Forrester reports the average company has 9.3 different SaaS applications in use.[1] Cloud is clearly thriving and will only continue to grow. Cloud as a deployment model provides flexibility, scalability, and reduced risk—all at a lower cost. What’s not to like? Cloud is great for rapidly exploring new environments and quickly connecting to standardized applications, but it’s not a magical solution.
Anchoring the Cloud
Thoughts about the cloud can veer to the idealistic, and, without the right tools to leverage cloud offerings, any potential benefits are lost. SaaS offers fast and frequent updates. Without a strong and fast on-premise to cloud integration platform, you’ll wind up exhausting your resources in what essentially becomes an arms race between you and your competitors. An integration platform that will allow you to keep up with any added SaaS functionality is essential to ensure you will not fall behind.
If you’re considering moving to the cloud entirely, think again. Does it really make sense to move a critical system you’ve put so many resources behind for years? Costs may be reduced initially, but truly critical systems are expected to run robustly and consistently. Subscription is probably not the best option in this case. An organization needs to decide the best place for each of its applications and services, and the cloud is not always the answer.
Hybrid Cloud Gives Flexible Control
The hybrid cloud opens up a gateway between cloud and on-premise applications. It is a middle-of-the-road approach, allowing you to capitalize on the new flexibility cloud provides without jeopardizing critical business applications. Forrester has reported “24% of enterprises already combining business steps located in the cloud and on premises.”[2] This highlights the fact that many companies already have SaaS applications communicating with enterprise systems, but their’s are a makeshift, ad hoc integration. To strategically connect systems across your business and across the cloud, you need a cloud-based integration platform. This allows for a hybrid solution and offers true interoperability, and that is the key to steadily moving forward.
Existing on-premise systems and integration products are not going anywhere, and TIBCO Cloud Bus realizes that; it gives you the ability to utilize existing, mature platforms that a majority of enterprises heavily depend on. Whether your systems are entirely in the cloud, or you’re just beginning to consider the move, Cloud Bus connects your applications so that your business logic remains consistent across all data structures. To learn more about TIBCO Cloud Bus, watch this webinar.
