Table of Contents
- Summary
- Market Categories
- Key Criteria Comparison
- GigaOm Radar
- Vendor Insights
- Analyst’s Take
- Methodology
- About GigaOm
- Copyright
1. Summary
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) solutions have evolved to a great degree over the last decade and are now firmly established as a key approach to SaaS integration and increasingly for a range of hybrid integration use cases as well.
iPaaS solutions provide a centralized console for scheduling, monitoring, and managing integrations. Only multi-tenant, scalable, cloud-based integration solutions that provide the necessary tools and dedicated resources for faster development of integration flows—and offer requisite data security and governance for such integrations—are iPaaS solutions. Developer productivity tools, such as a “drag-and-drop” approach to integration-flow development and pre-built connectors and templates, are foundational components to the iPaaS value proposition. In terms of data security, key capabilities include transport layer and application- and network-level security and support for implementation and administration of governance policies.
Over the last few years, several iPaaS vendors have extended the capabilities of their solutions to include support for API management, master data management (MDM), B2B/electronic data interchange (EDI) integration, and mobile app/backend integration (i.e., hybrid integration use cases). This is not surprising given the ease of use and flexibility to consume these solutions as a cloud service (i.e., PaaS), which provides greater business agility and a proposition to lower total cost of ownership (TCO).
As organizations are increasingly tasked to “do more with less,” integration centers of excellence (COEs) have embraced agile approaches to integration, and it is not uncommon to see line-of-business (LOB)-led iPaaS adoption.
iPaaS is firmly established as a predominant approach to cloud integration and there are two facets to the growth trend for iPaaS adoption. First, iPaaS adoption in many enterprises is driven by LOBs, and once IT is conversant with the features and functionality of the solution, the use of iPaaS is extended to other integration use cases. Second, several iPaaS vendors have expanded the features and capabilities of their solutions to cater to the needs of MDM, B2B/EDI integration, and API management.
It is increasingly important for iPaaS vendors to target new user personas and a broader set of integration use cases (such as B2B/EDI integration, API lifecycle management, data integration and data management, and mobile application/backend integration). In this context, there are two noteworthy developments: Self-service integration capabilities that enable less skilled, non-technical users (i.e., citizen integrators), and machine learning (ML) capabilities that simplify development of integration flows and connect various applications and/or data sources.
How to Read this Report
This GigaOm report is one of a series of documents that helps IT organizations assess competing solutions in the context of well-defined features and criteria. For a fuller understanding consider reviewing the following reports:
Key Criteria report: A detailed market sector analysis that assesses the impact that key product features and criteria have on top-line solution characteristics—such as scalability, performance, and TCO—that drive purchase decisions.
GigaOm Radar report: A forward-looking analysis that plots the relative value and progression of vendor solutions along multiple axes based on strategy and execution. The Radar report includes a breakdown of each vendor’s offering in the sector.
Solution Profile: An in-depth vendor analysis that builds on the framework developed in the Key Criteria and Radar reports to assess a company’s engagement within a technology sector. This analysis includes forward-looking guidance around both strategy and product.