iPaaS - Moving integration to the Cloud

Published in 2011 by Gartner

Early look at how integrations are moving to the cloud.
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integral Service iPaaS Cloud Cloud Service application provide
Published in 2011 by Gartner

Early look at how integrations are moving to the cloud.
About manojranaweera

integral Service iPaaS Cloud Cloud Service application provide
<p>Integration Platform as a Service: Moving 
Integration to the Cloud
Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00210747, Massimo Pezzini,  Benoit J. Lheureux, 7 March 2011
Integration platform as a service (iPaaS) is a suite of cloud 
services aimed at addressing a wide range of cloud, B2B, and 
on-premises integration and governance scenarios.
This research provides user organizations’ CIOs, CTOs, enterprise technology architects, 
integration competency center/service-oriented architecture (SOA) center-of-excellence (COE) 
managers, B2B integration managers and project leaders, as well as IT providers’ planners, 
with an analysis of the evolution, adoption trends and industry impact of this innovative 
approach.
Key Findings
•	 An	iPaaS	consolidates	multiple	cloud	services	in	a	suite	aimed	at	the	integration	and	
governance of any combination of on-premises and off-premises applications, SOA 
and cloud services, processes, and data, within or across organizations. An iPaaS 
complements the application-development- and hosting-oriented application platform as a 
service (aPaaS).
•	 An	iPaaS	is	an	evolution	of	integration	as	a	service,	which	has	been	widely	adopted	for	
e-commerce B2B and cloud services integration.
•	 Midsize	enterprises	will	endorse	iPaaS	first.	Large	organizations	will	prevailingly	look	at	
iPaaS as complementary to traditional application infrastructures.
•	 Many	iPaaS	offerings	will	also	be	available	in	the	form	of	products	(cloud-enabled	
integration platforms [CEIP]) to be deployed in private clouds or to implement new iPaaS 
offerings.
Recommendations
•	 Users	should	initially	consider	iPaaS	primarily	to	support	integration	and	governance	in	
e-commerce B2B scenarios, or where at least some of the involved applications are 
cloud-based. These are the most-proven use cases for iPaaS.
•	 However,	users	should	also	plan	for	a	major	revision	of	their	integration	and	governance	
strategies, as iPaaS offerings evolve into end-to-end alternatives to traditional platforms.
•	 Users	must	plan	for	a	long-term	coexistence	of	their	established	integration	and	
governance infrastructures with iPaaS-based approaches.
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•	 Providers	of	application	infrastructure,	software	as	a	service	
(SaaS),	packaged	application,	system	integration,	cloud	services	
brokerage	and	cloud	services	should	look	at	iPaaS	as	a	new	
business opportunity and an enabler for value-added offerings. 
STRATEGIC PLANNING ASSUMPTION(S)
By 2016, at least 35% of all large and midsize organizations 
worldwide will be using one or more iPaaS offerings in some form.
ANALYSIS
What You Need to Know
An iPaaS is a set of cloud-based services providing a multitenant 
and elastically scalable platform (in the cloud) to support a variety of 
integration scenarios:
•	 Cloud	to	on-premises
•	 Cloud	to	cloud
•	 On-premises	to	on-premises
•	 E-commerce	B2B	integration
In addition to a set of integration services, iPaaS provides 
cloud-based services aimed at enabling design time and 
runtime governance of the integration artifacts (process models, 
compositions, transformation and routing rules, service interface 
definitions, SLAs, policies, etc.) utilized to address specific 
integration issues.
Although	iPaaS	is	a	fledgling	market,	it	inherits	and	builds	on	the	
well-established	integration-as-a-service	market.	While	some	
components of the iPaaS vision — particularly those focused on 
the integration functionalities — are already available from many 
providers, more functionally complete iPaaS offerings will emerge in 
the 2012 to 2013 time frame.
In the short term (through 2013), leading-edge user organizations, 
looking	for	greater	flexibility,	faster	time	to	market,	support	for	new	
cloud-centric	business	models	and	cost	reduction	should	look	at	
iPaaS approaches as potential alternatives to traditional (that is, 
non-cloud-based) integration and governance platforms for an 
ample set of requirements.
Given	the	nascent	state	of	the	market,	mainstream	organizations	
should consider iPaaS offerings as complementary to traditional 
platforms,	and	primarily	adopt	them	to	address	low-risk	scenarios,	
such as e-commerce B2B integration and cloud services 
integration. Directly stemming from long-lasting industry experience 
with integration as a service, these are the most-proven iPaaS use 
cases so far.
All	users	should	take	into	account	that	even	limited	iPaaS	adoption	
will	require	the	extension	of	the	responsibilities	and	skills	of	
established integration competency centers and SOA COEs to 
cover the new approach, in addition to traditional platforms.
