Azure Integration Services For The Enterprise
To get the best out of any application that an enterprise has created or purchased, they need to connect it to other applications. This means an effective integration is of paramount importance. Sometimes the applications are connected directly with another while others through multiple independent systems.
Integration can be a tedious task for the enterprises although the integration space is now flourishing and is the driving force of digital transformation.
For this reason, enterprises rely on specialized integration platforms providing the desired integration services.
Microsoft Azure
Commonly referred as Azure, it is a cloud computing service developed by Microsoft for building, testing, deploying and managing the applications through managed datacenters. At its core, Azure is a public cloud computing platform with several solutions like Infrastructure as a service, Platform as a service & SaaS and can be used for other services like analytics, virtual computing, storage, networking, etc.
According to Microsoft, The Azure cloud platform is more than 200 products and cloud services predesigned to help you bring new solutions to life — to solve today’s challenges and create solutions for the future. Build, run and manage applications across multiple clouds, on-premise, and at the edge, with the tools and frameworks of your choice.
Of the Fortune 500 companies, 95 % rely on Azure for trusted cloud services. Companies of all sizes and maturities use Azure in their digital transformation.
Key & Quick Facts about Azure
For enterprises, the Azure integration services bring together API management, Logic Apps, Service Bus, and Event Grid as a reliable and scalable platform for integrating on-premises and cloud-based applications, data and processes.
In the absence of integration with other applications, the value of the system is lost. The capabilities developed because of Azure integration services, helps in adding great value to the system developed.
Need of Integration
Two out of three organizations will witness implementation of hybrid integration platform soon to enhance the efficiency, time to market, and a concerted and concentrated execution of the business processes.
There are 4 Primary Integrations
- Business to Business
- Application to Application
- Software as a Service
- Internet of Things
These integrations may pose different set of challenges like:
- Differences in the interfaces, APIs, formats, and data sources
- Differences in the service orientations as some might be distributed and while others service oriented
- Differences in the service location as some of them may be on cloud and some on-premise
Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS) – the recent and the most ground-breaking concept in the digital world, is the solution to all the aforementioned problems associated with integrations.
Azure Integration Services
Applications within the businesses can be connected with help of Azure Integration Services that results in less time to market, and increased productivity.
Outside the enterprise, Azure Integration Services can also be used to connect the applications between the various businesses that results in strengthened relationships, and a fruitful collaboration.
Let’s briefly explore the Azure Integration Services. It includes:
- API Management: This service allows the enterprise to publish the APIs safely and connect to the backend systems just so the applications can be hosted anywhere.
This facilitates work with any host through APIs with greater scalability. Securing and optimizing the APIs helps attract more developers and gives greater insights regarding the API.
- Azure Service Bus: This scalable and highly credible cloud service is aimed at offering the Messaging as a Service (MaaS). The objects can be queued to be processed as and when required. The messages in the system can be duplicated in case of recovery of the data.
This Azure Integration Service facilitates a highly simplified organizational and cloud messaging while building a reliable and scalable cloud solutions. Based on the stored information it also implements the complex message routing.
- Azure Event Grid: This service is a new entrant in the Azure Integration Services Portal and simplifies the event-based application development. The Event Grid works on the Publish-Subscribe model.
This facilitates a simplified HTTP based delivery of events and focuses more on product innovations. Through the process of reactive programming, superior and more reliable applications are developed.
- Azure Logic Apps: This service allows one to automate the workflows and orchestrate business processes with much more ease.
Logic Apps facilitates the connection and integration of data from cloud to on-premise system and helps in business to business messaging and enterprise messaging within the cloud. The innovative connector reduces the integration challenges and is a powerful web-based workflow designer.
In addition to the aforementioned major services, Azure Integration service portal also has Azure Functions, Blob storage, Cognitive services and many more functions holding a great importance for the enterprises.
Processing of Work functions
At the inception there is an API Management Portal initiating the Logic App, which processes the order and forwards the information to the Service Bus Queue. On getting the message in the Queue, the Event Grid Module pays attention to this event and activates the subsequent Logic App. Here, the Event Grid acts as the glue between Logic App and the Service Bus Queue. Having distinct Logic Apps for different business scenarios gives greater flexibility. The Logic App will then perform the defined operations and send the order information to different systems like SAP, Office 365 and Azure.
The Azure Integration Services are aimed at providing enterprises a full-fledged, industrially optimized, concerted integration platform where everything works in tandem to deliver the best in class results. The best parts of Azure Integration Services are its reliability, and the competence to provide full integration anywhere.
For these reasons, Gartner in 2018 recognized Microsoft as the leader of Integration Platform as a Service.
What’s Next: Integrated Service Environment
Integrated Service Environment is a private and isolated Logic App Module within the Azure Virtual Network and using the dedicated resources it runs separately from the public global Logic App service. This approach is a little different from the existing consumption-based plan as it takes the advantage of pooling customer demands across a shared infrastructure. This enables the client enterprise to pay for the services that they are actually using in reality.
Conclusion
The integration challenges being faced can be completely effaced by adopting the Infrastructure Platform as a service. Azure Integration Service for the enterprise is the most optimized and the most effective solution for all the needs.
Infrastructure Solution on Azure By Datafortune
Microsoft Azure is the melting point of all services we offer in the Enterprise Data Management space.
We provide an array of smart choices on managed cloud sources in a cost-effective manner to enhance your business operations.
We also offer deeper insights around the customization and design of Microsoft products on the Azure cloud hosting platform such as Machine Learning, Power BI, DevOps, and PowerApps
In addition, we also offer:
- Infrastructure as a Service
- Microsoft Azure Virtual Machines
To know more about us, connect with us through our contact us page.