Aggregating Salesforce Data with a Cloud Integration Template

Recently Informatica announced the availability of Cloud Integration Templates with the Summer 2012 release. I sat down with the lead product manager for this area of the product line and published the interview on the Informatica Perspectives blog. He described Cloud Integration Templates this way:

“In the world of mash-ups you have charts, components you bring into your framework. You size them and set certain attributes and it works. If you think of integration processes this way and define a Salesforce CRM to Netsuite integration as a Template for example, you should be able to just drop it in and it works (assuming the cloud connectivity is supported). Mash-up builders make it easy to build apps rapidly. What Cloud Integration Templates do is allow you to abstract integration processes so the developers can work with only what they need.”

I wanted to post an example of a Cloud Integration Template that has already become quite popular on the Informatica Marketplace – The Salesforce Aggregator Template.  From the Marketplace description:

“The Salesforce Aggregator Template allows you to aggregate data using aggregation functions such as SUM, MIN, and MAX on any desired dataset. As a result, you can build summaries of a dataset from various field-level details. You can also perform mathematical and/or transactional operations between different source fields and place the result in a target.”

Here’s a video of the Cloud Integration Template in action. They are available to anyone taking a 30 day Informatica Cloud trial and in the Basic, Standard and Enterprise editions.

Related articles

• Informatica Cloud Integration Customer Success (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Informatica Adds Integration Options As Cloud Demand Multiplies (informationweek.com)
• Building Integration Into Your Cloud Apps and Platforms (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)

Video: Unlock your SAP Back Office with Force.com

This Salesforce.com demonstration  is a great example of the power of cloud integration.

 

Related articles

• Salesforce.com offers to ‘unlock’ SAP’s core (infoworld.com)
• Unlock the Power of Force.com @Salesforce (slideshare.net)
• Salesforce.com to ‘unlock’ SAP’s Core Software for ‘social Enterprises’ (pcworld.com)

Sandhill.com Interview: Talking Big Data and Cloud Computing

My interview with Dave Kellogg (aka Kellblog) was published today over on Sandhill.com: Big Data, Cloud Computing and Industry Perspectives with Dave Kellogg. I always enjoy catching up with Dave (especially if there’s a beer or two involved). In this interview he weighs in on Big Data and why it’s getting so much attention, the intersection between Big Data and Cloud Computing, and he even throws in some career advice – and it’s good news for any budding “data scientists“ out there…

Here’s what Dave has to say about cloud integration:

“IT used to buy and run computers. Then they used to build and run applications. Then they focused on weaving together packaged applications. Going forward, they will focus on tightly integrating cloud-based services. They will also continue to focus on company-proprietary analytics used to gain competitive advantage.”

Be sure to check out the entire interview here.

Related articles

• Jeff Kaplan on Cloud Integration (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• Cloud in Action Interview: From Cloud Skeptical to Cloud First (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• 5 Requirements for a Big Data Integration Platform (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)

TDWI Q&A: Data Integration and Cloud Computing

Image via CrunchBase

I participated in a Q&A session with TDWI recently and provide my thoughts on the following questions:

• What impact is cloud computing having on traditional IT roles and responsibilities?
• What are some of the barriers to adoption of cloud-based applications and platforms?
• What is the role of data integration as it relates to cloud computing?
• Can companies move incrementally to the cloud without making a full-on commitment?
• What about service-level agreements? How should they be enforced with cloud vendors?
• What sort of architecture should companies look for, especially for BI and data warehousing applications?
• What about performance concerns, especially with large data sets?
• How is Informatica addressing the cloud computing opportunity and challenge?

As there doesn’t appear to be a comment section on the site, I’d appreciate any feedback or comments you might have on the discussion.

Related Articles

• SaaS will dominate your cloud strategy (zdnet.com)
• BBC News on Cloud Computing: Going Beyond Buzzwords (cloudintegration.wordpress.com)
• The Amazon Outage is OK, OK? (Well kind of) (diversity.net.nz)

Call for Nominations: Informatica 2011 Innovation Awards

Here are the categories for the 12th annual Informatica innovation awards – the judges will select winners in Business and Technical Enablement categories, as well as the Overall Award: A Strategic Approach to Data Integration:

1. Deliver Analytical Insight
2. Increase Business Agility
3. Improve Business Processes
4. Delivering trusted information to drive data governance,compliance and reduce risk
5. Accelerating shareholder value in mergers, acquisitions and divestitures
6. Improve efficiency and reduce costs
7. Attract & retain customers
8. Increase partner network efficiency
9. Fortifying overall operations with data quality
10. Outsource non-core functions 
11. Enhancing the Marketplace

While I’m not sure why #10 isn’t simply called Cloud Computing or Cloud Data Integration, but the description is clear:

“Outsource non-core functions recognizes projects that utilize Informatica’s cloud-based data integration and data quality services to maximize the ROI on their cloud application investments. By integrating data from the cloud with existing enterprise data sources, nominated companies ensure that they have control of all of their data, regardless of where it resides.”

Last year’s winner in this category was Toshiba Americas Business Solutions. Here’s the case study and a picture of the award winner.

Be sure to submit your nomination no later than May 6th here.

IT Toolbox Discussion: Is the Cloud Concept Played Out?