Over time, iPaaS technology and business models will mature and 
vendor offerings will evolve to be able to support a greater variety 
of use cases, including several aspects of traditional on-premises 
scenarios. Meanwhile, growing user adoption of SaaS, evolving 
requirements for more tightly coupled multienterprise B2B 
integration, the necessity for improving agility in relationships with 
business partners and continued pressure for cost reductions will 
make	the	iPaaS	value	proposition	increasingly	compelling,	even	for	
users with large and long-established integration and governance 
application infrastructures.
Therefore, longer term (2015 and beyond), users should prepare 
for a potential major rebalancing of the center of gravity of 
their integration and governance strategies between iPaaS and 
on-premises platforms.
Application infrastructure middleware vendors, SaaS providers, 
packaged	application	vendors,	system	integrators,	and	integration	
brokerage	and	cloud	services	brokerage	providers	should	look	at	
iPaaS (also in the form of its rendition as an on-premises product, a 
CEIP) both as a business opportunity and an enabling platform for 
their value-added offerings.
Introduction
When	it	comes	to	application	infrastructure,	some	of	the	burning	
questions	that	organizations	are	asking	themselves	include:
•	
If	I	host	some	of	my	application	functionality	in	the	cloud,	how	
do I integrate that with my existing on-premises applications?
•	 How	do	I	integrate	my	on-premises	application	with	external	
business partners?
•	 Everyone	is	talking	about	platform	as	a	service	(PaaS).	Should	I	
use it? If so, when, and when not?
In this research, we address these questions by introducing the 
concept of iPaaS, a specific form of PaaS targeting integration 
©	2011	Gartner,	Inc.	and/or	its	affiliates.	All	rights	reserved.	Gartner	is	a	registered	trademark	of	Gartner,	Inc.	or	its	affiliates.	This	publication	may	not	be	
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and governance requirements, and how it can be used to address 
cloud-to-on-premises and other related requirements.
PaaS: An Evolving Market
In Gartner’s view, the architecture of cloud computing is structured 
in three foundation layers:
•	 The	system infrastructure service layer (commonly referred to as 
infrastructure as a service [IaaS]), providing the core computing, 
networking	and	storage	services
•	 The	application infrastructure service layer (usually called 
PaaS), implementing database management system (DBMS), 
application server, application security, messaging, business 
process management (BPM), managed file transfer (MFT), B2B 
integration, data and application integration, SOA governance, 
and a variety of other “middle tier” application services
•	 The	application service	layer	(mostly	known	as	SaaS),	delivering	
user application functionalities such as ERP, CRM, human 
capital	management	(HCM),	collaboration,	Web	conferencing,	
e-mail and a myriad of other scenarios, including for specific 
vertical	markets
While	SaaS	and,	to	a	lesser	extent,	IaaS	are	widely	adopted	by	
the user community, PaaS is less well-understood and certainly 
not as popular as the other cloud layers. This is in the nature of 
the middle-tier services it provides, which are not oriented toward 
end	users	(like	SaaS)	and	cannot	easily	be	used	to	support	the	
deployment of existing applications, such as IaaS.
PaaS is in its infancy, and most mainstream users only have 
a vague idea of what it is. Moreover, its intended audience is 
primarily the development community of architects, project leaders 
and	developers	(in	end-user	organizations	or	those	working	for	
independent software vendors [ISVs]/service providers) focused on 
implementing new, cloud-based application systems, which are still 
a minority (albeit growing) of the total number of new development 
projects.
Toward PaaS Suites
A factor that may slow down PaaS adoption is the extreme 
fragmentation	of	the	market,	with	dozens	of	vendors	providing	
individual PaaS functionalities (MFT, DBMSs, messaging, 
application servers, data integration, B2B integration, BPM 
technology,	etc.).	However,	few	(if	any)	providers	deliver	a	
comprehensive and integrated PaaS offering. This situation is 
acceptable in the initial stages of the PaaS life cycle, when users 
and vendors are still primarily experimenting with the concept, 
testing technologies and business models, and piloting applications 
and	offerings.	However,	such	fragmentation	will	be	impossible	to	
deal with when users and service providers start to implement 
large-scale, business-critical applications requiring the simultaneous 
and in concert use of multiple PaaS capabilities (for example, user 
experience, application servers, DBMSs, security and messaging).
Developing, deploying, running, managing, monitoring and paying 
for an application built on PaaS services from four or five different 
providers deployed in multiple and geographically dispersed data 
centers, would pose a number of intractable performance, security, 
availability, management and billing issues. Implementing business-
critical applications with stringent quality-of-service requirements 
on a multivendor, best-of-breed, distributed PaaS would be nearly 
impossible and certainly extremely impractical.
For this reason, Gartner predicts a rapid aggregation of PaaS 
offerings into suites of functionalities, providing users with well-
integrated and optimized platform services (from the same or 
different suppliers), colocated in the same data center to provide 
appropriate levels of performance, security, manageability and 
availability.	This	aggregation	process	will	take	place	in	steps.	
Initially (circa 2013), PaaS functionalities will consolidate around 
specific usage scenarios. Later (2015 onward), comprehensive 
PaaS offerings will also emerge. These will provide suites of 
integrated and colocated services, capable of supporting multiple 
usage scenarios and project types out of a common technology 
foundation.
