Understanding iPaaS Software and Its Benefits: How It Is Changing The Face of Data Integration

Nidhi Raghuvanshi

Senior Writer

iPaaS Software

Understanding iPaaS Software and its Benefits: How it is changing the face of data integration

Imagine this—you’re dealing with astronomical amounts of data. Wait, it gets worse. Now you have started dealing with more astronomical data, that needs more integration with—you guessed it right, more data! What then? How do you deal with this hullabaloo? Is there any way to make your life easier? 

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iPaaS—Integration of the Times

Fortunately, there is. Integration Platform as a Service, or iPaaS, is here to deal with that precisely. Since most (maybe almost all) companies are shifting to the cloud, there is a constant, constant need to make their data interact with the ones of the other organizations. This makes iPaaS such an important entity—and here is all you need to know about it. 

As stated earlier, the need for data integration is super important these days. Think of it this way—say you work in a utility store, and there needs to be a constant shifting of items from one end to the other, or from one aisle to the other, or anything in between. 

iPaaS

What iPaaS does here is, it basically creates a standardized medium, a conveyor belt (a pretty darn advanced one), if you may, which makes it easier for these items to be shifted from one point to the other.

Sure, this can be done manually too, but keep in mind that human hands are very shaky (yes, we are still in the utility store). There is always a chance of spilling things, breaking things, or worse. Having a standardized conveyer belt, on the other hand, will work as directed. 

This forms the fundamentals of why you need iPaaS software in building an integrated network in sharing data among organizations and bodies. 

The Need for Integration—Data Challenges

The next question that arises—what is this data integration all about? How do companies even implement it? Why does iPaaS even come into play here? There is an obvious challenge that you will come across, especially with companies shifting to cloud ventures. Granted, cloud management companies are working overtime to make things as conducive, but the problem or challenge lies elsewhere. 

The problem with greater advancements is that there is too much of it right now. Companies are so good at developing each nook and corner of an application, that individual departments are developing their own section of the app or adding more d1`xasata on their own.

Don’t get us wrong, more data isn’t a bad thing, but the lack of integrating them is. This is why iPaaS would ideally work as a savior. There is no decrease in the volume of data, if anything, it grows exponentially by the day. 

Most companies aren’t even as equipped to manage this data, which is why a lot of manual entry still goes on. Data entry, management, translating to spreadsheets, emails—the list is endless. All this data keeps piling up by the day, and no matter how small the body, integrating this such that all departments are in constant communication is super important. 

This is why “integration” is such an important thing. This would allow companies to not only allow their separate departments to work on the finer aspect of their apps, but also maintain great communication between the said data too. 

How Integration is Dealt by Companies

Okay, now that you have a fair idea about the premise of iPaaS, the next question arises—what the present state of affairs is, and how have companies dealt with such abnormally high data contents. The interesting bit here is that the idea of integration has existed in companies, but its handling has been rather…abysmal.

The reason behind this commotion is simple. Companies have mostly treated the idea of integration as an afterthought, something that can be done later, determined on a requirement-basis, rather than a need-one. This is where almost everyone went wrong. 

That being said, the situation isn’t all that morose (yet). Companies have (kind of) built workarounds to deal with integration as effectively as possible. Here are some of the ways it can, and has, been dealt with.

1. Doing it Natively

Right off the bat, companies natively try to integrate data (be it through spreadsheets, or apps) with specific applications. A good example of this would be a motorcycle offering application connected with specific banks, in order to provide better understanding to the customer about finances of the same.

Another very good example of this is tech news apps integrating its content with Amazon links—so you can get real-time updates and changes made to anything pertaining to the product. Be it colors, price, or finance options, some apps prefer doing this integration natively. 

Despite appearing to be pretty efficient, the reality is far from it. The major disadvantage of integrating apps natively is that they tend to be extremely static. Sure, the updates and other associated stuff may happen, but the frequency depends a lot on the constant interaction of both the app and the vendor. In other words, there is very little automation. 

