The Developer’s

Guide to Integration
Approaches
There are two common approaches to data integration:
traditional hand-coded development, and using a low-code
integration platform as a service (iPaaS). This ebook covers the
benefits and challenges of each, to help you determine the best
option for your business.

By Barry Gerdsen, CTO of ISV/OEM Partnerships, Boomi

Table of Contents
3 INTRODUCTION:
THE FUTURE TODAY

4 CHAPTER ONE:
SO, YOU HAVE AN INTEGRATION CHALLENGE?

6 CHAPTER TWO:
THE PROS AND CONS OF CODED DEVELOPMENT

8 CHAPTER THREE:
ENTER LOW-CODE INTEGRATION PLATFORM AS A SERVICE (IPAAS)

10 CHAPTER FOUR:
SEPARATING FACT FROM FICTION

13 CONCLUSION:
THE FUTURE TOMORROW
I NTRO D UC TI O N

The Future Today How you choose to tackle your data integration
requirements will go a long way toward
Today’s business organizations use data – lots of determining the degree of success you can expect
it. Whether it’s generated through marketing and the rate at which you can achieve it. There are
research, sales results, customer feedback, or a two popular approaches for doing this:
myriad of other sources, there’s no escaping the
importance that data — and analytics — play in • Traditional hand-coded development
enabling a competitive advantage. Businesses
• Using a low-code integration platform as a
have come to realize that the proper integration
service (iPaaS)
of data is vital to future-proofing product and
service offerings in a way that can unlock growth Which of these you choose will likely depend on
in the market. Enterprises that are successful in various priorities, such as time, cost, flexibility, and
aggregating data from various sources can the level of control you require. In this ebook, I’ll
develop highly targeted strategic plans aimed at discuss the benefits and challenges of each
achieving sustained success. approach. The goal is to help you determine the
best option for your business.
But getting there isn’t always easy. Today, the
data you need may be spread out across
disparate stores and systems, all with their own
unique requirements. Mapping information from
sources to destinations may require validation,
transformation, and cleansing. You may even be
interested in establishing logic within these
integrations that interrogates data and decides
on-the-fly what to do with it. Then come the
decisions around the manner and frequency with
which your integrations will execute. These are just
a few of the many considerations that come into
play when planning data integration use cases.

3
1
So, You Have an Integration Challenge?
Most people who read this are not facing just one
integration challenge — they’re confronting many
of them. Individual coders who have been hired to
tackle integrations realize that their efforts are
rarely (if ever) just one-time events. As the business
grows, so does its need to efficiently move data.
The first step in taking on this challenge is
understanding the overarching objectives of the
business – those that exist now and those that are
likely to arise in the future. This can be daunting,
because it requires vision coupled with the ability
to achieve short-term goals in a modular and
reusable way. Ideally, this vision is sponsored by
someone with a high-level role in the organization.
That person should not only understand the big
picture, but also have the power to allocate
resources to see the plan through completion.
If this sounds like a challenge, that’s because it is.
Even within small-scale integration projects, the
establishment of requirements can be an obstacle.
Your team might find themselves communicating
with multiple stakeholders – including customers,
partners, and vendors – any of whom can
misinterpret instructions and hold back the
initiative. Thus, setting clear objectives that can be
measured and monitored is vital.
You’ll want to define the scope of the project to
include its parameters (all relevant databases,
datasets, processes, and protocols) and have a clear
understanding of the data you want to integrate.
CHAPTER 1
That means where it needs to go, and how it needs 5. What am I doing to ensure data security?
to change along the way. You’ll want to run tests on
the systems involved to ensure that you can get 6. Am I adequately logging and providing for
what you need and develop application and system monitoring and auditing?
designs (based on tables, fields, and other relevant
7. What am I doing around exception handling
info) to allow for data mapping. Also, when dealing
and error notifications?
with multi-step integrations, the order of executions
may need to be sequenced so data transfers can 8. How am I handling version control?
occur in the correct order.
