Bonn, Germany – Oktober 17, 2017
Application connectors on the Open Integration Hub replace the numerous individual API integration efforts and support both cloud providers and SMEs in their digitization initiatives, helping them speed up their business processes. The project is supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy.
One of the major obstacles that small and medium companies are faced with on their path toward digitization is insufficient data integration of software applications. Most businesses have numerous applications in place which provide no default interconnectivity, yet disparate datasets need to be aligned in order to ensure that only the most up-to-date data is used in various business operations. Either this is done manually via data export/import, which is highly error-prone, or complex development efforts are carried out, for which, however, many SMEs do not have enough resources.
This is where the “Open Integration Hub” (OIH) comes in: As a central platform, it will offer a uniform and secure standard for automatic data synchronization across applications. Thanks to the Open Integration Hub, manual data maintenance will no longer be necessary, while the complexity of integration projects will be reduced by a factor of 10 – both of which will lead to a considerable increase in productivity for the company. The Open Integration Hub will be fully compliant with the strict German data safety regulations and will, thus, meet the specific requirements of German SMEs with regard to data safety.
As Juergen Schuessler, Head of EcoCluster Integration at Cloud Ecosystem and initiator of the project, said:
We tackle here the basic problem in IT, which affects almost all businesses: Data silos in various business applications. Especially small and middle-sized businesses do not have the technical skills and the financial resources for the required integration tasks. With the OIH, we will create an easy-to-use and standardized solution, which can be implemented by businesses with minimum effort.
Supported by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy
A dedicated working group at the Cloud Ecosystem Association has been dealing with the topic Application and Data Integration for over two years already. Both association members and cloud providers show growing interest in standardizing integration solutions. Therefore, Cloud Ecosystem has developed a concept for the OIH and is confident to be able to successfully position it in the market.
Starting in July 2017, the Open Integration Hub is being developed as a special project under the support of the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy. The goal of the development project is to build an integration platform that will be distributed and continuously optimized as an open-source offering. For this purpose, elastic.io, German provider of integration platform as a service (iPaaS) contributes their specialist knowledge, technical expertise and experience with integration to ensure the success of the project. Renat Zubairov, CEO of elastic.io and one of the OIH consortium partners, is excited about the OIH concept:
The Open Integration Hub will be a vendor agnostic tool that will support hybrid integration scenarios, meaning not only cloud-to-cloud, but also cloud-to-ground and even completely behind the firewall. This is what, I’m sure, will make it even more attractive for traditional small and middle businesses, cloud application vendors and cloud marketplace providers alike.
Support for connectors development
Eight consortium partners are contributing their expert knowledge and development capacities to build the new standard tool for application and data integration. One of the primary goals is to lay the foundation for other cloud provider to build their own custom connectors for the Open Integration Hub. Cloud Ecosystem is going to provide financial support to 10 cloud providers for these development efforts. The selection of the development partners will be made by the Cloud Ecosystem’s neutral working group “Ecocluster Integration”. The provided support is not tied to a membership at Cloud Ecosystem, which means that any cloud provider who is interested in contributing to the OIH is welcome to submit their application.
Open Integration Hub: Advantages for businesses and cloud providers
By connecting their solutions to the Open Integration Hub, cloud providers can create new market opportunities. Their solutions will become attractive to the users of the applications already connected to the OIH. Cloud marketplaces and integration providers will equally benefit from the new standard, since one application connector on the Open Integration Hub will replace numerous individual API integration efforts and will support both cloud providers and SMEs in their digitization initiatives, helping them speed up their business processes.
About elastic.io
elastic.io GmbH, a young tech company based in Germany, belongs to the generation of the so called “cloud-born” companies and has already established itself on the German market as an expert for integration solutions, due in part to strong partnerships with T-Systems, Shopware and mVise.
elastic.io offers an integration platform as-a-service (iPaaS) that allows developers to build, host and maintain custom integration components and integration flows faster and considerably more cost-effective compared to standard solutions. The elastic.io integration platform is hosted by T-Systems and, therefore, maintains compliance with the highest data protection standards worldwide (BDSG).
The consortium partners:
Following organizations participate in the project as consortium partners: Cloud Ecosystem Association from Cologne, Wice GmbH from Hamburg, Basaas GmbH from Berlin, yQ-IT GmbH from Seligenstadt, StoneOne AG from Berlin, Fraunhofer IESE from Kaiserslautern and TU Berlin.
For more information please visit our website www.openintegrationhub.de