Dell Upgrades Its Cloud Gateway Boomi AtomSphere

Dell’s new cloud integration division, Boomi, has introduced several new features to its enterprise platform, which helps companies move to cloud computing while not disturbing the production use of their existing IT.

AtomSphere Spring 11, launched as the latest incarnation of Dell Boomi’s cloud integration strategy, features new capabilities for middleware connectivity, large-scale data management and migration, and “anywhere-type” integration monitoring.

Cloud To Premises Data Transfers

The AtomSphere software as a service (SaaS) application integration platform handles transfer of data between cloud-based and on-premises applications – and no appliances, software or coding is required.

“Basically, AtomSphere is a universal translator that converts a proprietary data stream into something Boomi can manage, and then reconverts it out into a data stream other connected systems can handle,” Rob Enderle, principle analyst of the Enderle Group, wrote in Charles King’s Pund-IT report.

“The bigger picture, however, is how products like Boomi are redefining Dell as an IT solutions provider and moving them away from their low-cost PC roots.”

Dell acquired Boomi in November 2010. Boomi founder and CTO Rick Nucci told eWEEK this is his company’s third significant release.

“We really are putting the energy into larger enterprises when it comes to cloud integration,” Nucci said. “A lot of their middlewares were built before cloud was around. So the customers come to Boomi to leverage us as their gateway to the cloud.”

Nucci outlined AtomSphere Spring 11’s new features:

• Legacy Middleware Cloud Gateway: A Java Message Service connector plugs into existing middleware solutions like MQ Series, Progress Software, TIBCO and webMethods. This gateway gives customers the ability to audit and govern the movement of all data, enforce security of data prior to leaving the firewall, and access connectivity to over 70 SaaS applications.
• Change Data Capture: Using a cache-analysis approach, AtomSphere offers Change Data Capture, which reduces the size of data sets processed by focusing on only changed data. This improves the transit of data between on-premise and cloud environments, and is a fully-automated process, requiring no coding.
• Large Data Processing Support: Customers can now carry out data integrations in a fully-automated process with no coding needed and no complex file splitting. AtomSphere Spring 11 is verified to support hundreds of GB files per atom. With AtomSphere’s parallel processing capability, terabyte-sized files are also supported.
• Intelligent Optimisation of Salesforce.com Integration: Salesforce.com users can now simply check a box on the Dell Boomi connector and automatically implement the Salesforce.com Bulk API. This feature intelligently calculates the optimal batch size to send to salesforce.com, simplifying customers’ ability to move important data between applications and salesforce.com.
• Anywhere Integration Monitoring: Users get expanded monitoring and management options with the new AtomSphere API, which is available in SOAP and REST protocols. The API provides access for third-party monitoring tools to Dell Boomi AtomSphere integration activity. Users with preferred management packages can automatically streamline integration management, tracking and alerting into one view.

Boomi’s platform is used by Salesforce CRM along with large enterprises in verticals such as marketing, financial, human resources, content management and service-desk management.

Boomi manages millions of transactions a month and has completed tens of thousands of cloud integrations for hundreds of global customers, Nucci said.