9. What are my plans around deployment and
As part of your planning, it’s useful to brainstorm a the rollout of future enhancements?
list of considerations. Or as I like to call it, “The
Murphy’s Law list.” These are the things that can 10. How am I documenting the work that I do?
potentially go wrong during your integration
11. Is what I’m creating maintainable by others?
project and what appropriate safeguards should
Can someone else troubleshoot an issue if I’m
be considered if/when they do. For example:
not available?
1. What if one of the systems I wish to connect
12. Is my development plan as efficient as it
to is offline?
could be?
2. Is the data in question structured or
And these are just a few examples.
unstructured? What if I get dirty data (i.e.,
data not in an expected format)?
3. Have I confirmed that all the data that I need
is available and accessible? Not all APIs are
created equal. Some won’t work the way they
should. Some won’t even be documented.
4. Does the expertise of my integrations team
match up with the systems we’re seeking to
integrate? Many systems have their own
internal object dependencies, which can
make writing to an unfamiliar system risky.
4
1
Point number 12 might be the most challenging
question to answer. It speaks to a deep
understanding of an ever-changing technological
landscape. Researching what assets might be
available to assist in coding your integration
development effort requires an investment of time
and patience. But it’s critical to put in the
groundwork.
Along the way, you’ll identify pre-built objects that
may be incorporated into your work, and you’ll
thank yourself for the time spent finding them.
What’s not available will need to be developed
internally and doing so will require communication
around design guidelines. You’ll need to determine
what components are necessary, how they may be
used and reused, and how they’ll likely evolve over
time. It should be understood that every “plan” is
really just a loose guideline, for it’s inevitable that
new requirements will reveal themselves as soon as
your code first finds its way into use.
“Mann Tracht, Un Gott Lacht” is an old Yiddish
adage that translates to, “Man Plans, and God
Laughs.” This is never truer than it is in software
development.
As you move forward in your planning, a few
guiding principles will serve you well:
Design for reuse. Recall that I stated: “Individual
coders who have been hired to tackle integrations
realize that the efforts they undertake are rarely (if
ever) just one-time events.” For this reason, it’s
advisable to standardize and modularize using
loosely coupled objects that can be tested
individually and used in related integration
projects. Always design your components as if the
effort is part of an overarching business objective.
Even if it isn’t right now, it likely will be at some
point. Design your work to be written once and
reused often.
Break big problems into smaller problems and design
your components to satisfy them. Within a typical
coded integration project, your object component
architecture will be broken up into different
segments, including (but not limited) to:
• Event Handling
• Error/Exception Handling
• Data Mapping
• Data Validation
• Business Objects
• Table Processing
• Scheduling
• Encoding/Decoding
Develop these components modularly, avoiding
the urge to build in design choices that are specific
to the current task at hand. Doing so will only lead
to painful, time-consuming re-writes later.
Document, Document, Document. This is vital for the
development and maintenance of your work. For a
typical integration project coded in Java, Javadoc is
CHAPTER 1
the accepted standard for documentation. Javadoc
parses declarations made directly within coded
classes and methods and will generate API
documentation for it. All the major Java integrated
development environments (IDEs) understand it and
can use it to display context-sensitive assistance to
developers while they code. This is important
because it will future-proof the project to avoid
dependance on the creator(s). Your documentation
needs to be clearly understood by other developers
if the project is to be successful in the long-term.
Maintenance will inevitably be needed. Often, it’s
not the creator who serves as the first line of
defense, but rather a support team. The effort you
make to document your code upfront will benefit
the organization immeasurably in terms of support
hours saved, escalations avoided, and in
acquainting (or even reacquainting) developers with
code that might have been written months or even
years in the past.
Test early and often. You’ll want to ensure that
sample data is available for testing early on in your
project. You’ll use that data to model your objects
and to profile any/all mapping dependencies that
should exist. Doing this upfront will ensure that the
data meets requirements and lays bare any
inconsistencies related to its structure, access, and
availability. You’ll want to flag duplicate records,
reconcile dirty data, and remove records that
break your data quality rules. Finally, you’ll want to
establish a recovery plan if something breaks your
code when it finally finds its way into production.