Comparing aPaaS With iPaaS
The	PaaS	market	will	change	from	the	current	and	growing	number	
of vendors providing point services to a relatively low number 
(probably a few dozen) of vertically integrated PaaS suites (each 
aggregating colocated services from a “suite master” and from 
its partners), delivered to users through a variety of direct and 
indirect channels. The challenge for users will be the transition from 
integrating point PaaS services, to support specific requirements, 
to the problem of managing coexistence, interoperability and 
federations of vertically integrated PaaS adopted by different 
development teams or embedded in various cloud offerings.
The trend toward specialized PaaS suites is already visible in terms 
of vendor strategies and available or announced offerings. At least 
two classes of suites are beginning to conceptually materialize to 
respond to well-defined user requirements:
•	 The	aPaaS	suite,	which	is	aimed	at	providing	users	with	
an integrated platform for hosting, and managing individual 
applications and application services. The aPaaS offerings 
typically aggregate cloud services of application server, 
application development tools, composition, portal and user 
experience, orchestration, data management, application 
security, and others.
•	 The	iPaaS	suite,	which	is	meant	to	provide	users	with	an	
integrated	integration	and	governance	platform	for	making	
independently	designed	applications	and	services	work	
together. The iPaaS offerings usually combine cloud services 
for protocol bridging, messaging transports, transformation, 
routing, service virtualization, adapters, orchestration, partner 
community management, MFT, registry/repository, development 
tools and others.
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Other similar suites (for example, targeting BPM, collaboration 
and	other	usage	scenarios)	are	likely	to	emerge	during	the	next	
two or three years as technologies and offerings mature and user 
requirements and usage patterns manifest and crystallize.
What Is iPaaS?
An iPaaS combines integration and governance and other 
capabilities to respond to emerging user requirements to procure, 
deploy and manage these functionalities as a single, integrated 
infrastructure. This requirement is a consequence of the growing 
adoption of SOA, which postulates a strong tie between integration 
and governance. The best practices, which have matured in more 
than a decade of SOA experience, remain valid as cloud computing 
comes into the picture. Gartner believes that users will continue to 
address integration and governance in a unified fashion, even in 
an increasingly cloud-centric world, and, consequently, will favor 
vendors capable of providing all (or at least most) of the relevant 
cloud	services	as	a	consolidated	platform.	However,	many	vendors	
and users initially will selectively provide and consume only subsets 
of a full iPaaS, while they climb the learning curve of this new 
market.
Therefore, Gartner defines iPaaS as a suite of cloud services 
enabling development, execution and governance of integration 
flows connecting any combination of on premises and cloud-based 
processes, services, applications and data within individual, or 
across multiple, organizations.
Dissecting the Definition of iPaaS
Let’s dissect the definition of iPaaS and clarify a few points:
•	 An	iPaaS	provides	users	with	a	combination	of	cloud	services	
— collectively called integration platform services — to develop, 
execute and manage integration flows (that is, custom-
developed software and metadata implementing the “integration 
logic” needed to connect multiple applications by performing 
the appropriate message transformation, routing, protocol 
conversions, service virtualization, orchestrations, security 
federation,	usage	tracking,	administration,	monitoring	and	
management etc.).
•	 The	integration	flows	running	on	iPaaS	can	connect,	in	a	
many-to-many fashion, any combination of on-premises and 
off-premises applications, services (in both the SOA and cloud 
senses of the word), processes and data. Integration flows 
can be developed by the iPaaS client (which has access to 
the iPaaS development environment) or by a service provider 
(including the iPaaS provider itself) on behalf of the client. If the 
development environment is only available to the iPaaS vendor 
(and not to clients and other service providers), the offerings are 
referred to as “embedded iPaaS,” because their capabilities are 
only available embedded in a broader service (e.g., integration 
brokerages	or	cloud	services	brokerages;	see	below)	delivered	
by the iPaaS provider.
•	 An	iPaaS	supports	integration	within	the	same	organization,	
as well as across multiple organizations, in a B2B fashion that 
often involves the e-commerce supplier and customer, but may 
also include any multienterprise integration and collaboration.
•	
In	addition	to	integration	platform	services,	an	iPaaS	provides	
governance platform services, including registry/repository, 
artifacts life cycle management, policy management and 
enforcement, as well as the extraction of the associated data. 
The iPaaS governance platform services can potentially be 
used independently from the integration platform services — for 
example, to support or enforce governance processes of an 
SOA	initiative	using	a	classic	on-premises	SOA	backplane.
•	
Ideally,	iPaaS	services	are	delivered	to	multiple	concurrent	
communities of users (tenants) in an elastic, scalable and self-
service fashion, with assurance of tenant integrity, security and 
service levels. Many iPaaS implementations do not currently 
support	all	these	attributes,	but	most	likely	will	do	so	over	time.
