeal of the subscription pricing model. On the IT side of the fence, I would characterize this as the “cloud skeptical” phase. On the business side, it was more like the Wild West. This is where cloud-based data integration first gained a foothold. Mid-sized companies and autonomous divisions and departments had limited technical resources but needed many of the same capabilities – data migration, synchronization, replication, and of course data quality.

Fast forward to today and IT organizations are increasingly becoming “cloud first.” Cloud deployments are becoming more complex, whether they are software, platform or infrastructure as a service; and the importance of broader cloud data management strategy is now recognized as the critical enabler of success. It’s a now truly a hybrid IT world. To avoid the perils of data fragmentation and “SaaS sprawl” business and IT organizations are starting to align around the need for trusted data.”

Do you agree? Disagree?  Anyone got a comment?

Related articles

• Cloud app integration: Incredibly important, but also problematic (cloudave.com)
• Are Enterprises Embracing Cloud? (cloudcomputing.sys-con.com)
• Salesforce Customers are Asking for Big Data Management #DF12 (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)

#DF12 Presentation: Power the Connected Enterprise with Cloud MDM and Integration

The video of 3 great enterprise customers sharing their Salesforce integration and master data management stories at Dreamforce 2012 is now posted. You can read a blog post on two of the companies that presented so far:

• OppenheimerFunds Dreamforce Story: Lay a Foundation of Trusted and Complete Customer Information for Salesforce
• Interstate Batteries Dreamforce Story: How Can You Be #1 Without Trusted Customer Information?

And here’s the video (slides are here):

Related articles

• Salesforce Customers are Asking for Big Data Management #DF12 (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Cloud Master Data Management from Informatica (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Stuck in the Post Dreamforce Cloud #DF12 (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Informatica Positioned in Leaders Quadrant in 2012 Master Data Management of Customer Data Solutions Report (virtual-strategy.com)

Cloud Connect 2012 Conference Highlights

The day before Dreamforce 2012, Informatica hosted the first annual Cloud Connect Conference.  The event kicked off with a keynote outlining the company’s cloud integration vision, a deep-dive roadmap session with product management, a customer and partner panel, hands-on labs with the cloud integration gurus, and the 2012 Cloudy Awards ceremony.  Here is a video highlight reel from the event:

Related articles

• Salesforce Customers are Asking for Big Data Management #DF12 (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Cloud Master Data Management from Informatica (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)