2. P2P Integrations

Where native integrations take a massive hit, P2P ones try to do better. They seem to be cost-effective, and fairly more efficient than native app integrations. There is one massive, massive issue here though. The fact that P2P integrations fail miserably when it comes to larger datasets proves to be its Achilles’ heel.

P2P

After all, companies only tend to get bigger, thereby only adding to prevalent data. Therefore, if its integration itself cannot manage such large chunks of data, then there is very little reason to implement it in the first place. 

Moreover, cloud apps have become as effective as cloud computing can get. iPaaS vendors are seeking solutions for large volumes of data, and P2P integrations are pathologically weak on this front. 

3. DIY Integrations

Companies also build their own integrations, but you guessed it right—they become subject to the company itself. And yes, the discrepancies are rather abysmal. Let’s not even get into the idea of how time-consuming the entire process is. 

Building an integration medium from scratch, trying to implement it with branches and companies you are connected to—all sounds like an unnecessary hassle. This is where iPaaS shines brightest. 

iPaaS—The Advantages are Endless

Now that you have seen how integrations are nowhere up to the mark, it is time to delve a great bit into why iPaaS is truly the way to go. Here are the advantages that you can expect from iPaaS software, and this is why businesses are slowly trying to get a hold of this golden opportunity. 

1. Cost-Effectiveness—What Makes iPaaS More than Passable

Right off the bat, iPaaS’ cost-effectiveness makes it such a great proposition. It essentially removes all need to generate code for DIY integrations. Since everything is placed in the cloud, the required information or platform is pretty accessible to all who are part of it. 

To add to this, there is no need for any hardware-software integration either. Since everything is cloud-based, all one needs is access to it. This also bypasses investing in specific apps, thereby making the entire prospect cost-effective. 

Keeping in mind that businesses are truly here only to make a profit, any kind of cost-cutting with minimum compromise sounds juicy. Add that to incredible integration? Saving money, as well as getting the job done. 

2. iPaaS Cares About the Customer

with iPaaS, it is now possible to integrate back-end data. This, in turn, allows communications to the web, mobile devices, and everything in between. What does that mean for the customer? Simple. Dedicated experience for the customer.

With iPaaS, you can now build integrated customer service. As the statistics go, customer service plays a pretty important aspect of how a business is perceived in the first place. This makes iPaaS such an important tool to make the most of. 

3. iPaaS Maximizes Productivity

As a business, you can’t just ramp up the numbers and call it an amp in productivity. There is a lot more that goes into it, such as the overall user-friendliness of the interface, and how seamless it is. This is where, again, iPaaS shines bright.

The monitoring measures of iPaaS software are pretty incredible. Not only do new members get added to the cloud seamlessly and securely, but this also enables businesses to add new members across multiple systems intuitively. 

This in turn increases the overall networking capabilities of the cloud, thereby increasing the business’ linking process. Talk about a massive jump in productivity!

4. Secure Gateway Ensures…Security

As stated, having secure gateways not only increases productivity but also ensures a great deal of security. Owing to the increase in data by the day, it is only obvious that leakages and seepages might become a thing. 

Not with iPaaS. There is a secure environment created between the cloud and the concerned applications. This enables the secure transfer of data without breaching customer codes. There are real-time alerts, detection of malicious elements, catching of forgery, and of course, readily available reports.

Therefore, iPaaS not only aids in better secure gateways, but in the process, the maximum protection that it provides makes for a great cloud solution too.

5. Lower Investments, Greater Happiness

One of the pivotal points of establishing businesses is to have your investments as low as you can, without making too many compromises. When it comes to iPaaS, the inherent low-code nature of it works wonders, if you think from an investment point of view. 

Speaking of which, iPaaS comes with a very smart drag-and-drop ability. This makes it super conducive to plant connectors per se. Not only is this low-input work, but it also propels the entire business to make the integration between the cloud and concerned applications easy on the clock. 

