WP-What to Look for When Evaluating IaaS

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What to Look for When EvaluatingIntegration-as-a-Service Solutions

The issues facing integration-as-a-service product evaluation

David S. Linthicum

You have a number o decisions to make when you approach integration-as-a-service as

part o a cloud computing strategy. These decisions will aect your integration strategy well

into the uture, so it’s important to consider a range o actors during the evaluation process,

especially the vendors and the technology. Moreover, this technology has historically been the responsibility o IT. However with the rise o cloud computing, in many instances those

who consume integration-as-a-service technology could be outside o IT.

A core issue you will ace is the hype that surrounds cloud computing. Many vendors or

products call themselves integration-as-a-service or cloud-based integration, and while they

may seem the same on initial inspection, deeper evaluation will reveal that many won’t

provide the integration capabilities required to meet your requirements, including line o

business (LOB) usability, the ability to support requency o data movement, data quality,

and the ability to monitor the data integration. Indeed, you need to consider integration or

what it is…the mother o all single points o ailure, thus i the data integration solution ails,

then critical systems could end up missing critical inormation, and your business comes to a

standstill.

So, what do you look or when it’s time to evaluate integration-as-a-service solutions in the

context o cloud computing, and within the context o your architecture? Factors you should

consider during your evaluation process include:

1. True Multitenant vs. Hosted Oering

2. Ease-o-Use

3. Try & Buy / Rapid Deployment

4. IT or LOB usability

5. Scalability

6. Vendor viability

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True Multitenant vs Hosted Offering

Core to the value o cloud computing, true multi-tenancy reers to an approach in sotware

architecture where a single instance o the sotware running on a single server (or clusters

o servers) is able to serve multiple clients, or tenants. When using a multitenant architecture,

a sotware application is designed to virtually partition its data and conguration so that

each client organization works with a virtual application instance. In essence, the use o a

true multitenant architecture drives platorm utilization by allowing all clients to leverage all

platorm services, including perormance optimization, without giving up data and process

protection.

There are several benets to consider:

Rapid Enhancements by the vendor means that users are getting more value rom

their yearly subscription. The sotware is updated as it’s available automatically, and

typically invisible to the end user.

Seamless upgrade. All users are upgraded when they log into the application ater anupgrade No installation o sotware, or hardware upgrades required to support the new

releases.

Better quality o sotware. Vendors are incented to x high priority bugs immediately and

put out patches that are distributed to all customers over the cloud. Thus, bugs are xed, and

sotware corrected, typically beore the end user knows there is a problem.

Hosted solutions, in contrast, provide the same access to shared sotware but do not oer

the same degree o control, customization, and access to virtual platorm services. A better

comparison may be Web site hosting systems versus a true application platorm. The hosting

approach is about providing the minimal amount o service to the clients, in essence just

serving up the applications and data that are requested.

Hosted architectures are typically leveraged to provide simple visual static application

services, including static Inormation. When using this architectural approach, there are

no mechanisms to access platorm services, no customization is oered, there is only one

instance o the sotware, and virtual instances or clients are not supported. To that end,

outages will typically aect all clients, and thus planned outages are not typically oered.

Clearly, a true multitenant solution is the desired direction when considering integration-as-

a-service. So, critical questions to ask would include: Is your integration platorm multi-tenant?

What is involved in implementation? How do you deliver upgrades?

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Ease-of-Use

While ease-o-use is a relative term, in the context o cloud computing and integration-as-a-

service we can break it down to several dimensions, including:

• Efcient

• Intuitive

• Satisfying

Efcient reers to the act that it should take less time to accomplish a par ticular task, such

as loading data, dening an integration fow, and making a connection with a database. The

way to look at eciency is to understand, in detail, what the user needs to accomplish, the

mechanisms to make the task happen, and how quickly that the task can be carried out. In

the realm o integration-as-a-service, this typically reers to the speed with which integration

fows can be set up, including semantic mediation, and the application o rules and other

logical operators that need to interact with the data.

Intuitive reers to the act that the process o completing the task should be innate toexisting learning experiences. For instance, the ability to leverage a point-and-click interace

to build data integration tasks without constantly having to reer to user documentation

would be an example o something that is intuitive. In the world o cloud computing, this

is typically a Web interace that’s sel teaching, and guides the user through the process no

matter how complex.

