Cloud Integration for the Social Enterprise

Yesterday I moderated an Informatica Cloud webinar with CloudTrigger, “a leader in cloud professional services and applications that accelerate customer success by maximizing return on investment.” There were some great points made about the importance of data integration and data quality to cloud application adoption and to becoming what salesforce.com calls the Social Enterprise.  Here’s the recording:

 

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Video: Got Bad Data?

Thought this was pretty funny!

Informatica Cloud Summer 2011: Powering Hybrid IT

In early 2009 Informatica Cloud vice president and general manager Ron Papas wrote about what he called “Inside Out or Outside In” salesforce.com data integration. He characterized “Inside Out” this way:

“An inside out integration solution, also known as an on premise solution is one that is installed inside a company’s firewall on a server (or a vendor provided appliance) and maintained by IT.”

He contrasted it to on-demand data integration, which he referred to as “Outside In,” which he defined as:

“…ideal for organizations with limited IT resources that will rely on their Salesforce Administrator or a line of business analyst to do that work.”

Well fast-forward to Summer 2011, Informatica has announced that the latest Informatica Cloud release is focused on delivering enterprise-class functionality. Clearly these distinctions are blurring as most, if not all, IT organizations are now adapting to and embracing cloud computing and seeking new ways to align with the business. As Michael Vizard put it in this article:

“Done right, cloud computing will allow IT organizations to recast the role they play within their organization. Rather than being a hindrance, cloud computing provides the IT organization with a framework through which the business can integrate data at will. In the context of business, information is power.” 

I’ve written quite about the new reality of hybrid IT recently and the challenges of data fragmentation across cloud and on-premise environments. Are the days of outside in and inside out cloud data integration over as IT organizations are increasingly involved in solving the challenges of “SaaS Sprawl?”

I’m not so sure.

Perhaps we’re simply entering into an era of “Two-Tier Cloud Integration,” where IT organizations expect that enterprise-ready cloud vendors are able to deliver the security, reliability, and trustworthiness that they require, while facilitating and enabling various degrees of self-service from the business. When it comes to cloud integration, Informatica Cloud Summer 2011 is clearly a step in this direction.

D&B360: Delivering Data as Service

In this video, Tom Carlock from D&B introduces D&B360 and Data as a Service (DaaS). He also talks about the built-in data integration capabilities that Informatica Cloud delivers as part of the solution.

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D&B360: Informatica Cloud Inside

Here’s  a quick video of Tom Carlock from D&B talking about the Informatica Cloud capabilities embedded within D&B360.
http://www.twitvid.com/player/GKYDT

Data as a Service: D&B360 and Informatica Cloud

Have you heard about D&B360? If you’re going to Dreamforce next week, you most certainly will. It’s Data-as a Service (DaaS). According to today’s press release with Informatica, “DaaS is changing how businesses access and use information by providing on-demand access to the essential insights business end-users need to do their jobs, reducing data quality challenges and improving productivity.”

The announcement continues:

“D&B360 allows enterprise software providers to easily embed D&B data and other essential business knowledge directly into their applications. D&B360 is designed to quickly integrate with business software solutions that use commercial company or professional contact data, such as customer relationship management (CRM), sales force automation, business intelligence (BI), master data management (MDM) and marketing automation.”

So what does this have to do with cloud integration? According Ron Papas, general manager, Informatica Cloud: “We see data-as-a-service as an opportunity for cloud-based data integration because organizations today must be able to trust the data at their fingertips in order to satisfy their customers and grow their business.”

The announcement goes on to explain that:

“Informatica Cloud is the enabling, back-end integration platform for D&B360, providing critical data integration, data synchronization and data quality as an on-demand service. Through the integration and synchronization capabilities provided by Informatica, users can benefit from automatically updated insight from D&B’s database, including the world’s largest collection of businesses and family tree structures.”

As I mentioned, D&B and Informatica will both be exhibiting at the salesforce.com Dreamforce conference next week:  Booths #500 (Informatica) and #525 (D&B), where they will be demonstrating the new D&B360 and Informatica Cloud capabilities.

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• Informatica Aims toward $800 Million in 2011 (arnoldit.com)

Sohaib Abbasi Keynote at Informatica World 2010

I recently summarized some of the cloud integration highlights from Informatica World 2010, but I forgot to mention a few of the great customer sessions. Special thanks to our friends at Janus Capital, Network Solutions, Toshiba and HealthDetail for sharing best practices and approaches to integrating cloud-based applications like Salesforce CRM with other enterprise applications, databases and files.

Here are some highlights from the keynote session delivered by Informatica’s CEO Sohaib Abbasi:

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Informatica World 2010: Cloud Integration in the Spotlight

Topic of Saas/Cloud integration will be getting lots of attention at Informatica World 2010. There will be hands-on labs, breakout sessions, birds-of-a-feather meetings and lots of cool new demonstrations of Informatica Cloud. If you’ve already registered, here are a few of the sessions you won’t want to miss:

Tuesday, November 2nd, 1:30-2:45

• Secrets of SaaS Application Integration: Network Solutions and Janus Capital Group Make the Most of Salesforce.com

Wednesday, November 3rd, 9-10:15

• Self-Service Data Integration: Perspectives on Informatica Cloud from Toshiba America Business Solutions and HealthDetail

Wednesday, November 3rd 4:05-5:20pm

• Cloud Data Integration and Data Quality:  Extending the Informatica Platform to the Cloud

Wednesday, November 3rd 10:40-11:55

• Data-as-a-Service: Revolutionizing Business Applications

There’s still time to register for the conference here.

Hand Coding and Cloud Integration

Recently I wrote about a great IT Business Edge presentation that outlined 10 Business-Building Tips for Strategic Integration. The theory is great, but the reality is that most organizations start out by hand-coding many of their most mission-critical data integration and data quality processes. Today, Informatica’s Girish Pancha talked about the importance of data quality for Indian-based firms. He was also asked, “What is the single biggest pitfall organizations need to avoid when embarking on a data integration project?”

“I think it would have to be hand coding. There are multiple issues with this approach including the amount of time and resources it takes, it’s repetitive and extremely error prone. Sure it might have worked in the past but today hand coding is an outdated practice that has had its run and it’s about time organizations realized that there are other, better ways of doing data integration than this.”

Has hand-coding had it’s run? What about cloud integration requirements? Seems to me like the same movie might be about to repeat itself…

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Informatica Cloud Podcast

It’s always tough to hear your own voice, but I thought I’d share this podcast with cloud and data integration industry guru Dave Linthicum anyway: Cloud Provider Spotlight: Informatica. (Just turn down your speakers a little bit after his introduction so I don’t blow out your ear drums.)

It’s always great to chat with Dave. In this discussion, topics range from Informatica Cloud Summer 2010 to data quality and master data management to the future of enterprise software. I hope you enjoy the conversation!