5
2
The Pros and Cons of Coded Development
So, with all the planning and work involved with
coding an integration from scratch, why do we do
it? Are there advantages to taking this approach?
Might the use of third-party tools be a better use of
our time and money? These are some of the
questions that IT managers struggle with as they
contemplate how best to dedicate their enterprise
resources.
There certainly are advantages to choosing to
“Build” rather than “Buy.” If you’re an experienced
developer or a development manager, it may be
that choosing to build makes perfect sense
because of your level of expertise. It’s “the devil you
know,” so to speak. You may favor the total control
that coding a solution from the ground up provides.
Perhaps you’ve tackled similar projects in the past
and have total confidence in your team’s ability to
plan and execute. You may even believe that
satisfying the initiative will lead to greater job
security for yourself and your team. After all, to
keep a coded solution running smoothly over time
requires someone to maintain it. Who better to do
so then the team that designed and developed it?
CHAPTER 2
You may also be skeptical of no-code platforms.
Sure, you may have seen a demonstration of a no-
code solution that looked slick. But what if your
integration use case requirements happen to go
beyond that which is offered out-of-the-box? That
proprietary, configuration-based interface might
be a crowd-pleaser. Yet what if it locks you into an
approach that is not as flexible as the
development approach you need? What would be
the point of paying to license a solution if it might
require additional professional services?
Thus, the flexibility and control you get from coding
your solution from scratch are the principal
advantages of the do-it-yourself approach. When
something goes wrong, you can literally debug
your code – line-by-line, if necessary. You don’t
have to learn and adapt your development
approach to accommodate a third-party platform
that operates in a proprietary way. You don’t have
to run the risk that it might obfuscate errors in a
non-intuitive way that keeps you from getting to
the root of an issue. With a coded solution, you’re
the one who’s ultimately in control.
6
2
There are times, however, when this “flexibility”
doesn’t seem so flexible. That brings us to the
disadvantages of the “Build” over “Buy” decision.
Since IT departments often adhere to a rather
involved software development lifecycle (SDLC), it’s
not unusual for there to be a backlog of projects to
be undertaken, a litany of plans and guidelines to
be developed around each, and a general sense
that IT lacks the ability to move at the speed of
modern business. This has numerous ramifications
on the IT organization and its ability to execute:
• Time budgeting is always a challenge. In short,
there is just no way to move quickly enough.
No IT team wants to be labeled as the
“Department of Slow.” Yet depending on the
complexity of their requirements, hand-coded
integration projects can take anywhere from
weeks to months. That’s why IT’s ability to
execute is often seen as the bottleneck. Even
the most experienced IT teams struggle to
keep up with the often-unrealistic expectations
of the business.
• The Line of Business is from Mars, and IT is from
Venus. When it comes to any business-led IT
initiative, communication is always a challenge
and the risk of misinterpreted objectives is
high. It’s not unusual for uncommunicated
goals to later surface, which is particularly
distressing when those goals involve the re-
write of hundreds of lines of code. Even worse
is when missing goals stay missing out of
concern over personal or professional
reputation. For instance, when a party to the
project defers on missing objectives out of fear
of frustrating either IT or someone in their own
chain of command. These are the times when
even the most ardent “Build over Buy”
developer wishes they had a quicker means to
incorporate changes that would allow them
the flexibility to address changes and/or
modifications.
• The availability, coordination, and cost of team
members. In planning and coding an
integration from the ground up, you need a
team that is not only versed in your choice of
development platform, but also skilled in the
systems you’re integrating. These IT folks don’t
come cheap, making the development and
upkeep of the project an expensive
undertaking for the business.
• Brain drain. If you’ve worked in Development
long enough, you know the fear. Team
members who have developed thousands of
lines of code end up leaving the organization
for greener pastures. When that happens, their
code doesn’t go with them. You inherit it and
are charged with maintaining it, even though
you might know little to nothing about it. The
CHAPTER 2
stress and frustration of this can contribute to
organizational brain drain – the vicious
downward spiral of people leaving the org
because of other people leaving it. No one is
fond of assuming responsibility for code they
didn’t create.