Contrasting iPaaS, Integration Brokerage and Cloud 
Services Brokerage
The commercial offerings of iPaaS vendors are typically 
complemented by training, support, consulting, traditional system 
integration and other services, such as certain aspects of IT 
management and operations.
It is important to emphasize that an iPaaS, per se, doesn’t provide 
the service of integrating a specific set of applications for a certain 
user organization (for example, the integration of a company’s SAP 
on-premises instance with its salesforce.com instance in the cloud). 
An iPaaS provides the development tools, execution environment 
and governance capabilities that end users or service providers 
can leverage to implement and support such a specific integration 
scenario.
However,	in	many	cases,	vendors	will	provide	(as	a	service	running	
on	their	own	or	a	third-party’s	iPaaS)	“prepackaged	integration	
flows” (often referred to as cloud streams when at least one 
of the endpoints is a cloud service) meant to accelerate the 
implementation of the most-common integration scenarios by 
customizing, extending and configuring predefined integration flow 
templates.	These	prepackaged	specialized	integration	modules	
are basically iPaaS applications, and are not a part of iPaaS, but 
convenient add-ons for integration specialists. As such, they are 
closer to the SaaS layer of the cloud-computing architecture than 
to the PaaS layer.
Integration	brokerage	providers	offer	the	full	spectrum	of	IT	
services capabilities to implement, manage and support end-to-
end integration solutions (including the professional services and 
outsourcing aspects), either on top of their own proprietary (and 
often embedded) iPaaS or by leveraging, transparently to the 
user,	one	or	multiple	third-party	iPaaS	offerings.	However,	some	
integration	brokerage	providers	—	typically,	system	integrators	
— allow users to select which iPaaS to use on the basis of 
criteria such as cost, technical affinity, SLA, geography or vertical 
specialization.
Cloud	services	brokerage	providers	may	combine	iPaaS-based	
integration services with other cloud services (including aPaaS 
and others) to provide users with end-to-end solutions to specific 
business problems that involve the consumption of services from 
multiple cloud services providers.
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Why iPaaS Is Relevant for Users
An iPaaS provides the capabilities to support, in a public or private 
cloud, a variety of integration scenarios (cloud to cloud, cloud 
to on-premises, on-premises to on-premises) within the same 
enterprise, e-commerce B2B integration, and the appropriate 
governance aspects (see Figure 1). The obvious benefit for users 
is that they don’t need to procure, deploy and manage hardware 
and application infrastructure software in their own data centers, as 
they would when adopting traditional, on-premises integration and 
governance platforms.
Initially, iPaaS Targets B2B and Cloud Services 
Integration
The notion of running integration flows on a third-party integration 
platform provided as a service is well-understood and proven, 
because it’s very commonly used in the context of e-commerce 
B2B integration and, increasingly, for cloud-to-on-premises 
integration	(also	known	as	cloud	services	integration).	Vendors	
addressing e-commerce B2B integration (e.g., Crossgate, E2open, 
GXS,	Hubspan,	IBM-Sterling	Commerce,	Seeburger,	Liaison	
Technologies and SPS Commerce) and those targeting cloud-
services integration (Appresso, Dell-Boomi, IBM-Cast Iron Systems, 
Informatica,	Fiorano,	Infoteria,	iWay	Software,	Jitterbit,	Microsoft,	
Pervasive Software and Vigience) have been offering at least some 
of the iPaaS integration platform service capabilities (previously 
referred to in Gartner research as integration as a service) since 
the early 2000s. Therefore, we consider these vendors to be iPaaS 
providers, although they may not provide all the capabilities of a 
full-fledged iPaaS yet.
Historically,	on-premises	integration	middleware	vendors	and	
integration-as-a-service providers were, in principle, different 
companies, even if some integration-as-a-service players (e.g., 
IBM-Sterling Commerce and GXS) used to also sell application 
infrastructure products, such as B2B integration software or cloud 
integration	products.	Like	integration	as	a	service	before	it,	iPaaS	
is, to a certain extent, a complementary alternative to classic 
integration	middleware.	However,	for	the	near	future,	traditional	
on-premises infrastructures and iPaaS-based integration will coexist 
and complement each other, especially in large organizations. 
It	is	also	likely	that,	at	least	in	an	initial	phase,	iPaaS	offerings	
will	be	more	rapidly	adopted	to	support	specific	scenarios,	like	
cloud to cloud, cloud to on-premises and traditional e-commerce 
B2B integration, given their affinity with traditional integration as 
a service. In other scenarios, such as systematic integration of 
on-premises applications or SOA infrastructure deployments, 
for many users, the most comfortable option will remain the 
deployment of traditional on-premises integration middleware (or, in 
the future, some form of private iPaaS).
Acronym Key: A2A — application to application
Source: Gartner (March 2011)
Figure 1. Deployment Scenarios for iPaaS
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However,	individual	PaaS	services	will	mature,	their	aggregation	
into more functionally complete iPaaS will progress, the offerings 
of established integration-as-a-service vendors will evolve and new 
players	will	enter	the	market.	Therefore,	end	users	and	service	
providers	will	increasingly	look	at	iPaaS	as	a	viable	alternative	to	
traditional application infrastructure middleware (enterprise service 
bus [ESB] suites, B2B integration software, MFT, data integration 
tools, SOA governance platforms and other technologies) for a 
wider range of use cases.
