But, First - Why Do We Need Enterprise Application Integration?
Enterprise application integration enables companies to pass data securely and efficiently from one system to another. This allows them to build powerful applications without the need to re-build the original service from the ground-up. More companies are adopting integrations with their systems, even with external systems because this is helping them build more powerful systems in much less time and resources.
Here are the 4 misconceptions that are holding CIO’s back from utilizing services from external technology systems.
1. APIs are limited to only one area of my business
APIs can be applied to different areas of a company without the need to build from scratch. With pre-built integration templates and workflows, a business unit or department can use the same database or company data of an existing API and repurpose it based on their specific requirements. Using the same inputs, these API libraries become the framework for producing different outputs.
For example, a company may build an API to manage online marketing strategy using consumer behavior data gathered from its marketing analytics system. The assets stored in this API library can then be reused or fragmented to produce different information needed for the purchasing department. In other words, the API library may be broken down in for marketing purposes as 3+2, while the same data may be reused for the needs of the purchasing department as 1+1+1+1+1.
2. APIs are singular in nature or application-specific
In first generation APIs, web services would provide or pipeline the data based on a single application requirement. Today, the same API can be used again and again for multiple functions without having to modify the application, and without burdening the application team. These modern APIs can produce different data styles and formats based on customer needs, essentially doing the same amount of work with one API that formerly required multiple APIs.
We can think of this in the same way we think of color printer technology. We do not need separate printers to print a document in varying colors. Rather, a standard color printer will combine proportions of three standard ink colors – cyan, magenta and yellow – to produce a wide range of colors from the same printer. Likewise, a single API can facilitate different application needs by pulling different assets from server-side repositories.