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Cast Iron opens data integration bottleneck


By Robert Mullins
July 22, 2008 — 
Software-as-a-service is becoming so popular that SaaS providers have a backlog of orders. One appliance maker has updated its solution to hand-coding software for migrating data from the client to the cloud, addressing at least part of the backlog.

Cast Iron Systems introduced today the iA4000 appliance, which replaces the iA3000 introduced three years ago. Among its new features is the capability to migrate data from the client’s on-premise data center to the SaaS provider’s cloud, as well as moving data between clouds, without time-consuming coding work, said Chandar Pattabhiram, Cast Iron’s vice president of product marketing, who calls the migration process “onboarding.”

The benefit, Pattabhiram explained, is that not only does the migration take place faster than it would otherwise; it also happens at less cost in professional services. “They don’t have to write this one-off code every time.”

The appliance offers various configuration management choices, or “connectors,” that allow point-and-click data migration as an alternative to coding the process, Pattabhiram said. Customers told Cast Iron they preferred to migrate data using a mouse instead of a keyboard, he added.

Cast Iron partners with SaaS providers such as Salesforce.com and NetSuite to offer the service for their clients, and also offers it to companies that want to handle data migration themselves, he continued.

The iA4000 is provided through subscription (US$1,500 per month), Pattabhiram explained. The appliance can be installed on the customer’s IT network or hosted on Cast Iron’s for the same price.

Data integration solutions help overcome some customer resistance to adopting SaaS, noted Pattabhiram, who pointed to a 2008 Forrester Research survey in which 65% of respondent companies not adopting SaaS cited integration worries as the chief obstacle; that was up from 58% in 2007.

Also, Saugatuck Technology, which specializes in SaaS research, asked existing users how satisfied they were with various aspects of SaaS. Data integration ranked 13th out of 14 satisfaction items listed, with just over 40% saying they were satisfied with their experience.

SaaS providers need to focus on integration issues because, for the most part, customer concerns about the reliability and security of SaaS offerings are resolved, said Jeff Kaplan, managing director of the research firm THINKstrategies.

Kaplan mentioned companies such as Boomi, Hubspan and Pervasive Software as offering some of the same data integration solutions as Cast Iron’s, though he considered Cast Iron’s approach unique, as it is an appliance that can be operated on premise or in the cloud.

“Anything that can accelerate that integration process is a good thing,” Kaplan noted, adding that it applies to customers who reduce the time-to-value, and for the SaaS providers as well, as they can now “focus on advancing their own functionality and not have to worry about the associated issues of integration.”

The first step in data integration, Pattabhiram explained, is “cleaning” the data, or fixing mistakes and discrepancies. For example, a company may have collected sales leads by scanning the ID badges of trade show visitors, but the data may have duplicates or errors. The appliance now also adds to the database by going to a third-party site for additional information. The sales leads in this example may merely list a company, but the iA4000 can go to a Dun & Bradstreet Web site to collect revenue information on that company, he explained.

In addition to data scrubbing, the appliance also offers application templates for presenting data in the SaaS environment, Pattabhiram pointed out. These are derived from Cast Iron’s collection of templates from the thousands of integrations it has done so far. Customers can select from the collection or customize templates for specific needs.

The iA4000 also adds the ability to migrate data between clouds, he added, covering situations where a company employs two or more different SaaS providers.


Related Search Term(s): Cloud computing, SOA & SaaS, Cast Iron


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