WHITE PAPER

WEBMETHODS CLOUDSTREAMS

The scalable approach to cloud integration

TABLE OF CONTENTS

1 Introduction

2 Seven top challenges with cloud integration

4 Increasing agility with webMethods CloudStreams

4 What you get with CloudStreams

5 Key CloudStreams features

6 Key benefits of using CloudStreams

6 Take the next step

Consider the all-pervasive cloud. Cloud applications are simply everywhere with companies either buying cloud apps directly from vendors or from marketplaces hosted by large vendors like Amazon and Google. Yet with on-premises applications of critical importance, there is a constant need to integrate these apps with the cloud. This creates a hybrid customer environment that is often complex and difficult to maintain. Customizing code for consumption and enriching the cloud services for specific business requirements makes the task tough and messy. An enterprise suite that addresses this problem in its entirety is the right solution for this, unlike the niche Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) integration tools that can only solve a small part of the problem. webMethods CloudStreams from Software AG offers a package of cloud integrations that abstracts the technical details of how you interact with cloud services. You can descriptively govern, secure and manage interactions with cloud applications. This capability not only enables you to explore and consume but also to integrate, customize and govern cloud applications. Usage of webMethods CloudStreams isnt limited to only the most popular cloud apps. You also can integrate any SaaS application. This white paper explains the top challenges of cloud integration, how webMethods CloudStreams address them and what you can expect when using CloudStreams for a scalable approach to cloud integration.

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Seven top challenges with cloud integrationInvoking services often appears to be a straightforward approach to integrate with cloud applications. In this scenario, governance, monitoring, security, service life-cycle management, API version upgrading, customization and session persistence become an afterthought. Retrofitting them later is not always effective.

Here are seven of the top cloud integration challenges that webMethods CloudStreams answers.

1. Spaghetti integrationAs cloud apps gain traction, many organizations will develop their own solutions by simply consuming the services exposed by cloud applications. It is quite easy at first to just create Web service client stubs and consume the cloud services. But over a period of time it becomes hard to manage with so many point-to-point integrations. Integration requirements only grow over time and all of those ad hoc, disconnected integrations become not only an administrative nightmare but they also increase maintenance costs.

CloudStreams solution: Whether it is application integration, B2B integration or SaaS integration, webMethods CloudStreams consistently solves the point-to-point integration with a single platform that natively connects and integrates packaged and custom applications, mainframes and databases through a common, configuration-based infrastructure. With webMethods CloudStreams as a central hub, you can architect the integration solution so that a change at any of the endpoints requires an update only at one central place and not at several consumer endpoints. Much faster, much less complex!

2. Governance and monitoringWhen information goes outside the company firewall, its imperative to govern and monitor the type of information as well as its sender. Policies need to be applied to secure and authorize the invocation of public services. Some SaaS vendors limit the number of concurrent service invocations and also the number of services that can be invoked each day. You dont want to breach any of these limits midway in your transactions. Instead, you want automatic transaction throttle and control based on the infrastructure.

CloudStreams solution: Software AG is a leader in the API management space and has been consistently ranked at the top by leading analysts. webMethods CloudStreams shares the same infrastructure that is used for governing and monitoring the integrations with SaaS applications. webMethods CloudStreams intermediates the communication with cloud applications and lets you apply security policies, Security Assertion Markup Language (SAML) interjection, monitor SLAs and also throttle service invocations so that they are within the limits set by the cloud applications.

3. Customized applicationsA high percentage of packaged applications, including those on-premises and in the cloud, are customized to suit the unique needs of companies. Often, even small changes, like the addition of a field or object, result in massive updates to the clients because of the changes to service signatures, metadata information and so on.

CloudStreams solution: The out-of-the-box connectors that are part of webMethods CloudStreams are highly flexible to adapt most of the customizations. Some of the connectors can introspect the application using the metadata APIs to always fetch the latest objects, fields and data types to immediately reflect any changes with the application.

By 2018, more than 40% of organizations will use integration infrastructure that they assemble from HIP-enabling technologies. Gartner, Market Guide for Hybrid Integration Platform-Enabling Technologies

Published: 17 July 2015 Analyst(s): Jess Thompson, Eric Thoo, Benoit J. Lheureux

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4. Application knowledge and proprietary APIsSome of the applications in the cloud require deep knowledge of functions, data model and API behavior. There are applications that provide their own software development kits and even programming languages. Considering the number of cloud applications that exist and the rate at which they are growing, there is a considerable demand on the development expertise for integration. Cloud integration is all about abstracting the technical essence of the exposed services and making integration very intuitive.

CloudStreams solution: The services available in webMethods CloudStreams via the out-of-the-box connectors make integration perceptive and natural. The wizard-driven user interface is very consistent, not only in the look and feel but it also exposes standard operations for creating, updating and deleting business objects to several SaaS applications.

5. Low-level rudimentary APIsMost of the applications that provide REST- and SOAP-based services expose only the basic services that require enrichment and aggregation to derive adequate value. This requires quite a bit of development experience and application expertise.

CloudStreams solution: Out-of-the-box connectors in webMethods CloudStreams have services that add more value and make complex integration tasks simpler. Services are enriched by aggregating multiple operations, transforming complex data types into simple and basic data types, and getting rid of the need to invoke multiple operations for accomplishing a meaningful task.

6. Syncing up with rapid changesnewer versions every monthThe advantages of multi-tenant cloud applications are transparency and ease of upgrading applications. But the pace of the change is so high that some of the vendors have releases up to eight times a year. With so many rapid changes, the services that you invoke also require change. This means re-developing all of your integrations.

CloudStreams solution: webMethods CloudStreams pre-packaged connectors are lightweight XML files and use the Web Services Description Language (WSDL) files of cloud applications. The CloudStreams framework helps you quickly adapt to changes. When there is a change in the WSDL files, just import the latest files and youll be able to create services for the latest version.

7. Business processes that span the cloud and on-premisesBusiness processes now involve not just on-premises applications but also cloud applications. For example, orders are captured in Salesforce.com, and the fulfillment, billing and all other activities are captured in on-premises applications. The whole flow involves a lot of data transformation, business logic and error handling. Most of the time, the SaaS application services are invoked directly, and then transformation and error handling become an afterthought, leading to project delays and cost escalation.

CloudStreams solution: webMethods CloudStreams is a part of one single unified suite sharing the same infrastructure. Regardless of whether you insert an order into an SAP system or an account into Salesforce.com, data transformation, error handling and audit logging consistently function in a unified way and are accessible across all products.

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Increasing agility with CloudStreamsKeep your Digital Enterprise agile with quick cloud integration. webMethods CloudStreams is a complete product that contains a runtime engine, a wizard-driven development tool, and a set of out-of-the-box connectors for SaaS applications like Salesforce.com. You also can create custom connectors and cloud connector services easily using configuration and codeless wizards. Dashboards enable you to monitor and manage how SaaS APIs are used.

With webMethods CloudStreams, you can quickly and securely link SaaS apps and on-premises systems. Rapidly build custom integrations with other cloud-based applications. Then, monitor and manage these integrations using actionable analytics. webMethods CloudStreams creates and governs connections between any combination of SaaS and on-premises applications.

That means you can integrate SaaS applications in days rather than months, gain insights i