Satisying reers to the act that the experience o using a cloud computing-based

application is enjoyable and creates a desire to use that application again. Typically, this means

the ability to do a lot with very little eort, such as the ability to set up a data extraction

routine within an integration-as-a-service provider with just a ew clicks o the mouse, and

have that data extraction carry out huge amounts o data manipulation and processing.In essence, the user eels that he or she has “god-like” control over huge tasks, and the

experience is indeed satisying. In the case o integration-as-a-service, this includes the ability

to allow many very dierent databases and data stores to exchange inormation as needed

to support the business.

Critical questions to ask here would include: How are new customers on-boarded? Do you

have a sel-service trial on your primary sources? Is there a community site to learn rom

others?

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IT or LOB Usability

While many IT systems are designed specically with the technically-adept IT user in mind,

typically with a very technical interace, good integration-as-a-service systems are able

to support the line-o-business (LOB) user as well. While many view this as diametrically

opposed concepts, the reality is that integration-as-a-service – and cloud computing in

general – will have a much higher return on investment by supporting the widest types o

users.

The reason or this is clear. First, integration-as-a-service providers only have good holistic

value i they are usable by those who are business-ocused, and thus understand how

the technology is applicable with particular business processes or business data, at a level

typically higher than the technologist can comprehend. Second is the ability to relocate some

o the operations o the integration-as-a-service provider rom IT to those who work in the

LOB, i the usability supports it. In many instances this can eliminate latency around the ability

to translate business concepts into integration solutions, since those who understand the

business problems best also have the ability to directly create the integration solutions that

solve the problems.

Try & Buy / Rapid Deployment

The idea behind cloud computing is that you’re leveraging IT components that you don’t

own, and thus are not subject to the capital expenses o purchasing hardware and sotware.

Using a pay-as-you-go, subscription model, cloud computing providers are able to supply

you with access to hardware and sotware solutions that could cost millions o dollars i

purchased as an on-premise inrastructure.

Core to this benet, the cloud computing provider also needs to leverage the economies

o scale o this type o oering, to provide a means o trying or testing the technology up

ront, beore making a purchase. In the case o data integration, this is signicant. Many data

integration solutions cost hundreds o thousands o dollars when you consider the cost o

hardware, sotware, and deployment. Moreover, you want the ability to move quickly once

the decision has been made to go with a particular integration-as-a-service provider, meaning

that the integration-as-a-service solution is rapidly provisioned, deployed, and in production.

The ability to go through this process o selecting and deploying an integration-as-a-service

provider in days and weeks, and not months, is a key value proposition o leveraging cloud

computing. The integration-as-a-service user can begin to enjoy the return on investment

rom leveraging the cloud computing-based application or technology almost immediately.

Thus, the ability to try the application and/or technology beore signing on to the integration-

as-a-service provider longer term is a key advantage in avor o the cloud computing user, as

is the ability to rapidly deploy the integration-as-a-service solution.

Critical questions to ask here include: Do you have a sel-service trial on your data (not

demo data)? How long does it take to get up and running on our data? How quickly can we

access additional capacity?

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Scalability

Scalability reers to the ability or a cloud computing-based application or technology,

including integration-as-a-service providers, to handle a growing amount o work in a

graceul manner. In the world o integration-as-a-service, scalability is a key value proposition.

Users need the ability to expand the processing load o an integration-as-a-service solution

by simply increasing the amount o service that is provided out o the cloud, on-demand.

There are two dimensions to this issue: Cost and technology.

Typically, the cost increases as the processing load increases; however, this is oset by

removing the requirement that additional hardware and sotware be acquired to meet

expanding demand.

Consider Figure 1 when leveraging an on-premise solution (the gure on the let). Huge

capital expenditures are required to support the initial processing load, which is relatively

small. The additional hardware and sotware capacity is needed to insure that the scalability

requirements o the application or technology will be there or the oreseeable uture.

Moreover, as the process load nears the capacity o the on-premise system, additional

hardware and sotware needs to be purchased to support the existing and expanded

capacity o the system. Also consider the human costs o deploying, testing, and maintaining

the on-premise integration solutions.

In contrast, the cloud computing solution, or, specically, integration-as-as-service (the gure

on the right), shows the amount o processing required directly ollows the amount o

processing service and cost. Thus, as the cloud computing-based system scales over time,

the cloud computing provider (integration-as-a-service), can keep up with the scalability

requirements. Thus, the use o cloud computing provides an advantage when you consider

access to computing capacity. The cost o using the integration-as-a-service provider is in

direct proportion to the amount o computing capacity required.

