Organizations and businesses of different types and sizes across all sectors have embraced cloud integration in transforming data into business intelligence. This is because more business operations happen in hybrid or fully cloud-to-cloud environments.
However, without the proper tools to manage cloud data, it can become siloed, lost, or overlooked. Cloud integration connects data on local, on-premises cloud servers with that in remote software as a service (SaaS) applications and cloud services.
This integration aims to connect different elements of different local and cloud resources into a single environment that lets administrators easily access and manage data, applications, systems, and services.
Depending on the speed and volume of data transfer, IT teams can use cloud data integration or cloud application integration.
Cloud data integration means collecting data from various repositories and sources for later use. These sources can be physical locations, cloud services, or data silos within the organization. Organizations use this type of integration to transfer raw data for specific uses.
Data integration tools have capabilities like data quality checking, batch processing, data masking, and cleansing. Common examples include master data management, data migration for extract, load, and transform, and AI training.
Cloud application integration involves connecting different software applications throughout the organization. Application communication and interaction enable new business processes and cloud computing. This integration uses real-time dataset integration to enable data exchanges between the target systems. Cloud application integration allows businesses to do the following.
- Discover, access, use, and connect data in real-time
- Create models using data insights
- Modernize infrustracture
- Improve workflows
- Write programs for machine learning and AI to forecast future behavior
How Cloud Integration Works
There is not a universal standard way for organizations to implement this integration, but there are several options to consider. Mediation and federation are the most common methods.
Mediation works with integration between applications, where the integration platform identifies an event in one application, then triggers another response in another connected application.
On the other hand, federation acts as a front end for several federated applications. The integration platform intercepts and processes events outside the applications and then triggers corresponding actions.
While organizations can use these approaches independently, they can also use both. In that case, mediation handles actions between applications, while federation handles actions outside the connected applications.
The integration can be asynchronous or synchronous, depending on the communication. Asynchronous integration communicates without waiting for a response from receiving applications, preventing unnecessary delays.
On the other hand, synchronous integration waits for the receiving applications to respond, ensuring full synchronization before proceeding.
The time required for a full integration varies from organization to organization. Usually, IT teams can finish some integration tasks like automatic synchronization fast, but other tasks might take longer, especially if it involves human workflow.
Integration platforms usually use connectors or adapters, which are software modules that interact with different business applications. These connectors can be used for specific applications or be vendor-neutral, utilizing standard communication protocols like simple object access protocol messaging, simple mail transfer protocol message exchanges, or Java connector architecture.
Benefits Of Data Integration
- Breaks down data silos
- Boosts connectivity
- Enables business agility
- It saves time and money
- Power data analytics
- Improves data accuracy and quality
- Better operational efficiency
- Improved customer support, service, and retention
- Increased scalability and flexibility
- Better competitive edge
- Better internal communication
