Data integration: cloud or on-premise solution?

Big data is no longer just a buzz word. The new volumes of data collected every day has pushed companies to value data more than even before. Data quality and data accuracy have become essential components of any organization's data management and digital data transformation strategy.

Unifying and combining data between data warehouses and other systems is a must-do. This has led organizations to look at data integration tools. Companies need to integrate their systems to optimize business processes and remove error-prone manual data entries. There are many benefits to data integration.

The question is what data solution integration to choose. Are cloud-based data integration better than on-premise solutions? When is a cloud platform the right solution? Read this article to make sure you make an informed decision.

What is on-premise integration?

The distinction between cloud software and on-premise is the same for a data integration system or any other kind of system. For example a CRM or an ERP system. The difference lies in where the system itself is located/kept.

On premises data integration software and applications are implemented and maintained locally, on premises. These solutions synchronize data through an installed local network to optimize business processes. For example, an on-premise data integration solution could be kept in one of your organization's physical offices.

On -premise data integration solutions also typically require that you have purchased a license for using it.

Benefits of on-premise data integration

At the age where cloud solutions are widely used, many organizations are still using on-premise integration solutions.

On-premise data integration solutions can be an obvious choice to unify data from diverse on-premise software solution. You can buy an on-premise integration software and install it locally or in your private cloud.

There are interesting benefits in choosing on-premise data integration solutions:

• Data integration cost. On-premise solutions are paid once, at the installation of the solution. This initial cost might be higher than for a cloud solution. However, it is a one-off amount, making you feel better in control of your solution's cost and ROI. This is not always true and these solutions seldom cater for upgrade needs of upcoming customization requirements.
• Data security. This is a major reason why some organizations choose on-premise integration. Data security is a strong concern of many organizations. Many believe that cloud solutions are more vulnerable to data security breaches. Therefore, many wish to keep this data locally to maintain a high level of data privacy and data security.
• Compliance. Compliance standards are sometimes easier to meet if you use on-premise applications. Because you maintain all your data in-house. Companies using cloud data integration must rely on the third party vendor hosting the solution to meet all regulatory requirements. There are however many cloud data integration vendors that can deliver to this promise.
  
  
  
  

What is a cloud integration solution?

Cloud data integration solutions are solutions that are hosted by a third party. It could be the server of your solution provider. For example, Microsoft provides Microsoft Azure, a public cloud computing platform. You can then access your cloud data integration solution via a web browser.

With a cloud data integration solution, you do not need to install anything on your local servers or systems. In addition, the third party hosting provider will take care of managing and monitoring the installation.

An increasing number of companies are choosing cloud service data integration solutions rather than on-premise solutions. The early days of cloud computing and cloud software are behind us. So are cloud disaster recovery actions. It is now possible to safely synchronize and share data using cloud solutions.

Benefits of cloud data integration

Integration Platform as a Service (IPaaS) and other cloud integration platform providers are able to offer robust solutions with many benefits.

• Low maintenance and easy monitoring. Using a cloud data integration solution does not require local servers. There are no associated maintenance costs. Cloud data integration are monitored by data integration experts that can help in case something goes wrong. You do not need to have in-house data integration experts to keep your solution working.
• Easy upgrades. As opposed to on-premise solutions, cloud data integration platforms offer regular automatic upgrades. This removes the pain and high cost that can be associated with upgrades that happen too rarely.
• Fast and easy deployment. Cloud solutions are fast to deploy. They can be deployed in a matter of days. Even hours, depending of the systems you are integrating and how much they have been customized.
• Scalability. Cloud data integration solutions are built and designed to scale. They are the most appropriate solutions to support your business growth. And this is without the hassle associated to scalability in an on-premise solution.

Often, people believe that cloud solutions have a higher cost and provide a poorer data security than on-premise solutions. This might have been the case in the past. Today, modern cloud software solutions have improved significantly. Some myths can easily be busted:

• Cloud data integration are not more expensive. The implementation costs of a cloud data integration solution are typically lower than those of an on-premise solution. These solutions are most often subscription-based, which could be scary for some.
  However, the subscription also means that you have an always updated solution. A solution that also works with the newest versions of the applications you are integrating. You can keep working with your solution, regardless of new versions. As a result, the costs related to upgrades is removed.
• Cloud data integration solutions do not put your data at risk. When integrating in the cloud, all data transmitted on the internet is compressed, packed and encrypted. This ensure a very high level of data security and you data is never at risk.
  
  
  
  

Cloud or on-premise: what to choose?

We have reviewed the pros and cons of both solutions. If you want to unify and consolidate data between your management solutions, you might want to choose a cloud data integration solution. Along the years, cloud providers have proven their worth. Cloud data security should not hold you back.

Better, you should select a no-programming cloud solution. Such solution gathers all the benefits mentioned above plus a few more.

Best solution: a no-programming cloud data integration solution

Low-code, no-code, no-programming, code free programming, low code programming all refer to the same thing. It refers to the development environments that allow non technical users to develop apps without having to write code. Instead, they use simple graphical methods like drag and drop.

It is quite revolutionary and it is getting a lot of attention, with good reasons. If you select a programming-free cloud data integration solution, you will get the benefits of a classic cloud software solution. Such solution will be is easy to keep improving in-house, without the need for highly skilled in-house developers.

RapidiOnline is the perfect no-code cloud data integration to integrate Salesforce with Microsoft Dynamics (365, NAV, GP, AX). RapidiOnline provides a Salesforce Dynamics integration solution based on pre-configured templates.

It is a secure cloud data integration solution. Because it is code-free, it is easy to customize to match your needs. It is possible to understand how such solution can help you here.