As a result of these factors, coded integration work
often ends up bottlenecking business objectives.
Integrations that could have been built don’t
happen. Those that do, often get coded in a way
that requires constant maintenance and oversight.
Most importantly, time that could have been spent
pursuing business objectives instead gets spent
pursuing technology objectives. For this reason,
businesses have resolved to take a hard look at
alternatives to coded development, seeking ways
to expedite it, while still retaining the power and
flexibility of the do-it-yourself approach.
7
3
Enter Low-Code
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
Gartner defines iPaaS as “a suite of cloud services
enabling development, execution and governance
of integration flows connecting any combination of
on-premises and cloud-based processes, services,
and applications.”
In essence, a good iPaaS solution abstracts away
the technical complexity of coding and allows you to
develop integrations using a centralized console for
configuring the connection details to your endpoints.
It’s beneficial in structuring application-based
integrations quickly and easily, while remaining
flexible enough to allow you to add code (if
necessary) to satisfy non-standard requirements.
Typically, an iPaaS provides pre-built connectors,
business rules, maps, and transformations that
facilitate the development of applications and
orchestrate integration flows. Standardizing on a
virtual platform that is much faster to develop on,
easier to maintain, and more flexible to modify can
greatly simplify an organization’s infrastructure.
More specifically, an iPaaS can provide these 10
major benefits:
• Faster time to deployment. Integrations that
would ordinarily take weeks and months to code
can now potentially take just hours.
• Greater flexibility. Making necessary
modifications to an integration project
midstream can be easily accomplished –
without potentially having to re-write hundreds
of lines of code.
• Reduced burden on over-taxed IT teams. By
automating and simplifying many of the most
routine tasks through an easy-to-use user
interface, productive IT resources can be freed
up to tackle more creative, high-value projects.
• Less reliance on scarce programming talent.
iPaaS effectively lowers barriers to productivity,
allowing business analysts to understand and
contribute to the development of a project.
What’s more, integration templates can be
easily developed, which can enable citizen
integrators (i.e., business users with little-to-no
experience) to self-service their own projects.
CHAPTER 3
• Elimination of maintenance nightmares. No
more maintaining hundreds or even thousands
of lines of someone else’s code. Maintaining an
iPaaS project is typically a configuration-based,
wizard-driven effort. Making sense of another
developer’s work is easier, troubleshooting
becomes more straightforward, and
modifications take less time to do. Monitoring is
typically included, as well, providing the
developer(s) full, end-to-end visibility around
failures, latency, resource utilization, and
workflow performance.
• Easy online organization and collaboration. A
good iPaaS takes full advantage of its cloud-
based underpinnings, providing developers with
an easy-to-use, browser-based UI. There is no
IDE to download and install. In this way, teams
can log in online to a designated project and
work together to share assets, tackle
integration workflow, and satisfy goals. When
everyone is using the same platform, there’s just
one collaborative source and less room for
misinterpretation.
8
3
CHAPTER 3

• Better security. While it’s true that security will When first introduced, iPaaS was believed to be
always be an ongoing concern, iPaaS solutions simplistic and monolithic. It was considered only
offer security in a centralized and more easily serviceable for basic integration needs.
maintainable way. Fraud detection, threat
management, access control, data encryption, That was then, this is now.
and single sign-on integration are all part of the
That perception has changed over the years with
platform. Regulatory compliance also is made
the reality that the tools have improved. Also, the
easier by virtue of its architecture.
need for fast-paced integration development has
• Data reliability and high percentage of uptime. intensified. Low-code iPaaS has worked to cut the
These terms are typically written into the costs of time and labor as well as actual money
offering’s service level agreement (SLA), spent. As per Forrester, “Over 90% of Forrester
detailing uptime requirements and different (surveyed) respondents said that low-code
service and support packages for the customer platforms have at least to some extent addressed
to consider. challenges their organization faces in building
custom applications using traditional coding.”
