Summa

There are many things to consider when integrating with Software as a Service (SaaS) solutions, some of which are easily overlooked. In many aspects, integrating with SaaS is similar to integrating with packaged products, but it is often more challenging due to the intricacies of integrating with a system hosted outside your network. In this blog post, I will go over some key planning considerations to be made in terms of data modeling, mapping, security, integration strategies and data cleansing among others.  

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Your team has designed the perfect architecture for an SOA (Service Oriented Architecture) project. You are all excited and ready to get rolling. A few weeks later you find out that you will need to make several compromises in your design because of other teams’ skills and constraints. Your end of the integration is almost fully developed and ready for integration testing when you find out that the other end is still undergoing development, or worse, it is in still on early stages of design. Sound familiar? I have found these to be very common situations in SOA integration projects that span across two or more teams and/or applications. In this post I will explore five frequent SOA project pitfalls along with some recommendations that can help mitigate or avoid some of these roadblocks to make your project successful. You will find that these scenarios are not unique to SOA integration projects, but they also apply to most inter-group IT projects.

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No man (or woman) is an island - we cannot thrive alone. Similarly no application is an island. In the same way that people across the globe have become intractably interconnected by technology, so have applications and the data that they thrive on. SaaS applications can become dangerous islands of process and data if you are not careful in planning from the start. SaaS applications are increasing in rate of adoption due to both their inherent value and acceleration caused by the economic situation and capital investment posture that most companies are in. The SaaS island needs to have a bridge, ferry dock or airport to be useful. Understanding your vision and the factors outlined within this article will help you decide.

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