Companies today need to keep up with the fast-changing digital world. As organizations try to work smoothly and efficiently, provide good service, and make jobs easier, having systems that work together well has become more important than ever. Bringing different computer programs, apps, and business practices together—what we call “enterprise integration”—now allows modern companies to get things done efficiently, effectively, quickly, and profitably.
You could say enterprise integration is the backbone of helping companies work. It lets all the different parts communicate with each other and work as a team. This article looks at the trends, news, and technology drivers shaping enterprise integration today. From more cloud-based and API integrations to AI/ML impacts, we’ll explore the latest technologies reinventing how businesses run and compete.
Trends
API-First Approach
Since the demand for APIs has grown, it is now estimated that there are nearly 200 million public and private APIs in use. The increasing number of companies adopting the use of APIs has churned out a new business line, termed the “API economy,” and 83% of organizations today consider API integration a critical part of their strategy.
Data from: DevOps.com
One of the more interesting findings is that nearly 75% of people at API-first companies report being happier with their jobs, according to Postman’s 2023 State of the API Report. Both these teams roll out new products faster, preempt security issues, and write better software & DevOps, which directly results in higher productivity.
Cloud-Native Integration
Cloud-native integration is big for modern apps now. It means creating and managing apps within cloud environments. This takes advantage of the cloud’s ability to scale, be flexible, and handle failures. More companies want systems that update fast so their apps meet shifting customer needs. By using cloud-native tools, organizations can make frequent changes easily without much downtime.
AI and ML in Integration
AI and ML are changing enterprise integration by improving decisions and automating mundane work. As companies get tons of data, Gen AI can find insights to make integrations smarter and run smoother. These technologies enable predictive data & analytics too, so businesses can spot integration issues coming and optimize workflows. Also, AI tools can monitor data flows in real time, flagging any anomalies that could cause problems.
Low-Code/No-Code Integration
CIO found that 26% of executives now consider these platforms to be a necessary automation investment at their companies versus just 10% before the pandemic. At the same time, when we look at no-code/low-code tools, Gartner predicts that these will be used to develop over 70% of new apps by 2025 (from just 25% in 2020). This democratizes development and enables non-technical users to help in the integration process by developing customized solutions based on their needs.
Latest News
Rise of Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (EiPaaS)
As companies increasingly rely on a myriad of apps to facilitate complex business processes, the demand for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service (EiPaaS) is growing. EiPaaS is a category of cloud-based services that enables development teams to connect existing in-house and third-party apps, whether they are on-premises or hosted in the cloud. It not only facilitates the integration of different systems but also provides operational efficiency through implementing real-time data transformation and seamless interoperability with partner and supplier apps as well.
Credit: Oracle
Rising IT Responsibilities Contrasted with Shrinking Budgets
Although the outlook over tech industry growth is bright—with tech employment anticipated to grow twice (2X) as fast as overall job growth in the next 10 years, IT budgets do not appear to be reflecting this positive uptick. A Gartner CMO Survey reveals a 15% slide in IT budgets as a share of corporate revenue anticipated from 2023 to 2024. This paradox puts IT departments in a tough spot, as they are increasingly being asked to do more with less.
Google Cloud’s New Integration Platform
Google Cloud has launched Application Integration, a new standalone Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) product designed to help customers build and manage connections between their apps using visual tools rather than requiring customized coding effort. The cloud-native offering promises to take the complexity out of business process automation by making it a matter of linking homegrown and third-party SaaS apps via plain point-and-click configurations.
For illustration, you can synchronize data across CRM systems like Salesforce, marketing automation platforms such as HubSpot, and customer support tools like Zendesk, ensuring a consistent and up-to-date view of customer information to improve relationships and communication.
Credit: Google
Rapid Growth of SaaS Apps Intensifies the Demand for Enhanced Integrations
More than 17,000 SaaS companies are already in operation in the US, and their global market share is anticipated to increase by more than 200% by 2030, therefore showing us where businesses should be heading. Companies are turning to many or multiple SaaS solutions because of the democratization of said platforms—making them affordable and easy to use. Yet this explosion in the adoption of SaaS has led to increased pressure for robust integration capabilities. In the future, effective enterprise integration solutions will be critical for growth and innovation as companies contend with making multiple tools and platforms work together to provide one, cohesive digital environment.
Technology Drivers
Microservices Architecture
TechRepublic reports that 73% of the organizations are adopting microservices and many more are in the middle of such a transition. This architectural style partitions apps into smaller, independent services that can be developed, deployed, and scaled independently. The result is greater flexibility and speed in rolling out new features and updates by this approach.
Event-Driven Architecture (EDA)
EDA marks a significant departure from traditional system design and development. This architecture pattern is based on a modern approach where you build such systems with decoupled services to publish, consume, or route events that represent changes in state or updates.
Below is an example of an EDA for an e-commerce website. It showcases 3 major Event Producers and the events they organize. An Event Router collects and filters these events before sending them to one or more Event Consumers. This architecture enables the website to handle updates from numerous sources during peak demand periods, guaranteeing the app’s stability without crashing or over-provisioning resources.
Credit: Amazon Web Services
Hybrid Integration Platforms (HIPs)
According to Ovum, a hybrid integration platform is “a cohesive set of integration software (middleware) products enabling users to develop, secure, and govern integration flows connecting diverse apps, systems, services, and data stores, as well as enabling rapid API creation/composition and lifecycle management to meet the requirements of a range of hybrid integration use cases.” Using HIPs can improve integration management along with security and governance, thus streamlining IT and increasing operational efficiency.
IoT-Driven Integration
With the estimated number of IoT devices on track to nearly double in the next 7 years, having a way to integrate these devices into your existing application ecosystems is becoming more important than ever. Sensors are connected to the device and between them, an application or database is integrated. This level of interconnectivity drives end-to-end automation, meaning insights can truly be in real-time, driving the highest optimized usage out of machinery for organizations.
Conclusion
Today, in the digital landscape, companies that leverage enterprise integration will be able to stay competitive and keep up with change by operating efficiently. The newest technology trends from APIs to cloud-native solutions and AI-driven automation are changing every business’s way of linking systems, optimizing communication flow, as well as accelerating innovation. With the increasing adoption of tools and platforms, the demand for integration will rise—highlighting the importance of keeping up with advancements in the field.
The digital economy thrives on API-driven business models and processes. Is your architecture based on microservices-first? Is there an inter-linkage between your digital services and apps through APIs that are secure and seamless? With Recode’s Integration Services, we guarantee seamless rollouts whether for minor updates or full system upgrades. Our software-first approach zeroes in on achieving the desired business outcomes while you concentrate on growing your business. Contact us to begin your integration journey with us today!
