Ross Mason

It's no secret that cloud integration is one of the main challenges facing today's enterprises. In order to meet the growing need for secure and reliable cloud integration solutions, several vendors have started to offer integration services known as iPaaS, or integration Platform as a Service. iPaaS is a cloud-based integration solution that is steadily gaining buzz, but - as with other cloud offerings - it is important to look beyond the hype for actual substance. One sure sign that iPaaS is securing its place as a legitimate category in the cloud computing stack is Gartner's slew of research publications in the past several months on iPaaS, the most recent of which is the "Gartner Reference Model of Integration PaaS." This growing attention is a good sign for iPaaS vendors, but a few people may still be unclear about what iPaaS actually is or does. In simplest t... (more)

Connecting the Dots: The Social Web, Cloud Computing and Integration

These days it seems nearly impossible to talk about the enterprise without mentioning the words "social" or "cloud." At first glance, social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn and cloud computing services like Salesforce.com appear to be separate and distinct technologies from a business as well as technical standpoint. One thing that both technologies have in common is that their growing popularity is putting pressure on enterprises to join the bandwagon and adopt them. On the social side of things, sites like Facebook and Twitter allow companies to communicat... (more)

Integration Providers Respond to the Cloud's Challenge

As enterprises deploy SaaS and other cloud technologies, they are confronted with the challenge of integration. It is hard to ignore the impact of the cloud, but responses among integration technology providers have varied. Integration veteran David Linthicum sees three categories of data integration providers: the "do nothing about cloud computing" providers; the "integration on the cheap" providers; and "the cloud is everything" providers. The "do nothing" providers have largely refrained from moving into the cloud, offering traditional integration solutions that are on-premise ... (more)