In the dynamic landscape of modern businesses, staying competitive requires organizations to adapt swiftly to changing technologies. Integration of applications and data has become a crucial aspect to achieve this by streamlining business processes. Modular and low code Integration Platforms (iPaaS) such as Boomi offer the advantage for organizations to start with a small integration use case between two applications and deliver results very quickly.
While these small successes are valuable, choosing an iPaaS is a strategic IT decision, making it equally important to oversee the next steps to expand your integration strategy. In this blog we will outline the steps organizations can take to level up their integration capabilities and how they can utilize Boomi API Management in this process.
Integrating with Boomi connectors
One of the strengths of the Boomi AtomSphere platform is the use of standardized application connectors. This is helpful if you have common applications in your landscape like Microsoft Dynamics and Shopify you want to include in integration processes. On the other hand, technology connectors have got you covered if there are more exotic applications with which you can connect through protocols like HTTP, File transfer, or Database connections.
Usually, these types of integrations operate according to a pattern where Boomi takes the initiative to fire up the integration. In practice, Boomi will call the source system with the connector on a scheduled basis. Next, it takes the data, applies data transformations and integration logic, if needed and sends it over to the connector of the target system. A fairly straightforward integration process, which could even be accelerated with Boomi AI features like Integration Quick Start.
Building integrations according to this integration pattern with Boomi branded or technology connectors is ideal for scenarios like synchronizing your clients from Microsoft Dynamics to Shopify eCommerce platform on a regular basis.
But what to do when webshop sales are expanding, and checking actual stock information in Dynamics the moment clients are placing orders in Shopify is crucial in keeping customers satisfied?
This requires switching to another integration pattern where your integration platform is actively listening for incoming calls instead of retrieving and syncing data on a scheduled basis.
Luckily the Boomi AtomSphere platform offers ways to either adopt API Management capabilities directly or gradually move into this area, by enabling and implementing the required functionality on the level that suits your organization’s needs.
- Level 1: Start listening
- Level 2: Promoting integrations into APIs
- Level 3: Opening your data in a controlled manner
Level 1: Start listening
Usually, the first step is to enable webservices functionality within your Boomi AtomSphere account to let your Boomi runtimes listen to incoming data from other applications or external systems. The webservices listener opens a simple endpoint to receive any kind of data format or structure. Next, it’s up to the underlying integration process in Boomi to sort out what to do with the received data and continue the integration in a synchronous or asynchronous way.
- Synchronous example: Shopify webshop is calling a webservice on Boomi to request actual stock information. The underlying Boomi process will directly call a Microsoft Dynamics API to request stock information and respond with this information to the incoming call from Shopify.
- Asynchronous example: Shopify webshop is calling a webservice on Boomi to inform about an order that has been placed. The underlying Boomi process will respond back directly to Shopify that the order is received, so Shopify can inform the customer visiting the webshop. In the meantime, Boomi will continue with the rest of the integration process (asynchronously) towards the Microsoft Dynamics ERP.
This simple, yet effective functionality puts organizations in the first level and enables them to embrace more event-based use cases. It’s important to acknowledge that every new action coming from the webshop often involves creating another integration process with another webservice endpoint in Boomi. This is shown schematically in the picture below.
Level 2: Promoting integrations into APIs
Moving beyond basic integration, a more refined method involves leveraging Boomi’s API Publish feature. By utilizing this capability, businesses can define modern and clear entry points for incoming requests and gain precise control over the functionalities offered by each integration. Technology-wise it enables the creation of comprehensive REST, SOAP, and OData APIs, complete with the definition of specifications like OpenAPI and Swagger.
This not only improves clarity for the applications, external systems, or users interacting with your data, but also establishes a robust foundation on which organizations can continue to expand APIs as new integration use cases arise.