• Out-of-the-box support. It’s built-in for It’s created self-service models and empowered
commonly used protocols such as HTTP, FTP, employees who didn’t have IT backgrounds to
Open Data, and Message Queuing, along with deliver apps more quickly.
the ability to process and manipulate data in
formats like JSON and XML. However, as with all things, there are challenges to
consider before committing to an iPaaS solution.
• Increased Productivity. Using iPaaS, integration
work no longer needs to be a bottleneck to
critical business initiatives. Rather, it’s a
competitive business advantage. An iPaaS
provides individual developers a means for
achieving measurable organizational impact
because the time needed to complete
integration work shrinks considerably.

9
4
Separating Fact from Fiction
When presented with a new approach to tackling
a difficult task, it’s only natural to be skeptical.
That’s especially the case when the approach
challenges an accepted norm. For some veteran
IT professionals, any deviation from hand-coded
development in favor of UI-driven automation feels
like a surrender of mankind to the machines. For
this reason, the first challenge many managers face
is separating fact from fiction about the benefits
and challenges of committing to a low-code iPaaS
approach.
For example, here are some common
misconceptions that exist around the low-code
iPaaS approach:
FICTION: “THE ROBOTS ARE COMING FOR ME.
THIS IPAAS PUTS MY JOB AT RISK.”
FACT: With an unemployment rate for technology
professionals just above 2% (as of this writing),
it’s most accurate to suggest just the opposite.
Demand for IT skills has never been higher. Most
companies are currently struggling to hold onto
the technologists they have – not looking for
ways to replace them. According to the Bureau of
Labor Statistics, employment of web developers
is projected to grow 13 percent from 2022 to 2030.
That’s much faster than the average of all other
occupations. With IT professionals in such scarce
supply, and the need for them only growing, most
businesses are heavily invested in enabling their
tech workforce with tools that take the routine
drudgery out of their work. Simply put, businesses
are trying to make the jobs of their IT talent easier,
days more efficient, and output greater.
2. FICTION: “LOW-CODE IPAAS IS AN INFLEXIBLE
BLACK BOX. REAL DEVELOPERS CODE.”
FACT: The intention of iPaaS is not to replace
a development effort, but rather to make the
development effort easier to do. A good, low-code
iPaaS abstracts away the rudimentary parts of the
job to enable you to focus on its more challenging
and creative aspects. What’s more, iPaaS makes
your work more maintainable and collaborative.
In the past, coded development efforts around
integration were time-consuming and resource
heavy. For this reason, it was not uncommon for
organizations to multi-task integration projects by
working in silos. This led to ill-organized, hard-to-
maintain efforts. By consolidating all integration
tasks on a single online platform, integration
work is much more efficient. Problems are easier
to troubleshoot, work is more maintainable, and
collaboration is much easier.
CHAPTER 4
3. FICTION: “DEVELOPING ON IPAAS MAKES YOU
VULNERABLE TO FREQUENT SERVICE OUTAGES.”
FACT: Although it’s always advisable to review
and understand the service-level agreement that
you sign with your chosen iPaaS vendor, you’ll find
that most promise 99%-plus uptime. That said,
keeping up on announcements of upcoming service
downtime will minimize any potential disruptions.
Although rare, when they do occur they are typically
posted well in advance.
4. FICTION: “EXISTING IPAAS INTEGRATIONS ARE
DIFFICULT TO UPDATE AND ROLL OUT.”
FACT: While it may be true that you might decide to
periodically update your deployed integrations, the
rollout of those updates can often be accomplished
with just a few mouse clicks. In fact, the ability to
quickly modify and redeploy an integration is one of
the major advantages of an iPaaS.
10
4
5. FICTION: “IPAAS REMOVES THE NEED FOR
TECHNICAL KNOWLEDGE TO CREATE AND
SERVICE INTEGRATIONS.”
FACT: While iPaaS will make many tasks easier
and vastly reduce your time-to-value in creating
integrations, there still will likely be some ramp-up
needed to familiarize yourself with the environment.
That’s true particularly if the integration you wish
to create is elaborate or the system APIs you’re
connecting to are non-standard.
