What is iPaaS and what can it do for my business?

For every single aspect of business today, there are multiple applications designed to make it easier, faster, or more efficient. The app economy has exploded and it's not unusual to find different departments in the same organization using multiple, unrelated applications with no integration whatsoever.  

This phenomenon, known as SaaS Sprawl, is highly detrimental to an organization. That's where Integration Platform as a service (iPaaS) comes in. IPaaS vendors and solutions are effective at combating sprawl. 

What Is iPaaS?

IPaaS is a cloud-based platform that enables organizations to integrate all their various software systems and applications, both within their organization and with multiple business partners.

Without integration, data silos pop up everywhere, manual data entry processes become the norm and it's not long before you're back to management via spreadsheets and email, all of which degrade integration and stall long-term growth. 

If by chance, manual integration is attempted, all too often it's approached as an afterthought once multiple applications have been deployed. That's when a patchwork of integration options spring up, with varying degrees of success 'as and when needed'. 

It's no surprise that the results are usually unsatisfactory and unsustainable, and lead to deeper silos. In that familiar scenario, the need for an integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS) becomes obvious. 

Research firm Gartner reported in 2022 that "Demand for integration capabilities, agile work processes, and composable architecture will drive a continued shift to the cloud, as long-term digital transformation and modernization initiatives are brought forward to 2023."

The Role of iPaaS

Very few organizations in today's distributed workplace have data that is centrally stored. 

It's all scattered geographically, and across various databases and applications, both on-premise and in the cloud. IPaaS tools do an excellent job of connecting multiple services and applications and controlling the flow of integration, which should result in enhanced volumes of usable data. 

The best iPaaS solutions out there today do the following: 

• Offer dashboards that manage cloud integrations
• Offer users the ability to govern 
• Manage multiple connections 
• Bring data from disparate systems together  
• Consolidate all of this functionality into one single platform 

The results that flow from seamless data integration are used to reduce failover and downtime and to increase performance across the organization. 

Lumino from Ariox offers users access to a host of integration features built to increase automation and improve communication between the various systems the organization uses most frequently. The goal is to reduce the need for manual data entry and allow for quicker logistics and response times, faster data transmission, and increased efficiency for your business. 

Find out more by taking a tour of Lumino, our groundbreaking iPaaS Platform that provides intuitive functionality, data analytics, and user-managed integration control for businesses just like yours.