Data Integration - Critical for businesses

The IT world has evolved, and the way in which companies run and manage their data has changed. No longer is data integration done through individual tools optimized to handle specific types of data. Organizations now employ numerous tools from a variety of vendors in order to access and retrieve business intelligence scattered across numerous applications and databases. Because data integration plays a critical role in business processes, it is pivotal to ensure companies have a solid solution to manage their data integration needs.

When data integration tools backfire

Data integration solves the problem of moving, transforming, and consolidating information from various parts of the enterprise (systems, databases, applications, files, and web services) so that it may undergo cleansing, standardizing, de-duplication, manipulation, and synchronization between sources. Businesses have dealt with their customer data integration (CDI) needs by employing specific data integration tools. As companies employ various integration solutions to handle certain needs, the number of tools being used increases - and the larger the company, the greater the number of tools implemented. This creates problems for businesses as data integration becomes fragmented and complicated, lacking consistency throughout the enterprise.

Not having a common data integration tool across the enterprise makes it difficult for businesses to maintain and manage information. If one department has a different way of managing customer data than another, trying to consolidate data from both departments can be difficult. What’s more, consolidating the data into a unified view becomes another hurdle for businesses to overcome. Extract, transform, and load (ETL) methods to perform Master Data Management (MDM) are common, but are often complex and pose difficulties with scalability.

Trying to incorporate so many data integration tools can become expensive, inefficient and risky. Vendors package integration tools to include numerous other components, resulting in higher costs and bulky solutions. This can also lead to risky investments that require an infrastructure consisting of a great deal of hardware and software. In addition, certain data types call for certain tools, thereby forcing businesses to implement integration from multiple vendors. With a multitude of integration solutions across the enterprise, there is a lack of consistency and simplicity which results in overall inefficiency.

MuleSoft simplifies data integration

MuleSoft offers a lightweight, open source platform to make data integration easy. MuleSoft’s best-of-breed solution enables over 1,600 organizations in more than 60 countries to build application networks that increase the clock speed of business. By utilizing MuleSoft’s Anypoint™ Platform, businesses can spend less time worrying about communication between databases and applications, and more time focusing on core business processes.

Composed of a number of components, Anypoint Platform provides businesses with the solutions they need to simplify data integration, create connectivity, and promote interoperability throughout the enterprise. An efficient data integration solution makes it easy for businesses to synchronize, share, migrate, and manage data. Anypoint Platform removes complexity throughout the enterprise by providing visibility and control into application, performance, and operational management. Moreover, its in-memory data grid allows businesses to easily adjust to changing businesses needs as they undergo large scale integration.

A specific component of Anypoint Platform, DataWeave, provides powerful data integration with an easy to use graphical data mapping interface. DataWeave delivers simple, yet powerful integration capabilities to conduct ETL processes while ensuring high-performance data mapping operations. Additionally, DataWeave works on either Mule ESB or CloudHub (MuleSoft’s cloud integration platform as a service), making it easy to filter, extract, and transform data with XPath and scripting, while providing live design-time previews of results. Moreover, for those who specifically want to move data in and out of Salesforce, Dataloader.io is a free data loading application designed for importing, exporting, and deleting an unlimited amount of data. A web-based data management solution, Dataloader.io does not require any downloads and can be accessed using existing Salesforce.com credentials, instantly.

As an integration platform as a service, CloudHub helps organizations create repeatable integration applications, making it easy to automate data integration processes. Moreover, with Anypoint Connectors, businesses can create instant API connectivity to simplify the sharing of data between hundreds of popular applications and services. Mule Enterprise Service Bus (ESB), the world’s most widely used open source integration platform, makes integration between on-premises and cloud applications pain-free. Another component of Anypoint Platform is Anypoint Studio - a graphical design environment that allows businesses to design flows, map data, and leverage popular development tools from a single unified platform. To ensure that information is shared securely and safely, Anypoint Enterprise Security guards systems, maintains data integrity, and protects access points.

A flexible, scalable, and easy to use platform supported by a large developer community, MuleSoft is the go-to solution for businesses wanting to overcome the challenges of integration within the enterprise. Contact us to learn more about Anypoint Platform and its components.