2 Connect Cloud and On-Premise Applications Using IBM Cast Iron OmniConnect
Application integration: The Achilles’ heel of cloud computing
Companies that adopt cloud applications view application integration as the critical
component to harmonize business processes across their hybrid application landscape. With
integration, business users who use a cloud application can make the most of their
productivity by having access to critical information that is unlocked from other systems and
made available in real time. By maximizing user productivity, a company can achieve the most
economic value of their investment.
Scenarios of cloud integration include the following examples:
Data migration from existing systems to new cloud applications
A 360-degree view of customer information between cloud customer relationship
management (CRM) and on-premise enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications
Order, invoice and payment visibility from ERP to cloud CRM applications
Recruiting and employee data integration between cloud human capital management and
back-office applications
Opportunity integration between cloud marketing automation, collaboration platforms and
e-commerce applications
Connection of
private clouds with home-grown applications and business partner
solutions
Because cloud applications offer similar benefits to all customers, any advantages gained at
one company are just as easily available to its competitors. Cloud applications by themselves
provide little differentiation unless they are integrated with a company’s back-end applications
to streamline business processes that are core to their operations. Retaining this
differentiation and making the enormous quantity of corporate data available to the newer,
more cost-effective cloud systems brings the issue of application integration to the forefront.
Application integration has become the loyalty application for cloud providers. The more
integrated they are with the rest of their customers’ enterprise applications, the more valuable
they are to their customers.
Despite this critical need, application integration continues to be the Achilles’ heel for cloud
adoption. Why has cloud application integration been so challenging? The answer lies in the
fact that traditional choices have been incomplete.
Private clouds: Private clouds are custom cloud applications that companies build
themselves to meet their distinct needs. Such applications are typically built by using
technologies, such as web services and virtualization, that offer tremendous economies
of scale to large IT departments. You can compare these to
public clouds, which are
owned and managed by a service provider that delivers an agreed-to set of application,
software, or infrastructure services on a pay-per-use basis.
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