6. FICTION: “ALL IPAAS PRODUCTS ARE
BASICALLY THE SAME. THERE’S VERY LITTLE
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THEM.”
FACT: Absolutely not true. Most iPaaS products have
differentiating characteristics that separate one
from another. For this reason, it’s always advisable
to have your objectives laid out (both now and into
the future), along with sample POC use cases that
you can try out in a platform’s trial environment.
Gartner also publishes an annual Magic Quadrant™
for Enterprise iPaaS study that provides a
comprehensive look at the marketplace and is worth
researching to scope out the features of each of its
designated leaders.
7. FICTION: “WHATEVER IPAAS I CHOOSE, THE
SECURITY AND COMPLIANCE LEVELS OF THE
SOLUTION WILL BE ROUGHLY EQUIVALENT.”
FACT: Not so fast. While it’s true that the security of
your iPaaS solution will likely be more centralized
and easily maintainable than the installed patch
updates of yesteryear, you’ll still want to confirm
the security and compliance certifications of
each solution. Look for things like HIPAA, ISO/
IEC 27001, GDPR, and PCI DSS compliance. Don’t
be afraid to ask a vendor for its completed Cloud
Security Alliance Consensus Assessment Initiative
Questionnaire (also known as the CSA CAIQ). It’s
also worth noting that although your chosen iPaaS
will have settings and features to allow you role-
based access control (RBAC) to manage security
roles, rights, and privileges, it’s ultimately your
organization that’s responsible for their use, as well
as any breaches that could occur if the platform is
not properly configured.
CHAPTER 4
8. FICTION: “IPAAS MAKES ANY CONCERNS OVER
SCALABILITY A THING OF THE PAST.”
FACT: Typically, when discussing iPaaS, the
definition of “scalability” can take on a couple of
different meanings. It can refer to either the ability
to:
Quickly service integration challenges to new
applications and endpoints
or
Handle a sizable number of individual transactions
at an acceptable rate
In general, iPaaS promises advancements in both
areas. However, it’s unrealistic to suggest that a
platform alleviates scalability concerns altogether.
Different iPaaS solutions will offer their own array
of pre-built integrations and connections. Some
will automate the approach differently from others.
You’ll want to do your research to determine which
iPaaS provides the easy-to-configure integrations
that work best for your business. You should
also have a good handle around how the iPaaS
handles challenges that aren’t so straightforward.
Integration use cases can be like snowflakes. No two
are alike. You’ll want an iPaaS that can tackle both
the standard and non-standard ones.
11
4
When it comes to load scalability, you’ll also want to
confirm that the iPaaS in question can handle your
transactional load requirements. You’ll also want it
to be optimized to best support specific workload
patterns like batch and real-time publishing. A good
underlying platform architecture is characterized
by its ability to scale both vertically (maximizing
machine resources) and horizontally (through
application run-time clustering) to ensure high
availability, along with parallel processing and
multi-threading capabilities.
9. FICTION: “MY INTEGRATION PROJECT IS
COMPLEX. I’VE HEARD THAT LOW-CODE IPAAS
SOLUTIONS CAN’T SATISFY HARD-TO-SCRATCH
INTEGRATION ITCHES.”
FACT: This is where the “low-code” capabilities of
a robust iPaaS come in handy. Some integration
projects require more than what comes out-of-the-
box. Fortunately, there are iPaaS vendors who have
taken steps to bridge this gap in their offerings and
allow you to extend the capabilities of your project
through code. As a developer, you’ll enjoy the benefit
of having the routine, tedious aspects of integration
development abstracted away via the platform, yet
still be able to satisfy complex requirements that
need code if/where needed.
CHAPTER 4
10. FICTION: “IPAAS IS ONLY GOOD FOR CLOUD-
TO-CLOUD APPLICATION INTEGRATION USE
CASES.”
FACT: A powerful iPaaS solution enables
development wherever it’s needed. It meets
hybrid integration requirements, regardless of the
integration scenario. Whether it’s on-premises-
to-cloud, cloud-to-cloud, or on-premises-to-on-
premises, iPaaS allows you to easily accommodate
any ad hoc, schedule-based, or real-time
integration requirements.
