Data integration demand will grow in 2008
Most integration projects today are still done with custom code. Consequently, the total demand for integration is much larger than the current market for packaged integration products. Lower cost, easier to use, and more flexible data integration tools are beginning to emerge and will meet many of the integration needs in the coming year, replacing custom coding projects. Along with lower costs, look for these four IT trends to fuel growth in demand for data integration in 2008:
• More widespread adoption and use of Business Intelligence
• Growing use of Software as a Service (SaaS) business applications
• Replacement of older Electronic Data Interchange (EDI) with Internet-based messaging for B2B transactions
• Growing use of Rich Internet Applications (RIAs) and Web 2.0
Business Intelligence depends on data access
Business Intelligence (BI), once the exclusive realm of big enterprises, will increasingly be used by small and medium sized businesses. Large companies have traditionally used BI to gain better visibility into the operations and economics of their businesses, driving cost savings and productivity improvements. While BI has produced great results for large enterprises, the size and expense of the IT infrastructure has been an insurmountable obstacle for most SMBs.
Fortunately, the emergence of lighter, more flexible BI tools and less expensive methods of gaining access to required data will help satisfy the pent-up demand for BI solutions that can be used by small and midsize businesses. Some of these scaled down BI applications make use of integration tools that provide real time, flexible access to data in place, without a data warehouse infrastructure. BI projects will be a major driver of demand for these integration tools.
Making SaaS work for business means it has to play nice with other applications
One of the biggest trends of 2007 continuing into 2008 will be accelerated adoption of off-premises Software as a Service (SaaS) business applications. According to research firm Saugatuck Technology Inc, as companies use multiple SaaS programs, the need to integrate those applications with the company’s internal systems grows. In fact, 17% of SMBs are already using more than one application delivered via SaaS, according to the Westport, Conn.-based firm’s findings.”
SaaS business applications offer benefits of lower and more predictable infrastructure costs, fewer headaches, and improved ability to keep pace with advances in technology. But making SaaS applications fully productive requires that they integrate with other applications. “In the early days of SaaS, a lot of applications were standalone and running in silos,” said Liz Herbert, a senior analyst at Cambridge, Mass.-based Forrester Research Inc. “People just weren’t focused on the challenge of integration. They were focused on customization. Now we’re seeing SaaS used more broadly.”
Integrating SaaS applications, both with existing applications and with other SaaS applications will be a major driver for integration software in 2008, particularly integration software that is designed to work with the web services-based integration points made available by SaaS applications.
B2B messaging with XML enables business process improvement
Another driver of integration technologies is the growing use of business-to-business (B2B) messaging and the upgrade from older EDI formats to XML. According to Forrester Research, "...current volume of worldwide EDI transactions is more than 20 million per day and accounts for a significant amount of worldwide commercial activity. In fact, earlier studies determined that more than one-third of the US GDP is directly supported by EDI transaction exchanges in the retail, manufacturing, financial, healthcare, logistics, food and beverage, and pharmaceutical sectors. Stateful XML, stateless XML, and even flat file exchanges are all projected to grow at a faster rate than EDI over the next several years.”
Use of XML for B2B messaging allows messages to be more easily and flexibly mapped into business applications and processes, enabling process improvement. Both the growing healthcare market, with HL7 XML, and the insurance sector, with ACORD XML, have been at the forefront in driving process improvements through conversion to XML-based B2B messaging. The increased use of XML and web services for B2B messaging and integration of messages into business applications will boost the demand for integration tools to support this growing trend in 2008.
RIAs need services-based data access to the back-office
One of the biggest trends of 2008 will be the move toward business software applications that run in web browser based technologies like AJAX, Ruby, and REST. These “rich Internet applications” (RIAs) offer businesses more flexibility to run anywhere with lower cost endpoints. Making browser-based RIAs into useful interactive applications, rather than just readers that deliver information, requires them to integrate with business processes and back-office applications and data systems. The need to connect back office business applications and data with a rapidly growing number of rich Internet applications will drive demand for integration software that packages back office application and data access into REST services.
In 2008, we are sure to witness an unprecedented pace in the creation and evolution of applications with greater agility. However, for these applications to deliver real value it will be necessary to efficiently move data into and out of multiple and disparate data stores. Consequently, you can expect data integration to be a top priority for many developers in 2008.
biography
Bill Miller is CTO of XAware, Inc. Previously, he was founder and CTO of StorageNetworks, Inc. In addition to his blog, Miller can be reached at: billm@xaware.com.