Integration as a Service (IaaS)

As business applications evolve, an increasing number of businesses are embracing using applications they don’t control or host – applications they leverage through the platform of the Internet – and that they purchase on-demand and as a service. Companies must become more agile and work together to remove costs from the value chain to reduce friction. This will improve the overall efficiency the overall value chain that can either increase margins or reduce prices to the consumer. This is a growth strategy rather than a cost reduction strategy. To be able to not just expose services through SOA, but to be able to reach-out to previously untapped markets by integrating or consuming these services through a agnostic platform. The value chain is composed of heterogeneous systems that need to be integrated. This is where Integrator solution providers come in.

On-demand IT service-oriented architecture (SOA) where IT system and application processing is defined and developed as a set of services that can interoperate and exchange information with each other. The SOA offers a flexible approach to application development that encourages service re-use and reduces the need to build point-to-point connections for data and application integration. SaaS 2.0, as they see it will incorporate advanced SOA and business process management technologies to provide a next-generation business management platform that competes with, and in many cases, replaces, traditional enterprise applications

Mike Wagner, May 25th, 2006