Posted by Intelletrace on June 09th, 2021 in Blog Posts, Integration Platform-as-a-Service

Integration Platform-as-a-Service (iPaaS) provides an overall better user experience by offering businesses a more simplified, streamlined option to organize and access their myriad applications and tools in the cloud. With many of the same benefits as the platform as a service structure (PaaS)—such as cost, scalability, and security, among others—iPaaS can extend these benefits to a broader scale by combining and integrating multiple systems. Through these integration capabilities, iPaaS is changing how applications and data are accessed and used. 

What is iPaaS?

As its name suggests, iPaaS is a platform that provides tools for users to develop integration flows that connect applications and systems deployed across different environments. iPaaS allows for communication between other otherwise unconnected systems to integrate and share data within and between cloud-based and on-premise applications. Many businesses require different systems across their various departments, and iPaaS connects these systems to allow better communication and sharing of data between departments while eliminating the need for hardware or middleware. Since iPaaS is “as-a-service,” businesses subscribe to a platform through a provider. The provider supports and manages a business’s integration flows to ensure everything works appropriately, from developing and deploying to hosting and monitoring to covering middleware and software. 

How can iPaaS enhance the IT environment?

iPaaS provides various benefits in helping businesses create a more cohesive environment for hosting, organizing, and accessing their applications. Simplifying the structure, increasing network and data reliability, creating more efficient processes, and enhancing security are some of the ways iPaaS allows businesses to create an IT environment that meets their needs:

• Simplification: iPaaS brings all of a business’s software together in the cloud. Rather than having multiple software solutions that must be accessed separately, iPaaS allows users to have all of their applications in one location under a more straightforward structure. This helps eliminate organizational silos. By simplifyilng how applications are deployed and accessed, iPaaS makes it easier to collect and analyze a business’s data. 
• Reliability: With all of their tools under one platform instead of operating across separate platforms, businesses increase their network and data reliability. Without iPaaS, a company has a less cohesive structure, leading to lost or overlooked data and information since they are collected across each platform. iPaaS collects and integrates essential business data in one place, making the system and the information it generates more reliable and aligned across the different applications. 
• Efficiency: Through iPaaS, application integration and management are consolidated in one location through the cloud. This reduces IT costs and makes for more efficient planning. It also allows for a more efficient organization. Rather than access all their apps and their resulting data across different systems, iPaaS provides it all in one place, integrating the data across systems. This improves efficiency since users do not have to switch platforms whenever they want to use a different tool. Additionally, users can access their data from anywhere and on any device, thereby increasing efficiency in completing their work. iPaaS solutions also provide a more streamlined and efficient process for analyzing and using the data. 
• Security: Security threats will happen with any system; however, without iPaaS, it is more difficult to identify these threats since they can hit across various applications. When a business’s tools and applications are all within one platform, it is easier to detect and address security threats. Furthermore, iPaaS solutions can offer additional security measures. These factors make a business’s organizational systems and information safer.

The benefits of iPaaS make it an attractive solution for businesses looking for a more streamlined system for their applications; by creating multiple platforms available within one location, iPaaS changes how companies integrate their applications to promote better access and data utilization.