Being able to make the minimum number of decisions in order to save maximum time is what the ideal business should look for. But do you see the other massive advantage? 

The other massive advantage that low-code development poses—is that you don’t need dexterous hands in the first place. With low-code development platforms, you can now add to it, despite being a non-technical person, per se. Effortless as well as low-code? Sign us up!

6. Decision Making at its Acumen

In the ever-growing competitive business space, it becomes important to make decisions quickly and efficiently. With the easy low-code nature of iPaaS, the other massive benefit that it brings to the table—quick modulation.

This makes one aspect of business pretty easy decision making. In fact, owing to the fact that iPaaS makes it so natural to perform tasks like data entry to the cloud and vice-versa, it becomes super easy to make quick changes. Not only that, the precision with which it is ideally done is rather impeccable. 

This, added to the real-time updates, makes one thing certain—making quick decisions have become easier than ever before. Moreover, since iPaaS is integrated with the cloud itself, it makes for rapid and quick modulations to the devices connected to the cloud too. Pretty neat, right!

7. Constant, Constant Communication

As you might have guessed, iPaaS allows other apps to communicate with each other. In ways, this aids in better development of both or all apps at once. Think about it, one of the greatest players of them all, Uber, in conjunction with something like Google Pay—works wonders, right?

Constant, Constant Communication

This is one of the greatest benefits of iPaaS. The fact that you can now constantly make apps communicate with each other makes for a wonderful experience.

8. Updates are the new Upgrades

We can’t stress this enough. The updating system that iPaaS provides is really outstanding. Real-time modifications added to the entire reliability factor? Sounds like a sweet proposition. 

Where does this come in handy, you might ask? The answer is simple. SaaS apps that tend to provide updates to APIs on a frequent basis tend to fall short on this efficiency of update. With a valid and working iPaaS solution, the user has no reason to worry about frequent stable updates. 

9. The Silo Discrepancy

A silo is basically data that is available to one department of a company but not to the other. This reduces transparency and overall increases the dubious nature of departments. Let’s not even talk about how inefficient this is. 

The Silo Discrepancy

With iPaaS, now there is no scope to have silos of any kind within a company. Instead of this scattered data causing all kinds of commotion, now you can easily have access to data that can be corroborated and collaborated with a few clicks. 

Oh, and while we are at it, duplication of data can be easily dealt with now too, owing to better management via iPaaS. 

10. Centralization of Data—Championing Marketing

Centralization of data has its own benefits. Not only does it make the business more conducive, but it becomes easier to grab customers. In order to make the most of this, the centralized data needs to always stay in touch with a few pillars. 

First, the marketing apps and email apps, second would be customer software support systems; finally, invoicing metrics would be super important. Placing all this in sync would ideally make the best contact and associated directories.

11. Future Proofing

Finally, the greatest advantage that iPaaS poses to folks who look forward to the future is…futureproofing. Being able to scale your iPaaS forms the foundation of this. 

In order to make the most of this, you obviously need your iPaaS to be associated and synced to all the new tools and apps. In fact, if you have migratory apps at your disposal, make sure to sync it with iPaaS. This would truly future proof your business, preparing you for a greater venture ahead. 

Final Words—The Future of iPaaS

Speaking of future-proofing—the most pertinent question arises—what is the future of iPaaS? Does it entail anything for APIs or other apps? 

The answer is both a yes, and a no. Yes, because more and more ventures are shifting to the cloud, thereby making iPaaS a really potent tool. No, because iPaaS in its core is expected to not be as prevalent as it is today. 

Judging by how stiff the competition gets by the day, it is only obvious that every company will have its own take on iPaaS communicating with the other companies. Luckily, owing to how easy it is to code and maintain this integration, you can surely expect a rise in application steadiness, and overall better-made apps in the long run. 

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