Data Management
4 Things an API Should Do
You'd be surprised at how little functionality some APIs provide: can they actually connect your two systems? Here's what to look for in a vendor's...
Your data is trapped in your apps. Here's how to release it.
Your data is trapped in your apps – or as we call it, data silos. Don’t be held back. Your users deserve to have the data they need at their fingertips.
Spatial DNA is here to help you solve this problem and help you become a silo smasher.
But let’s backtrack – How do data silos occur in the first place?
An organization, business or municipality has between 60-250 systems. Information flows between these systems via file transfer or point-to-point integration.
When you bring in a new system, system implementers typically connect 3-5 of your systems to the new platform. And the quickest way for them to do this is through coded point-to-point integrations. The bigger these systems grow, the more point-to-point integrations occur.
What you end up with – across all of your systems – is a big plate of spaghetti, random connection points to each system that makes the entire endeavour harder to manage and more fragile. This dynamic creates a power-law relationship – where complexity (read: cost) for maintenance increases exponentially.
This is how we get stuck in data silos. So let’s solve that.
Introducing: Enterprise service bus.
Leveraging an enterprise service bus (ESB) breaks the integration power law by reducing dependent connections, and providing a common system-independent data framework over which data can be exchanged. Additionally, data can be exchanged synchronously or asynchronously, where network errors and other conditions can be handled within the ESB itself.
At Spatial DNA, we’ve been extending Safe Software’s FME platform to fully support enterprise integration capabilities since 2016. We’ve worked closely with the Safe FME Server and FME Cloud development teams to add integration capabilities and patterns to the platform. And we’ve implemented FME as an ESB in dozens of applications and clients. After interviewing our clients, we found that our integration work is 75% less expensive than a typical project, including software, as compared to using Mulesoft, Talend, Oracle SOA, IBM Websphere, Microsoft Biztalk or any other programmatic integration framework.
In layman terms – this does work. And we can help you make it happen.
What are the benefits of working with Spatial DNA to implement an enterprise service bus?
Leveraging a no-code platform like FME puts the control of integration activities directly in the clients’ hands. We build the first iterations and empower them throughout the design-build-test phases, so the client can understand and adapt the FME workflows we create going forward.
We’re able to look at each set of systems requiring integration and understand the workflow the client is attempting to achieve. We’ve done enough work to understand typical business object data exchange requirements to provide an algorithmic estimation of the work required. In our delivery of work, we anticipate that client expectations WILL change. This is a function of them seeing what is possible and generating their own set of new ideas and questions.
Our typical project length is four months, regardless of the number of integration points. We add to our delivery team to handle the work – and four months is the duration, not the level of effort to deliver. We find we are mostly waiting on the client to make decisions, run and confirm tests, and to fully extract their needs/requirements/expectations.
Are you ready to launch the enterprise service bus for your organization? Or do you need some additional guidance in determining your requirements? Spatial DNA can help guide your decision-making process.