An iPaaS Will Be Pervasively Used for Multiple 
Scenarios
Most large organizations have sizeable and widely adopted 
integration	infrastructures	and	SOA	governance	platforms	in	place;	
therefore,	it	is	unlikely	that	they	will	fully	migrate	all	their	applications	
to	an	iPaaS	during	the	next	three	to	five	years.	However,	large	
organizations will familiarize themselves with cloud computing 
and expand their use of SaaS applications. Therefore, they will 
increasingly	look	to	iPaaS	to	address	requirements	for	which	iPaaS	
is a proven and economically attractive alternative to traditional 
integration middleware. These include, but are not limited to, cloud 
services integration, e-commerce B2B integration, integration of 
remote subsidiaries or federated SOA support.
Large	organizations	will	also	look	at	iPaaS	to	extend	their	current	
environment with functionalities (for example, certain aspects of 
SOA	governance	like	registry/repository	and	artifacts	life	cycle	
management) that, in certain cases, would be too expensive or time 
consuming to implement in a traditional fashion. At the same time 
large enterprises currently using integration-as-a-service platforms 
will naturally and incrementally extend the use of these offerings 
to support requirements with close affinity with e-commerce B2B 
and cloud-service integration (for example, integration of remote 
subsidiaries or SOA federation support). This trend will accelerate 
as providers expand the reach of their platforms toward a more 
comprehensive set of iPaaS functionalities.
Midsize organizations with minimal or no investment in application 
infrastructure middleware will probably adopt iPaaS more rapidly 
than large enterprises, as has been the case for integration as 
a service, which has been widely adopted by organizations that 
need	to	do	e-commerce	B2B	integration,	but	lack	the	technical	
or staffing resources to unilaterally implement B2B integration 
software. These organizations are extensively adopting SaaS 
solutions, and will face the issues of integrating these applications 
with their established on-premises systems and governing the 
resulting integration flows. Therefore, they may be attracted by 
an	iPaaS	proposition	(often	through	an	integration	brokerage,	
a	cloud	services	brokerage	provider	or	a	SaaS	provider),	which	
would enable fast time to deployment and would avoid the capital 
investments and IT operation costs associated with deploying 
traditional application infrastructure products and the related 
hardware infrastructure.
Even users who initially see little value in iPaaS will not be able to 
completely ignore this new approach within the next five years. 
In fact, iPaaS capabilities will be incorporated into many SaaS 
offerings (either through partnerships, OEM agreements or internal 
developments),	and	will	also	be	utilized	by	integration	brokerage,	
cloud	services	brokerage	and	other	IT	service	providers	as	enablers	
of their offerings. By 2016, at least 35% of all large and midsize 
organizations worldwide will be using one or more iPaaS offerings 
in some form.
Technology Context for iPaaS
Schematically, we can say that cloud applications will run on one or 
multiple aPaaS offerings and will integrate with each other (and with 
on-premises applications) through one or multiple iPaaS offerings, 
which will also be used to manage the associated governance 
processes. This is very similar to the relationship between 
application servers, ESB suites and SOA governance tools in a 
traditional application infrastructure middleware setting: Applications 
run on application servers, are integrated through an ESB suite 
and the relevant governance processes are managed through SOA 
governance tools. The analogy doesn’t stop there, however.
Next-Generation iPaaS
ESB suites require a platform middleware foundation providing 
transaction management, clustering, load balancing, high availability 
and monitoring/management. In many ESB suites (e.g., Software 
AG’s webMethods Integration Server, Progress Software’s Sonic 
ESB), such a foundation is implemented as embedded (custom or 
third-party) software to which users usually do not have access. 
However,	in	other	ESB	suite	products	(e.g.,	IBM’s	WebSphere	
ESB, Oracle’s Oracle Service Bus), the foundation services are 
provided	by	an	enterprise	application	server	(IBM’s	WebSphere	
Application	Server	and	Oracle’s	WebLogic	Server,	respectively)	that	
is also commercially available as a stand-alone product.
Analogously, iPaaS requires a foundation infrastructure providing 
the cloud attributes of elastic scalability, multitenancy support, 
cloud transaction processing, provisioning, metering and billing. 
In some cases, these cloud attributes are implemented by means 
of embedded custom or third-party software. In other cases, the 
cloud attributes are provided through a high-control aPaaS, either 
from the same vendor or from a third party (that is, iPaaS from 
one provider can be implemented on top of the same provider’s 
aPaaS or on the aPaaS of a different provider). If an iPaaS provider 
wants to have maximum control over the underlying infrastructure, 
but	doesn’t	have	the	skills	or	resources	to	develop	the	cloud	
attributes, then it may decide to source a cloud-enabled application 
platform	(CEAP;	application	infrastructure	middleware	providing,	
among other things, the cloud attributes “as a product”) from an 
OEM, rather than developing and running its iPaaS on a third-party 
aPaaS.
