Selecting a Cloud Service: 5 Questions to Ask Prospective Providers
Several integration services capable of being invoked via the cloud have emerged over the past several years. Some of those services has been aimed at professional developers, while others are designed with end users who want to stitch applications together on their own in mind. Now, one of the pioneers of the latter capability is moving to make its core software available on-premises as well as in the cloud.
Built.io today announced Built.io Flow On-Prem, an edition of its integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) software that IT organizations can opt to deploy on their own local data centers. Built.io COO Matthew Baier says that while Built.io expects most of the demand for its integration service to continue to be for the cloud service, demand for an iPaaS capability deployed locally is starting to grow.
“There’s enough demand in regulated industries that won’t consider the cloud to justify supporting an on-premises edition,” says Baier.
In the immediate future, Baier says, Built.io expects its cloud services and on-premises edition to be used in isolation from one another by different customers. But it is possible, in time, that many customers will opt to pursue a federated approach to integration inside and out of the cloud.
In the meantime, it’s interesting to note the level of interest for a local edition of an iPaaS aimed primarily aimed at end users inside the enterprise. That would suggest the whole “citizen integrator” phenomenon is finally forcing IT organizations, whether they like it or not, to think about application integration in a way that doesn’t require them to be nearly as intimately involved as they have historically been. It may take some time for IT cultures to adjust to that new reality. But in terms of overall productivity, it should be a positive development for all concerned.
