How iPaaS Overcomes the
Challenges of Cloud
Integration
Daniel Chilcott
Managing Director/Co-Founder, Flowgear

Agenda
• About iPaaS
• About Flowgear
• 4 Ways to Integrate
• 8 Challenges of Integration
• Customer Stories
• Questions

About iPaaS
• “Integration Platform as a Service” (part of the PaaS family)
• Term coined by technology research firm Gartner
• Refers to a cloud-based platform that provides integration middleware
capability

About Flowgear
• South African company founded 2007
• Vision is to make integration accessible
• Recognized in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Integration Platform as a
Service, Jan 2014. One of 17 vendors, globally.
• Flowgear service is delivered from US, Europe and Africa

Four Ways to Integrate
• Hand Coding
• Integration Middleware
• Cloud-based Integration Platform (iPaaS)
• Integration Brokerage

Pro’s
• Quick to build
• Cost effective
Con’s
• No control
• Hard to maintain
Use For…
• Simple integrations
• Low-impact requirement
• Ground-to-ground
1 of 4: Hand Coding

2 of 4: Integration Middleware
aka ESB
Pro’s
• Very structured
• Highly scalable
Con’s
• Costly
• Requires infrastructure
investment
Use For…
• High-volume requirements
• Low-latency requirements
• Ground-to-ground
• Extensive integration strategy

3 of 4: Cloud-based Integration Platform
aka iPaaS
Pro’s
• Fast time to value
• Cloud friendly
• Subscription-based
Con’s
• Not as efficient for ground to
ground integration
Use For…
• Cloud to ground and Cloud to
Cloud requirements
• Extensive integration strategy

4 of 4: Integration Brokerage
aka VAN/EDI Switch
Pro’s
• Outsourced implementation
• Mostly pre-built
Con’s
• Often charged as % of revenue
• Limited endpoints/solutions
• Often file-based
Use For…
• Total outsource
• Specific solutions

Four Ways to Integrate
Hand Coding (outsourced) Integration Middleware Cloud-based Integration Platform Integration Brokerage
Time to value
5
4
3
2
1
0
Setup Cost
Ongoing Cost
Flexibility
Degree of structure
Control

Challenges of Cloud to Ground Integration
• Virtually all enterprises use a combination of Cloud and ground (on-premise
software)
• IT department used to be able to forklift data between systems
• API’s force proper interaction
• The Internet isn’t always on!

Challenge #1
Cost
• Before iPaaS, enterprise needed to deploy costly ESB’s
• As a Cloud service, iPaaS is available on a subscription (often monthly)
that aligns with the features required
• No additional infrastructure is required

Challenge #2
Platform Management
• Managing availability and updates to integration middleware requires
domain expertise
• In iPaaS, a highly-available environment is provided with no
maintenance required by Enterprise
• Components of the Flowgear Platform are updated monthly

Challenge #3
Knowing Where To Start
• Applications expect data to be
supplied in a specific way
• Flowgear brings samples right into
the design area to accelerate
productivity

Challenge #4
Connecting Disparate Data Sources
• Flowgear DropPoints are software agents installed on application or
database servers
• Creates a secured, outbound, fault tolerant connection
• Enables Flowgear to access data sources in different networks without
any extra work – no VPN’s, no file transfers

Challenge #5
Bridging Old
And New
• On-premise systems
typically use older techniques for communication
• Cloud services have API’s
• Flowgear supports old and new techniques and allows communication
to flow seamlessly

Challenge #6
Software Gets Upgraded
• During workflow design, Flowgear locks the specific product version
being integrated
• Users are able to upgrade the version used in the workflow when
they’re ready

Challenge #7
Things Go Wrong
• When an integration fails, enterprise needs the ability to get to root
cause quickly
• Flowgear logs every single action taken so developers can step through
problem integrations to determine the cause

Challenge #8
Keeping Control When Requirements Change
• Enterprise needs to be nimble to stay ahead
• Often, that implies changes to integration processes
• An iPaaS platform provides one place to manage all integrations
• Flowgear supports agility in integration by allowing iterative changes
to be made easily

Customer Story: Maxidor
• Flowgear integrates tablet app for contractors to Sage
Evolution
• Pilot rollout handled over 100’s of orders in June
• Orders available instantly
• Eliminate capture error
• Responsive customer service
“It’s one of the best partnerships
I’ve had in a while – it’s been a
streamlined process from the
beginning…we want to redo all of
our reporting using Flowgear and
get everything into the cloud”
Yasheen Partab,
IT Manager
Maxidor manufactures, distributes, sells and installs
custom safety and security solutions.

Customer Story: Impak Onderwysdiens
• Flowgear integrates student applications from a third
party product into Sage Evolution
• Handles payment allocations and invoicing for all
applications
• Handles integration with logistics vendor for track and
trace
• Integrated 1000’s of orders for the 2014 academic year
“We have more efficiencies in
system – more visibility, better
customer relations – giving more
detail about what we charged,
value delivered.”
Germari Pieterse,
Financial Director
Impak provides parents with the necessary products
and services to educate their children at home or at
an Impak Academic Centre

Thank you
Questions?