New Gartner Report Offers Advice for Using Integration as a Service Platforms

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By all accounts, cloud is a good place to be if you’re an integration company. Gartner estimates the market reached $190 million in revenue in 2012.

Jitterbit recently revealed that cloud integration demand made 2013 into a record fiscal year for the company, and Informatica’s CEO told InfoWorld that while cloud represents a mere 10 percent of its business, year-over-year growth for cloud is at 60 percent.

That’s great news for vendors, but what does it mean for IT leaders who are concerned with integration? In the first Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS), Gartner reports several ways companies use iPaaS:

• Cloud services integration, which means integrating on-premise applications and data with SaaS applications, and other cloud services
• B2B integration and other situations where rapid deployment and low-cost integration are essential
• API publishing and management
• Mobile application integration

The report also notes a few particular situations where IT leaders are opting for iPaaS. Obviously, the most popular use is when you want to integrate cloud solutions acquired by departments or lines of business.

iPaaS is also sometimes chosen as a cloud complement to on-premise integration middleware. Obviously, if that’s your goal, you’ll want to check to see if your existing integration vendors offer iPaaS before you go shopping. On the flip side, IT departments are also deploying iPaaS as a way to reduce the capital or operation costs of on-premise integration technology. 

What else should you keep in mind when considering iPaaS? Gartner recommends IT leaders realize that “most providers have a minimal installed base and fledgling field experience.”

For instance, out of 17 vendors who qualified for the quadrant, only three, Dell Boomi, Informatica and MuleSoft, ranked as leaders. Actian and Fujitsu made the challengers quadrant, with IBM, SAP and SnapLogic falling into the visionaries quadrant.

The research firm also notes that iPaaS solutions can vary in the range of use cases that they can address. While some mature solutions do address global and multiple use cases, many iPaaS solutions are narrowly focused either by geography or use.

The iPaaS Magic Quadrant was published Jan. 27, so I’m a bit surprised that both Informatica and MuleSoft already are offering the report as a free download with basic user information.