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Hardware/Software

Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5

Transactions/Day

Cost of Cloud Computing Provider

Transactions/Day

Figure 1: Integration-as-a-service provides you with the ability to expand your computing needs without hav-

ing to make any investment in capital expenditures, such as hardware and software.



However, one must also consider the technical issues around scalability when it comes to

integration-as-a-service solutions. Integration is a process-intensive activity, and thus there

should be enough capacity within the integration-as-a-service provider to support an ever

increasing processing load. This means that the integration-as-a-service provider needs to

support your instance o that service, or the portion o the service that you’re using, and allother users on that ser vice as well. Thus, you should only consider integration-as-a-service

providers that have proven technology that’s able to scale to meet all existing and uture

integration requirements, out o the cloud.

Critical questions to ask, would include: Do you have test results to prove scalability? What

are the mechanisms within your as-a-service oering that supports scalability? At what point

will you typically saturate?

Vendor Viability

Finally, we have the notion o vendor viability. While many consider integration-as-a-service

providers in terms o their eatures and unctions, the reality is that you will be dependentupon that integration-as-a-service provider to provide reliable and dependable service over a

long period o time. Many neglect to consider this, and end up tossing away cloud computing

ROI by having to redesign, redeploy, and test new integration-as-a-service providers due to

providers going out o business, being acquired by a larger player that decides to do away

with a par ticular service you’re using, or a provider just becomes generally unreliable.

O course, vendor viability is an objective thing. However, there are key things to consider,

including number o years in business, access to capital, ongoing customer satisaction ratings,

independent analyst reports, and an existing track record o success. Also, dig deeply into

understanding how their business is doing in economic good times, and bad.

Critical questions would include: Who are your investors? When was your last round o

unding? Is your company protable? How many customers do you have? Can you give me

the name o 2-3 industry analysts to speak with about the strength o your company and

solution?

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Informatica Cloud

What about a specic example o a product that meets the benchmarks we described

above? When it comes to integration-as-a-service, Inormatica Cloud delivers. Inormatica

Cloud Services allows you to leverage the value o cloud computing or core data

integration requirements, including moving data between on-premise systems to cloud-based

systems, rom cloud-based systems to cloud-based systems, and on-premise to on-premise.

Inormatica Cloud provides a true multitenant service, assuring that your integration

solutions are both optimized and eective. In addition, Inormatica Cloud provides ease-

o-use, including the ability to quickly dene and deploy data integration scenarios using an

easy-to-learn, intuitive interace. You can also tr y Inormatica Cloud Services beore you buy,

and move directly rom testing into deployment.

Inormatica Cloud is suitable or either technical IT users, or those who drive the business

direction. Moreover, this integration-as-a-service solution is able to scale to your existing

and uture integration-as-a-service needs with huge on-demand capacity. Finally, Inormatica

is a stable, publically traded company that has provided thousands o users with integration

solutions that are core to their businesses, with the assurance that Inormatica will support

their integration needs or the long term.



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© 2010 David S. Linthicum, LLC 7054 (07/29/2010)

About the Author

David S. Linthicum is an internationally recognized industry expert and thought leader, and

the author and coauthor o 13 books on computing, including the best selling Enterprise

Application Integration (Addison Wesley). Dave keynotes at many leading technology

conerences on cloud computing, SOA, Web 2.0, and enterprise architecture, and has

appeared on a number o TV and radio shows as a computing expert. He is a blogger or

InoWorld, Intelligent Enterprise, and eBizq.net, covering SOA and enterprise computing

topics. Dave also has columns in Government Computer News, Cloud Computing Journal,

SOA Journal, Align Journal, and is the editor o Virtualization Journal.

In his career, Dave has ormed or enhanced many o the ideas behind modern distributed

computing including Enterprise Application Integration, B2B Application Integration, and SOA,

approaches and technologies in wide use today. For the last 10 years, Dave has ocused on

the technology and strategies around cloud computing, and how to make cloud computing

work or the modern enterprise. This includes work with several cloud computing startups.

Dave’s industry experience includes tenure as CTO and CEO o several successul sotware

companies, and upper-level management positions in Fortune 100 companies. In addition,

he was an associate proessor o computer science or eight years, and continues to lecture

at major technical colleges and universities including the University o Virginia, Arizona State

University, and the University o Wisconsin.

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