11. FICTION: “OF COURSE THE SUITS LIKE LOW
CODE! IT SQUEEZES MORE WORK FROM THE TEAM
WITHOUT HAVING TO REWARD US!”
FACT: This statement is at least partially true in that
low-code iPaaS does enable greater productivity.
But in the hands of a good organization that values
its people, the results of these productivity gains
will lead to greater profitability, which often leads
to wage growth, performance rewards, and career
acceleration. Of course, if you’re not working for an
organization that offers that kind of advancement,
the good news is that adding iPaaS experience to
your resume will also make you more attractive to
the increasing number of organizations that do.
12
CON C LU S I ON
The Future Tomorrow
There’s no single way to solve any technology problem.
But there are certainly easier, faster, and better ways
to overcome the challenges that come with disparate
digital landscapes that are becoming more complex
with each passing day. In the first portion of this
paper, we discussed the many plans, considerations,
and complexities that surround the execution of a
coded integration project. Then we detailed how the
use of a low-code iPaaS solution can make that job
quicker and easier. An iPaaS provides single-pane-of-
glass simplicity that tackles complex integration
requirements in a way that enables both citizen
integrators and developers to quickly tackle projects.
Using iPaaS, you’ll enjoy increased efficiency, improve
your ability to share and maintain work, and improve
the security and compliance of your developed
solutions.
In short, iPaaS is a worthy investment. For example, a
recent study of customers using the Boomi
AtomSphere Platform, conducted by Forrester
Consulting, found that, “the 3-year ROI on an iPaaS
platform exceeds 410% and offered an investment
payback in as little as 6 months. During this period,
integration development time accelerated by 65%,
allowing companies to save time and money, reduce
risk, and get more done.”*
But what’s just as important, is avoiding the cost of
doing nothing. As the iPaaS space matures and its
usage expands, organizations that stick to more
Copyright © 2022 Boomi, LP. Boomi, the ‘B’ logo, Atom, AtomSphere, and Molecule, are trademarks of Boomi, LP or its
subsidiaries. Other names or marks may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
traditional methods of development will relinquish
competitive advantage to those that use better tools.
This will manifest itself in a loss of opportunities, as
customers gravitate to providers that can offer
quicker results. Workforce attrition is also likely to
become a concern as talent migrates to shops that
are better positioned for success and developers
leave to avoid the burn-out of excessive coding and
debugging.
As we look to the future, organizations should seek to
use iPaaS to automate time-intensive, low-level tasks
and to minimize the writing of redundant, non-
business logic code. Exciting developments in the
areas of Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial
intelligence (AI) promise to keep iPaaS at the
forefront of innovation because they require rapid
development to facilitate the transmission of data.
By 2026, it’s expected there will be more than 64
billion smart gadgets installed globally. And it will
largely be iPaaS developers who create the data
integrations between these sensors and their
connected systems. As for artificial intelligence, iPaaS
will aggregate the data sets that feed AI-based
decision-making services used by business
applications.
As iPaaS expands and evolves, it’s advisable for
organizations to seek ways to grow with it by
choosing an iPaaS solution that fits their budget,
experience, and integration strategy.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Barry Gerdsen is Boomi’s CTO of ISV/OEM
Partnerships. During his 20-plus years
working in the IT field, he has been a
manager, mentor, an architect, and a
recovering Wall Street Java Developer.
ABOUT BOOMI
Boomi instantly connects everyone to
everything with its cloud-native, unified, open,
and intelligent platform. Boomi’s integration
platform as a service (iPaaS) is trusted by
more than 20,000 customers globally for its
speed, ease-of-use, and lower total cost of
ownership. As the pioneer at fueling intelligent
use of data, Boomi’s vision is to make it quick
and easy for customers and partners to
discover, manage and orchestrate data, while
connecting applications, processes, and
people for better, faster outcomes.
Learn more at www.boomi.com.
*Return achieved in studied accounts in a
commissioned study conducted by Forrester
Consulting, “The Total Economic Impact of The
Boomi AtomSphere Platform, August 2021
13