More modern iPaaS offerings are typically implemented through 
a CEIP, which is essentially a software platform implementing 
the integration platform services, governance platform services, 
ancillary functions (management, administration, security) and the 
underlying cloud attributes of iPaaS. Therefore, iPaaS providers 
have implemented (through internal developments or by adopting 
third-party technologies) a full CEIP, or at least the integration 
platform and governance platform services that are then deployed 
on a third-party aPaaS (or CEAP). It may well be that some 
providers	decide	to	make	a	business	out	of	selling	the	CEIP	
underlying their iPaaS offerings to other service providers or to 
end-user organizations. In this way, service providers will be able 
7
to implement a compatible iPaaS service, extended with their 
own added values (for example, to serve geographies or vertical 
industries that the original iPaaS vendor cannot, or doesn’t want 
to, target). End users may deploy the iPaaS vendor’s CEIP in their 
private clouds, to provide a private (or community) iPaaS to their 
internal users or partners.
“Legacy” iPaaS
Many iPaaS implementations for e-commerce B2B integration have 
been	around	for	up	to	10	years;	thus,	they	have	been	implemented	
via a wide range of scalable, multitenant implementations of 
technology that combine high-capacity communication middleware 
(e.g., to support various B2B protocols), high-throughput integration 
middleware (e..g, to implement message transformation), 
community management and all the ancillary functions (security, 
management, etc.) required to support multiple, large-scale B2B 
projects on behalf of dozens, hundreds and sometimes even 
thousands of B2B communities, often with a broad international 
footprint. Most of these implementations have been modernized in 
some fashion (e.g., to improve availability and scalability and add 
new features, such as process visibility), but still combine legacy 
technology (e.g., electronic data interchange [EDI] mailboxes 
on mainframes) with modern technology (e.g., intelligence and 
provisioning tools running on an SOA infrastructure). Many 
deployments leverage geographically distributed, multisite 
disaster recovery capabilities, sometimes spanning multiple 
continents.	While	increasingly	scalable	and	reliable,	many	of	these	
implementations are not “pure” cloud implementations (that is, they 
lack	cloud	attributes,	such	as	elasticity,	APIs	and	self-provisioning).
Industry Impact of iPaaS
The concept of iPaaS is in its infancy, and very few vendors and 
users	even	recognize	the	term.	However,	Gartner	believes	that,	
during the next three years, a recognizable, sizable and vibrant 
iPaaS	market	will	be	well-established.
The iPaaS Offerings Are Under Construction
Evidence	of	the	iPaaS	market	emergence	includes,	but	is	not	
limited to:
•	 The	precursor	integration-as-a-service	market	is	well-
established, which proves that, technically, the iPaaS model 
can	work;	sizable	(approximately	$945	million	in	revenue	in	
2009),	which	proves	that	customers	are	willing	to	adopt	iPaaS-
style	offerings;	and	supported	by	well-entrenched	and	powerful	
vendors, such as GXS, IBM-Sterling Commerce, E2open, 
Crossgate, Liaison Technologies and others.
•	 Although	the	traditional	e-commerce	B2B	integration	
subsegment	of	the	integration-as-a-service	market	is	only	
modestly expanding in terms of revenue (primarily owing 
to price erosion, not because of lower adoption), the cloud 
services	integration	submarket	(epitomized	by	vendors	such	
as Dell-Boomi and IBM-Cast Iron) is growing by double digits, 
although from a small installed-base, which proves there is a 
growing appetite for cloud services integration delivered in the 
form of a cloud service.
•	 Although	e-commerce	B2B	integration	and	cloud	services	
integration are the two dominant scenarios for integration-
as-a-service adoption, there are already examples of user 
organizations supporting on-premises-to-on-premises 
integration requirements, using iPaaS offerings from providers 
such	as	E2open,	Hubspan	and	Liaison	Technologies.	Typically,	
such on-premises integration projects are implemented in 
conjunction with some form of B2B integration initiative.
•	 Some	traditional	and	open-source	integration	middleware	
vendors already deliver (partial) iPaaS capabilities (e.g., Cordys, 
through	the	Capgemini	Immediate	cloud	services	brokerage	
offering, based on the Cordys BOP application infrastructure 
platform;	iWay	Software,	with	its	iWay	Service	Manager	offering;	
Mulesoft,	with	its	Mule	iON	offering;	and	Tibco	Software,	
with its Tibco Silver PaaS offering), or have announced their 
intentions	to	enter	the	iPaaS	market.	More	announcements	and	
product releases are expected from application infrastructure 
middleware vendors during 2011.
•	 Traditional	data	integration	vendors,	such	as	Informatica	and	
Pervasive Software, have proven as-a-service of their traditional 
on-premises data integration middleware versions (Informatica 
Cloud and Pervasive DataCloud, respectively).
