Google recently announced the general availability of Google Cloud’s Application Integration – a standalone Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) designed to help customers connect their applications visually, without code.
The company introduced Integration as an add-on capability to Apigee API Management earlier. However, their customers demanded more direct access to integration capabilities on the Google Cloud; hence a standalone product is now available for application integration without the need to use Apigee.
The company describes the product as "a cloud-native product that helps customers to automate business processes by connecting any application, both homegrown and third-party SaaS, through simple point-and-click configurations." The product offers:
- An Intuitive drag-and-drop interface (visual designer) that allows users to build custom integration patterns through dragging-and-dropping individual control elements (such as edges, forks, and joins).
- A library of 75+ pre-built connectors to any Google Cloud service (such as BigQuery, Pub/Sub) or third-party applications (such as Salesforce, MongoDB, and NetSuite).
- A set of built-in triggers that allow users to execute integrations on an API call, Cloud Pub/Sub event, Salesforce event, or others, or using Cloud Scheduler.
- A Data Mapping Editor with comprehensive mapping functions.
Screenshot from Visual Designer of the Application Integration Product (Source: Google Cloud Console)
With their iPaaS product Google enters a market with vendors like Boomi, Software AG, IBM, Salesforce, and Microsoft that offer similar features. Google’s offering is best compared to Microsoft’s Logic Apps, as both are natively available products on their respective cloud platforms (Platform Service). Furthermore, AWS Step Functions brings similar capabilities as these products yet are not labeled as iPaaS and are more tied to Lambda (Functions).
Richard Seroter, a director of DevRel and outbound product management at Google Cloud, tweeted:
I will say that this is one of the better v1 cloud-provider integration platforms that I've seen. Many capabilities here already (e.g., ops, downloading/uploading) that took a while to come to other products. Nice job, team!
In addition, when asked by InfoQ about what is driving bringing the standalone integration to the Google Cloud Platform, here is what Amit Zavery, VP/GM and head of platform, Google Cloud, had to say:
Application integration is not a new challenge, but it’s getting more complicated and more critical with more systems required to be connected. Organizations need flexibility and don't want to be too tightly tied to existing integrations. There could be a process change, and organizations might want to replace integrations that no longer make sense. This is why Google Cloud's Integration Services portfolio now includes Application Integration. Our goal is to help businesses of all sizes connect their applications and data visually without the need for complex coding or manual processes.
And finally, Holger Mueller, principal analyst and vice president at Constellation Research Inc., told InfoQ:
Application integration remains a major pain point for enterprises as they deploy more applications and live through the on-premises vs. cloud diaspora. APIs were supposed to be the solution; it turns out connecting applications and calling APIs has a lot of ... devil in the details... so it is good to see Google taking a visual approach to application integration, with Apigee as the core. This will open up integration to more users, especially businesspeople.
Lastly, more service details are available on the documentation landing page. In addition, guidance is available through the tutorials and pricing details on the pricing page.