An example of such an API-setup with a single REST API is depicted in the table below:
| Resource | Method | Description |
| order/{id} | GET | Retrieve order status |
| order | POST | Create a new order |
| order/{id} | PUT | Change an existing order |
| order/{id} | DELETE | Delete an existing order |
On the Boomi integration side, a significant advantage of the API Publish feature is its ability to consolidate various integration processes into a unified API that is housing multiple operations, like the above mentioned “Order API”. This approach is promoting efficiency and coherence in API design. Instead of creating a separate integration process for each operation (get, create, update, delete orders), like you would end up doing with webservice enablement (Level 1), you can design a dynamic integration process and assign multiple operations and resource paths to this single process.
The inherent reusability of Boomi components further streamlines operations. You can expose the same integration process through multiple different APIs. This contributes to a lower footprint of your Boomi deployment and eases the total management of it. In essence, the API Publish feature not only optimizes the organization of integration processes but also empowers a more sustainable and manageable deployment in the Boomi environment.
To continue with the given example of a “Order API”, the picture below shows how this will look like in a Boomi integration setup with APIs Publish.
Level 3: Opening your data in a controlled manner
In the previous two levels, we started listening to incoming requests of data with webservices or APIs. But what if the number of APIs keeps expanding and you also want to expose them to external systems and organizations in a controlled manner?. For example, because you want third party distributors or resellers to query real-time product and stock information. This is where API Management comes in. Traditionally API Management is a discipline on its own with software stacks sometimes coming from other vendors than the ones that offer integration (or ESB) functionality. With Boomi, API Management is available as a module within the Boomi AtomSphere platform. This makes it easy to adopt API Management capabilities, without investing in a separate product. On the other hand, it’s also possible to combine Boomi’s low code integration solution with other API Management solutions, should specific requirements apply. But what does Boomi API Management offer out of the box?
- Advanced security
By utilizing an API Gateway as a single barrier between the outside world and internal integrations and more authentication options to choose from, like OAuth 2.0, that involve an external IDP - Apply API lifecycle management
Boomi API Management offers API lifecycle management from creation and publication of API’s to versioning and retirement. It provides tools for API design, documenting, testing, and deploying APIs, ensuring consistency and reliability throughout the API lifecycle. - Managing traffic
With capabilities for throttling, and caching Boomi API Management optimizes API performance and ensures scalability, even under heavy loads. - API plans
Define multiple subscription tiers for different groups of API consumers. For example, organizations can create basic, standard, and premium plans, with each plan offering increasing levels of functionality. API plans can include rate limits, maximum message size and quota limits to regulate incoming requests to specific APIs. - Developer portal
Once a API plan has been set up, a customizable webportal where developers can discover, explore, and consume APIs can be made available. It provides documentation, code samples, and sandbox environments to facilitate API consumption and integration into applications. - Proxy external APIs
Even if the underlying integration process is not residing in Boomi Integration, it’s possible to centralize API management within Boomi by proxying APIs that are present in other systems. This contributes to the governance of your organization API portfolio. - API Analytics and metrics: Boomi API Management offers comprehensive analytics and reporting capabilities to monitor API usage, performance, and health. It provides insights into API usage patterns, traffic trends, and potential issues, enabling organizations to optimize API performance and identify areas for improvement.
With these available building blocks APIs become an important asset in an organization’s integration ecosystem. Combining functions like API plans, a developer portal and metrics even turns APIs into products and this will open the way for API monetization as a new business model.
Concluding our previous example, organizations might want to differentiate between API consumers that can request product stock information just a couple times a day via an “API free plan”, or can receive instant stock information with an “API premium”. Since API usage is registered, the latter could be a paid subscription for your customers.
Conclusion
Whether you’re just starting out with iPaaS or you already implemented several integration processes, the Boomi AtomSphere platform enables organizations to professionalize their integration strategy towards API Management step by step or jump right into Boomi API Management (Level 3). If you need advice on which of the mentioned levels suits your organization’s ambitions and architecture, reach out to Yenlo.