•	 Cloud-focused	startup	companies	and	system	integrators,	such	
as Appresso, Infoteria, Jitterbit and Vigience, have entered the 
cloud	services	integration	market	with	on-demand	offerings,	in	
addition to traditional middleware products.
•	
In	2010,	IBM	acquired	Sterling	Commerce,	one	of	the	top	two	
e-commerce B2B integration providers, and Cast Iron, one of 
the most notable emerging cloud services integration vendors. 
This is an indication of IBM top management’s growing 
perception	of	the	iPaaS	market	as	a	strategically	relevant	
opportunity, particularly if it successfully marries its e-commerce 
and cloud services integration assets to address hybrid usage 
scenarios.
•	
In	2010,	Dell	acquired	Boomi,	one	of	the	leading	cloud	services	
integration players, to expand its cloud offerings.
•	 At	PCD10	in	October	2010,	Microsoft	announced	a	plan	to	
release a technology preview of the Microsoft Azure AppFabric 
Integration Service in 2011. This will be based, in part, on Azure 
AppFabric Container aPaaS. Microsoft also announced its 
intention to release the Azure AppFabric Integration Service in 
the form of a CEIP.
•	
In	February	2011,	Software	AG	announced	its	intention	
to release an “integration and SOA platform as a service,” 
beginning in 2012, as part of its PaaS strategy, which will 
also include process modeling, monitoring, development and 
execution services. These offerings will be based on the current 
ARIS (process modeling) and webMethods (integration and SOA 
8
enablement/governance)	application	infrastructure	middleware;	
however, they will be deeply re-engineered to support the 
cloud	attributes,	while	maintaining	backward	compatibility.	
Software AG’s announcement is an example of the emerging 
consolidation of integration and governance functions in iPaaS.
•	 Cloud	services	brokerage	providers	will	be	incorporating	a	
combination of SaaS, aPaaS, iPaaS and IT services to deliver 
their solutions. Many e-commerce B2B integration service 
providers will modernize their solutions with native cloud 
support, governance technologies and other new capabilities to 
evolve	into	cloud	services	brokerages.	Because	many	of	these	
B2B integration service providers already contribute heavily to 
the	multimillion	dollar	integration-as-a-service	market,	as	they	
evolve	into	cloud	services	brokerages,	they	will	continue	to	
contribute	to	the	iPaaS	market.
Providers Will Get Into iPaaS Along Multiple Strategic 
Directions
The materialization of iPaaS suites will, in many cases, happen 
through the gradual extension and aggregation of established cloud 
services. For example, some integration-as-a-service vendors will 
incorporate governance platform services in their offerings, whereas 
some of the cloud messaging-as-a-service (MaaS) vendors, such 
as Amazon, my-Channels and StormMQ, will add more iPaaS 
capabilities on top of their core messaging platform services. 
In some cases, iPaaS will be implemented by re-engineering, 
refactoring and extending traditional integration and governance 
platforms into CEIPs.
Vendors	with	a	middleware	background	will	initially	focus	on	
providing the integration platform service aspects of an iPaaS, 
whereas SOA governance vendors will primarily aim at the 
governance	platform	service	capabilities.	However,	both	classes	
of vendors will expand the reach of their offerings to cover more 
iPaaS capabilities, leading to some vendor and technology 
consolidation. The largest established application infrastructure 
middleware vendors and integration-as-a-service providers have 
the	skills	and	the	resources	to	release	an	iPaaS	offering,	providing	
both integration platform services and governance platform services 
within the next 12 to 18 months.
Although, by definition, an iPaaS should be able to cover all 
integration scenarios, to concentrate their resources and efforts 
(or for historical reasons), many vendors will address only selected 
scenarios (for example, classic e-commerce B2B integration, 
cloud services integration, SOA federation or SOA governance). 
The	iPaaS	providers	targeting	large	organizations	will	look	at	
traditional on-premises-to-on-premises application integration or 
SOA	backplane	scenarios	only	as	secondary	markets.	Vendors	
focused	on	serving	midsize	organizations	are	likely	to	also	address	
on-premises-to-on-premises scenarios as a primary opportunity, 
given the level of user appetite for SaaS applications and the 
relatively scarce adoption of integration middleware
Some application integration middleware vendors may not be 
familiar with cloud business models, or may not have enough 
resources	to	start	up	a	parallel	as-a-service	business	line;	or	may	
want to prudently move into the cloud arena without running into 
the	risk	of	cannibalizing	their	established	businesses.	Therefore,	
these players may decide to focus on delivering the enabling 
technology for iPaaS (that is, a CEIP), rather than adopting an 
as-a-service business model. Through a variety of commercial 
agreements, they will delegate to third parties (e.g., IT service 
providers,	telcos,	IaaS	providers,	integration	brokerage	providers,	
cloud	services	brokerage	providers	and	other	entities)	the	
implementation of (possibly multiple, largely compatible and 
competing) iPaaS services on top of their CEIPs. CEIPs will also 
be adopted by end-user organizations to implement private or 
community iPaaS, therefore slowly replacing traditional forms of 
integration-oriented application infrastructure middleware (e.g., ESB 
suites, B2B integration software and SOA governance platforms).
