Cloud Integrator Boomi Simplifies Service

Dell’s cloud application integrator, Boomi, has included several new capabilities in its cloud-based service – largely based on feedback from its user community – in a continual effort to simplify cloud and software-as-a-service application integration for midrange and large enterprises.

Historically, security has been the No. 1 concern of CTOs and CIOs when it comes to combining on-site and cloud functions. However, integration is always either second or third on the list.

Connecting new to old

Due to its multi-tenant architecture, Boomi’s AtomSphere enables cloud and SaaS applications to interact with a legacy IT environment by connecting new applications to existing ones, no matter how complex the data connections might appear to be.

The latest edition, AtomSphere Fall 11, now includes expanded intelligence for suggesting customer-validated data maps and functions; an integrated capability for business rules; proactive customer communication services; and improved functionality for monitoring integrations and service uptime anywhere for partners and end users.

“We are continuing to see increased complexity in the integrations that our customers ask us to do, or leverage our platform to do,” Rick Nucci, founder and CTO of Boomi, told eWEEK. “On average, our customers are connecting 11 different applications together; that speaks to a fair amount of complexity. Also on average, our customers are deploying 3.7 Atoms (Boomi’s runtime integration engine) to run integration within a firewall or in clouds, and they’re running them in 34 different countries.

Collective intelligence

“And now, the average number of integrations per-customer, per-day, is over 600. So there’s a lot of data here, and we’ve done a lot of work to leverage the collective intelligence of our community to bring value to our customers [with the updated AtomSphere].”

Details on the new features include the following:

Boomi Suggest for Functions: Drawing on the collective intelligence of the entire AtomSphere community, Boomi Suggest now suggests data maps based on more than 13,000 indexed functions and over 50,000 data maps. Data mapping and function creation is one of the most time-consuming steps of integration configuration. With Boomi Suggest, users are averaging 68 suggested mappings per map with 85 percent of these suggestions accepted.

Predictive Assistance: Customer-usage metrics are now integrated into Dell Boomi’s support system and facilitate proactive client outreach when metrics indicate engagement is recommended.

Business Rules: Implemented at the request of the Dell Boomi user community, Business Rules offers integrated, easy-to-use support for building complex multistep decision making into integrations without resorting to custom coding or external products.

Partner Dashboards: AtomSphere is now open for any ISV to build, bundle and deploy integration processes within their application. Through the multitenant architecture, partners can now manage and monitor all their customers’ integrations from a single screen.

Predicting needs

Jeffrey Kaplan, managing director of analyst firm THINKstrategies, said he thinks the best new feature in AtomSphere is its Predictive Assistance capability, which integrates customer-usage metrics into Boomi’s support system to permit its client-care team to deliver more proactive services, such as active training or other client outreach when data flows reach particular thresholds.

“This new capability enables client care to better predict their customers’ needs,” Kaplan said. “Dell has made Boomi’s Cloud-based integration capabilities a pivotal component of its own rapidly evolving cloud strategies and solutions for medium and large enterprises.”

Boomi AtomSphere is available now in the United States. Current customers have immediate access to all features announced with the exception of Business Rules, which is available to customers with AtomSphere Professional Edition or higher. New users can gain access beginning at $550 (£343) per month.