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Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) in 2023: Top Trends to Know

service mesh
(Source: Pixabay)

The proliferation of digital devices is a testimony to increasing pressure on enterprises to elevate their system landscape. Consumer expectation is at its peak, and service providers have a greater challenge to deliver with no fail. As a result, on-demand services hosted in the cloud take the front seat. Integration PaaS (iPaaS), as we know it, has gained widespread adoption of late.

To put it simply, it is the infrastructure to perform system-to-system, application-to-application, or any other integration, in the cloud. Since integration is complex, iPaaS is a great solution to let go of the maintenance hassle. While we are at it, the market size is expected to grow rapidly at a CAGR of 40% and a value of USD 10.3 billion by 2025.

Here’s what the developments around iPaaS could look like in 2023.

1) Integration with Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence

Machine learning and AI have seen substantial growth in the past decade. In the present day, most businesses depend on these technologies for harnessing consequential data. At the front end, we see this tech in the form of voice commands and chatbots. Integrating iPaaS with AI and machine learning allows businesses to solve data quality issues, data masking on messages, meta-data identification, code reviews, etc.

2) eCommerce and iPaaS

If you need to switch to a B2B or B2c platform, certain key areas demand your attention. These include selling products online, handling orders, and managing inventory and sales, among other things. Enabling iPaaS can allow your business to manage e-commerce for websites, back-end processes, and other ERP systems. By doing so, you directly cut down on IT outlays to allow a free flow of information across different necessary platforms.

3) Rise of Data Fabric as a Service

The new data fabric as a service implementation is a modern approach to iPaaS. There are a number of data fabric solutions that can be deployed on public cloud and in hybrid environments such as those from K2View, NetApp, and others. They are effective iPaaS solutions because:

  • Multi-use data schemas: allow you to construct data schema and use it for different use cases in a single go. You can build different use cases like data pipelining, customer 360, test data management, etc.
  • Split-second, end-to-end response times: these are a result of using enterprise data fabric. This is because it is built to aid a high volume and scale of operations in real time. These also come with bi-directional data movement between the targets and the sources.
  • Patented entity-based tech: if you want unparalleled performance, then make sure you organize data using a business entity and manage it with Micro-Database.
  • Open, modular, and scalable architecture: this single platform is extensible and so allows for data transformation, integration, preparation, enrichment, and delivery as well.
  • Data management for operational and analytical workloads: when consuming apps trusted and integrated data is delivered in a split second. If not, it is otherwise it is channeled into data lakes and warehouses where it can be further used for analytical purposes.

4) Better Connectivity Infrastructure

Until now, employees used software that needed to be directly installed in their system. But now, things are being done differently to overcome this format of work. Organizations are now leaning towards using applications that can co-exist on different platforms. This is why you need to establish connectivity to share all sorts of information across the organization.

iPaaS assimilates easily in this primary function by making sure all platforms are integrated together. As the business grows with time, the need for integration through iPaaS will only become more evident. Hence, establishing seamless and strong connectivity will further increase the adoption of IPaaS.

5) Consolidation and Standardization of Integration PaaS

If you have an organization with a large integration landscape with multiple products that come with overlapping capabilities, there is a lot that integrating PaaS can do for your enterprise. This not only includes refactoring the existing platform integrations but also helps with adding self-service capabilities to your products.

Contrary to this, smaller organizations have already delivered SaaS services and API-enabled apps with their modern initiatives. These platforms are now looking for a service model that allows their app integration platform to shrink and also restricts legacy integration use. However, the challenge still remains to ensure that that API gateway or service mesh doesn't end up being the new enterprise service bus that comes with complex JavaScript logic and other orchestrations holding it all together.

6) Innovation in Scope of Integration

Evidently, there is a lot happening in the iPaaS domain, and the future holds enormous benefits for businesses.

Integrated iPaaS solutions aim to provide self-service functionalities and eventually allow you to integrate said ‘things .'These things can easily develop time-series data, wellness streams, activity from tracking events, and much more across different devices. Not just this, iPaaS vendors are now expanding their service areas to solve numerous connectivity issues related to ‘things’ caused by specialized protocols.

Integrate services -or DevOps allows companies to break a big monolithic app stack and break it down into numerous Microservices modules. These modules can then be easily deployed to different container execution environments like IaaS, PaaS, or on-premises.

iPaaS not only provides reusable services but also hopes to provide access to deployment APIs and integration code pieces. This will eventually help teams integrate apps into their very own DevOps environment, which will ensure deployment automation.

Conclusion

As the enterprise system landscape gets more heterogeneous, there’ll be an increasing requirement for advanced data management platforms that capture data from multiple sources. In the post-pandemic era, data’s explosive growth is inevitable. Here, the right mix of data fabric and IPaaS will be a greater differentiator. Henceforth, enterprises that prepare for the uncertain rush will sustain.

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