Finally, iPaas offerings and CEIPs will be sourced from an OEM 
by	packaged	application	vendors	and	SaaS	providers	to	support	
the implementation of multienterprise business applications, or to 
provide their customers with a platform to address heterogeneous 
integration	requirements	(much	in	the	same	way	as	packaged	
application vendors provide integration middleware as an integral 
part of their products or as an option).
Adoption Scenario
In terms of the burning issues introduced at the beginning of this 
research	(“How	do	I	integrate	cloud-based	applications?,”	“How	do	
I integrate with my external business partners?” and “Should I use 
PaaS, and when?”), Gartner believes that:
•	 Via	the	predecessor	integration-as-a-service	offerings,	iPaaS	
already is (and will increasingly be) one of the main options 
available to users to connect with external business partners 
and to integrate cloud-based applications with their current 
on-premises applications.
•	 For	many	user	organizations,	iPaaS	will	be	the	first	approach	
to PaaS. Virtually all user organizations (large or small) must 
integrate applications, and, in a growing number of cases, 
at least some of these applications are in the cloud. New 
application	development	still	takes	place	on	a	massive	scale	
in some industry sectors (such as financial services, telecom, 
Web	commerce,	online	gaming,	social	networks,	cloud	services	
and	others),	but	most	mainstream	enterprises	primarily	look	
at	packaged	software	and,	increasingly,	at	SaaS	as	the	main	
sources	of	new	application	functionality.	Therefore,	there	likely	
will be more organizations considering PaaS, because they 
are	looking	to	solve	an	integration	problem,	than	there	will	
be users evaluating PaaS for new application development. 
Hence,	many	user	organizations	will	initially	move	into	PaaS	
by adopting an iPaaS to address cloud integration issues (and 
also given the high cost and complexity of traditional integration 
platforms), rather than by selecting an aPaaS to support new 
developments.
9
The	key	factors	slowing	down	adoption	of	iPaaS	in	the	early	stages	
of	this	new	market	will	be:
•	 Excessive	market	fragmentation
•	 The	sheer	number	of	startup	companies	with	unproven	
technologies and incomplete offerings
•	 Providers	shifting	business	models	and	pricing	options
•	 Security,	privacy	and	SLA	concerns
•	 Uncertain	ROI	of	iPaaS	adoption
•	 The	inertia	of	the	traditional	integration-oriented	application	
infrastructure middleware installed
However,	in	the	2012	to	2013	time	frame,	as	an	increasing	number	
of traditional application infrastructure middleware vendors enter 
this	market,	a	cycle	of	consolidations,	mergers	and	acquisitions	will	
kick	off.	The	emergence	of	relatively	few	large	iPaaS	“suite	master”	
providers, supported by a large partner ecosystem (providing 
services that are colocated and integrated with the “master” iPaaS), 
will bring more confidence to mainstream user organizations, and 
widespread	adoption	will	take	off	as	large	organizations	adopt	
iPaaS (public, private or community) to support a wider variety of 
project types, not just for a few selected use cases.
Until	that	happens	(circa	2015),	iPaaS	will	mostly	be	a	market	
for leading-edge users and midsize companies, as well as a 
complementary opportunity (e.g., for e-commerce B2B integration, 
cloud services integration or SOA governance) for mainstream 
organizations.
For most large organizations, the coexistence of possibly multiple 
iPaaS and traditional application infrastructures will be the norm. 
Therefore, established integration competency centers/SOA 
COEs will have to face the challenge of supporting technology, 
organizational and governance federation of their established 
integration	and/or	SOA	backplane	infrastructures	with	iPaaS.
The convergence and consolidation process toward iPaaS will be 
turbulent.	Many	providers	will	disappear;	in	the	race	to	leadership,	
vendors	will	bring	to	market	immature	technologies;	some	mergers	
and	acquisitions	will	fail;	some	vendors	will	not	be	able	to	effectively	
scale	up	their	platforms	to	support	large	cloud	workloads;	and	
other vendors will struggle to provide quality support to a growing 
number of clients.
Along with analyzing an offering’s functional and nonfunctional 
fit with their requirements, user organizations considering iPaaS 
should	carefully	evaluate	vendors’	track	records	in	their	vertical	
sectors and geographies, as well as the providers’ ecosystems, to 
minimize	the	risks	and	maximize	the	benefits	of	iPaaS	adoption.
Waiting	too	long	for	the	maturation	and	consolidation	of	the	
market	may	be	dangerous	for	organizations	as	their	competitors	
move ahead with leveraging iPaaS to try to reduce costs, improve 
efficiency and creatively build competitive advantage. In the trade-
off	between	technology	and	vendor	risks	and	improved	efficiency	
and	efficacy	lies	the	key	to	successful	iPaaS	adoption.
</p>