SAP® solutions integration with other systems – 5 benefits of cloud integration

Traditional IT departments are often struggling to keep up with new and evolving technology and solutions. Old on premise based systems simply don’t stand up to the demands of today’s more agile businesses who increasingly demand new technology to meet growing business requirements.

With cloud adoption set to increase over the next few years, many organisations are still somewhat uncertain about how new, disruptive technologies, such as the growing family of as-a-service-platforms, can help them sharpen their competitive edge and meet business demands.

This is understandable in light of the break-neck speeds at which IT has evolved over the last decade, but it doesn’t make the urgency to re-think old systems, processes and technologies any less real.

In this blog, we’ll look at five key reasons why businesses should consider centralising their technological investments to focus on cloud integration.

1. Integrating on-premise and cloud applications

Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS) is a cloud technology that enables companies to deploy hybrid solutions mixing both on-premise and cloud applications.  According to Gartner, revenue for the enterprise IPaaS market grew more than 60% in 2014.  A real-life example of a common integration scenario is connecting Salesforce.com cloud based CRM with your on-premise SAP® solutions ERP application – this type of collaboration with tightly coupled integration gives users a complete and unified end to end business process.

2. Rapid deployment capabilities

In the past, many technology projects took a long time to deploy because of lengthy approvals, planning, developments, implementations and various other dependent elements. Cloud integration now enables new technology and cloud based applications to be rolled out at rapidly.  The seamless integration derived from using pre-configured scenarios for the leading cloud applications and cloud based applications means the time required to deploy new applications and technologies is reduced significantly, also reducing effort and cost, while exponentially boosting business agility.

3. Reducing IT costs while boosting ROI

Businesses can greatly reduce infrastructure dependencies and costs using cloud based applications and cloud based integration platforms. Not only will you be able to significantly cut back on IT infrastructure expenditure, but fewer specialist integration developers, administrators and consultants will be needed to develop and maintain these systems. Costs are usually one of the main factors that are considered when any new IT initiative is pursued, but the agility and productivity that cloud-based integration solutions offer – at a fraction of the cost of traditional on-site integration models – makes this an attractive option for everyone from the IT manager to the CFO.

4. Cloud platforms break down business silos

Before the cloud, each aspect of a company’s IT infrastructure basically existed and operated within in a silo, which meant that companies had to employ specialist developers and consultants to specifically provide support for their application and business integration needs. However, hiring or employing product specialists for each new technology development or deployment doesn’t always make financial sense. With cloud based integration solutions, silos are a thing of the past as applications and systems converge for unified end to end integrated business processes. This is a major advantage for cloud solutions, as silos have historically been the Achilles heel for tighter integration between internal and external business solutions.

5. Security

The cloud, against popular misconceptions, is more secure According to Forrester.com.  Cloud based integration solutions are becoming more prevalent in many organisations, but many businesses are still resisting these alternatives due to outdated perceptions related to security exposures. IPaaS enables high-performance and reliable integration between on premise systems and cloud based applications or services (SaaS) without compromising security. Security threats are actually reduced with cloud based solutions when compared to more traditional on premise systems.

As you can see from the list above, integrated cloud-based systems are capable of shifting IT from a largely reactive operational entity to a central strategic asset.  For a more comprehensive review, download our whitepaper: ‘Why your organisation needs a cloud-based integration solution‘ now.