Continued interest in software as a service (SaaS) stems from the
pay as you go pricing, constant stream of innovation, rapid deployment
options, and the ability to do an end run around IT.  As the number of
options proliferate, enterprises will increasingly lean on SaaS as the
mission critical system.  Thus, end users need an enterprise apps
strategy for SaaS that addresses the “I” word – Integration.   The
requirements and leadership for integration will lead to the pragmatic
realization that SaaS can no longer be ignored by the IT department.
As organizations brace for the proliferation of SaaS procurements
integration should focus on:

  • Data mapping – as data moves from one system to
    another, data must be transformed accurately.  More importanlty,
    service and related metadata are cataloged into a repository for
    discovery by management tools and development tools.
  • Business process orchestration – granularity of
    web services must be harmonized so that the overall process flow is
    seamless among various systems.  Integration services actively manage
    service access, execution and quality of service.
  • Quality of service – Like SOA, QoS metrics ensure
    that the information flow was delivered to the right system at the
    right time for the right person.  Characteristics such as security,
    transactions, performance, style of service interaction, etc. are
    explicitly identified and specified for each service

A few key solutions providers to watch out for in the SaaS integration space include:

  • Blue Wolf Group – a system integrator with an Integration as a Service (IaaS) offering
  • Boomi – a SaaS integration layer services company
  • Cast Iron Systems – a software based integration appliance (i.e. hardware)
  • Informatica – a data integration provider with a multi-tenant, cross-enterprise data integration on-demand service
  • Magic Software – a business and process integration provider
  • Pervasive- a data integration provider with an Integration as a Service (IaaS) offering
  • Snap Logic – an open source data integration tool provider

The bottom line.

The successful adoption of SaaS solutions will transform usage from
purpose built point solutions to integration into mission critical
processes.  The result – SaaS integration will emerge as a key
discipline in the overall enterprise app strategies of enterprises who
seek to manage a portfolio of provisioned services.

Your POV.

Have you completed a successful SaaS to on-premise integration?
How’d it go?  Was it easier/harder than your on-premise integrations?
Feel free to share with me your view points. You can post here or
sending me a private email to rwang@forrester.com

Copyright © 2008 R Wang. All rights reserved. Reposted from http://blog.softwareinsider.org