All ContentIntegration: The Catalyst for Digital Transformation
Integration: The Catalyst for Digital Transformation
Real-time business analytics. From the C-suite to managerial ranks, on-demand access to real-time
information from multiple data sources is essential for analytics tools that enable informed decision-making.
Intelligent IoT data. Information from sensors, wearables and other Internet of Things (IoT) sources can
improve operational cost-efficiency, transparency and responsiveness, along with creating new ways to interact
with customers.
This shift towards new channels of engagement and advanced data management is prompting large-scale changes
in IT landscapes. Companies are swiftly adopting new cloud applications and leveraging new data sources, both
internal and external. Hybrid IT, hybrid cloud and “shadow IT” environments have become the norm.
Hybrid IT environments
In hybrid IT, organizations leave legacy on-premises systems of record in place while incorporating more flexible cloud
apps for lines of business. Hybrid IT is becoming more prevalent as companies introduce more cloud applications for
greater agility and reduced costs while preserving investments in mission-critical on-premises systems.
Hybrid cloud environments
In a hybrid cloud, an enterprise will have multiple clouds in place for lines of business and discrete use cases
such as document storage or collaboration. These clouds may be a mix of public clouds (with third-party
application hosting) and private clouds (on-premises cloud applications managed by IT). Hybrid clouds
are usually a subset of hybrid IT, except for organizations based strictly in the cloud with no on-premises
infrastructure.
The hybrid cloud is growing rapidly. For instance, analyst firm IDC forecasts that more than 80 percent of
enterprise IT organizations will commit to hybrid cloud architectures by 2017.3 Researcher MarketsandMarkets
predicts worldwide spending on hybrid cloud solutions and services will grow 176 percent over five years, from
$33.3 billion in 2016 to $91.7 billion in 2021.4
3:? IDC, “IDC FutureScape: Worldwide Cloud 2016 Predictions — Mastering the Raw Material of Digital Transformation,” November 2015.
4:? MarketsandMarkets, “Hybrid Cloud Market Worth $91.74 Billion USD by 2021,” April 29, 2016.
3?|?Executive Brief?–?Integration: The Catalyst for Digital Transformation
Shadow IT
Complicating matters is huge growth in “shadow IT” — the deployment of cloud apps (typically through
software as a service), without IT oversight or control, by lines of business that seek to bypass the time
and overhead of IT involvement. A Cisco study found an average of 1,220 shadow IT apps in place at large
organizations. That’s 13 times more than what IT leaders had estimated, with the number of cloud apps surging
112 percent in 2015, Cisco reported.5
Ironically, initiatives aimed at business simplicity are introducing new complexity across IT. Rolling out new cloud
applications to meet tactical needs can result in redundant data stores and multiple versions of the truth. Growth in
application numbers, along with more mobile, social, IoT, web services and other endpoints, means more application
programming interfaces, or APIs, that IT needs to manage.
Yet for business to truly achieve digital transformation, diverse applications and data sources need to connect
and integrate.
The Role of Cloud Integration in Digital Transformation
Does your enterprise have a sound integration strategy to support digital transformation? Many organizations do
not. The analyst firm Gartner said in a report:
“Integration can be a source of competitive differentiation and an enabler for bimodal IT,
but most CIOs have yet to recognize that their traditional, established integration strategies
cannot cope with digitalization’s fast technology innovation and accelerated pace of business.
Integration is only a top priority for the most forward-thinking CIOs. Often, it’s an afterthought
or is perceived as a ‘necessary evil.’” 6
In some cases, IT departments blithely assume that a complex, on-premises enterprise service bus or multiple,
disconnected data integration tools deployed a decade ago can be repurposed for the future. It’s a dangerous
assumption, as unwieldy legacy integration systems lack the flexibility and agility required for digital transformation.
IT leaders may also favor an ad hoc approach, manually coding point-to-point connectivity as needed. That’s also risky,
as tactical integration lacks scalability and efficient reusability, and invariably competes with higher-priority IT projects.
A Cloud Approach to Integration
For digital transformation to thrive, integration needs to be
as fast and flexible as today’s leading cloud applications.
That’s why cloud-based integration, known as integration
platform as a service (iPaaS), has emerged as the solution
of choice for forward-thinking enterprises to connect
applications, new and old, in any combination — cloud to
cloud, cloud to on-premises or on-premises to on-premises
(see Figure 1).
Application
Integration
Mobile
EDI
API
Management
Data
Quality
Analytics
Master Data
Management
IoT
5:? Cisco Systems, “Shadow IT Rampant, Pervasive and Explosive!,” January 19, 2016.
6:? Gartner, “CIO Call to Action: Shake Up Your Integration Strategy to Enable Digital Transformation,” November 2015.
4?|?Executive Brief?–?Integration: The Catalyst for Digital Transformation
ETL
iPaaS
In effect, integration exists as a cloud service, much as does
a Salesforce CRM system. And like cloud CRM, iPaaS has
less overhead and a smaller footprint than traditional onpremises integration systems. iPaaS excels at simplicity and
ease of use, translating into faster deployment, less cost
and rapid time to value.
In certain integration scenarios, iPaaS platforms are readily
implemented by line of business technology teams, without
the involvement of an Integration Competency Center or
central IT, reducing IT’s workload and accelerating payback
for the business. The best cloud integration platforms
Cloud
B2B
Social
On-premises
Figure 1
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