I’m enjoying some of the comments on this IT Toolbox thread: Is the Cloud Concept Played Out? It’s a healthy debate. These days it’s always good to get some different opinions on all things cloud.

A few of my favorite points (and I felt it was worth sharing here):

• “The cloud concept now seems grounded in the mundane present rather than a wide-open, idealistic future.” (from the initial question/observation)
• “Is the cloud concept played out? Maybe, but only because in 10 years trying to explain what you mean by “The Cloud” to a new technology worker will be impossible because they won’t understand why it wouldn’t be like that. (well said!)
• “Take Microsoft’s “To The Cloud” ads. Unfortunately, many of these are simply regular, mundane server/server farms that have been around for years (seems like centuries). (ouch!)
• “We could be “leasing” cars by the week, the day, or even the hour but we refuse to give up the individuality we get from “owning” (or as I see it, having control of) our vehicles. (this analogy has legs – points to a long-term hybrid IT reality)
• I suspect that there are major B2B players that will be swept away because of a failure to embrace the cloud in the same way major retail/distribution players were swept away due to a failure to embrace the internet. (agreed!)
• I would argue that even if Salesforce.com was launched as an easy to install and configure on-premise software product it would have taken away Siebel business. (I don’t agree. Cloud isn’t just about subscription pricing.)
• “The problem with ‘cloud’ computing is that many large organizations have critical infrastructure which can not be ‘hosted’ on someone else infrastructure… and even when they do use a datacenter owned and managed by another organization, their part of the datacenter is silo’d off. networks are segregated logically or typically physically.” (Cloud data integration anyone?)
• “I wouldn’t personally run 100% of my business from a cloud, but unless my business is quite small, I would be unlikely to run 0% from the cloud either.” (true today, but why not someday?)
• “If, however, the public is fooled into believing that moving a legacy application to a Cloud provider consitutes the essence of this movement, then the Cloud concept will die out quickly.” (cloud washing anyone?)

Please join in! The IT Toolbox Cloud Computing Strategy and Planning Group has lots of great discussions.

Cloud Integration Customer Success

Another great Informatica Cloud case study was published today.

“Informatica Cloud Services has allowed us to streamline the entire sales-enablement process, from data integration development to information delivery. Sales no longer has to access multiple systems to try to find the information they need and IT no longer has to worry about the data integration part of development work. Informatica Cloud Services provide us with a very cost-effective and powerful way to get it done, fast.”

Here’s a summary of what cloud integration has delivered:

• Integrates product and account data from a number of sources into the salesforce.com Sales Cloud
• Drives timely pricing and margin analysis by replicating latest sales data in the cloud into the company’s on-premise business intelligence environment.
• Empowers line-of-business users to manage day-to-day data integration and replication tasks, freeing IT resources for other high value work.
• Eliminates hand coding:  what used to take up to a month of custom development is now accomplished in a few hours.
• Promotes data governance and business and IT collaboration with improved information access and visibility across multiple applications and data sources.

Be sure to read the entire press release here.

Cloud Politics Remain Top of Mind

A few weeks ago I wrote about cloud politics and the role of data integration. The post clearly struck a chord as it continues to be the most popular week after week. No comments, but lots of hits. Maybe people don’t want to expose their own politics…

CIO.com also wrote about the Politics of Cloud Apps. Their warning – Beware of IT Unrest! Well today I read an interesting post that hit many of the same themes:  SaaS Vendor Selection/Implementation Tips: Avoid Having the Cloud Pulled Over Your Eyes (Part 2).

“The biggest challenge with integration (especially SaaS integration) is that the devil is always — and we mean always — in the spend details. When considering specific solutions, especially in a transactional environment, we suggest spending as much time on understanding the integration capabilities of the SaaS/cloud solution (e.g., receiving and providing the types of data discussed above to and from your organization’s legacy systems) as any other area. In plain terms, you need to discover how open, extensible and simplified the integration layer is of the SaaS solution. Marketing speak may make it sound simple and straightforward, but trust us, we’ve seen this exact detail cause significant angst in many organizations that have had the cloud pulled over their eyes, especially when it comes to managing complicated integration flows and system updates. For example, the ongoing management of supplier lifecycle data — especially when combined with transactional data — can be a significant SaaS integration hurdle that your friendly vendor salesperson isn’t likely to highlight until after the ink on the contract is dry.”

Good stuff. Any experiences to share?

Informatica Cloud 2010 Innovation Award Finalists

Strong competition in the Cloud Computing category for the Informatica 2010 Innovation Award. Check out the 3 finalists and help select the cloud integration winner here.

Good luck to all three finalists. The winner will be announced in November at Informatica World 2010.

Cloud Integration Webinar: Salesforce.com and SAP

Last week I participated in an Informatica Cloud webinar focused on the best practices for integrating Salesforce CRM and SAP. We discussed these two critical steps when it comes to planning your back-office integration with salesforce.com:

1. Begin with the Business Process in Mind
2. Determine the Right Approach

Not surprisingly, we spent quite a bit of time discussing the pros and cons of staging vs. direct application integration. It’s a topic that these two posts goes into in detail:

• Cloud Application Integration: Point To Point Or Staged Data?
• Making The Case For Staging And Cloud Computing Integration

You can watch the recorded webinar here and I’ve posted the slides and demo below:

Salesforce and SAP Integration with Informatica Cloud

View more presentations from Darren Cunningham.