Over the past decade numerous start-ups have tried to sell integration software as a service. Invariably, all of these outfits failed (some in spectacular fashion). It seems the market just wasn't ready for them. Is the market ready now?
To answer this question first we must review the history of those companies that have attempted to enter this market. Grand Central communications may have been before their time. The company may well have called its services "Integration-as-a-Service", had the term been around a few years ago. They offered a means to integrate applications via Web Services in the cloud (although they didn't use the term 'cloud' either, as it had not yet been coined). The impetus for this and similar services was the advent of SOA and Web Services and the openness these technologies enable.
But Web Services alone wasn't enough. Enterprises still had many on-premise applications that needed to be integrated. A service hosted on the Internet couldn't help them. Grand Central made a lot of noise but was soon gone from the seen.
A few years later and the IT landscape has changed. Web 2.0 is now part of our vernacular. Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is now recognized as a disruptive technology. Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) is gaining traction. In this environment one has to justify why any application or technology must be on-premise and behind the corporate firewall. The notion of Web Service enabling a legacy on-premise application so that it can interface with "the cloud" is rarely challenged.
All the pieces appear to be in place for the next Grand Central to come along and achieve glory. One company, Boomi, has received much attention (not to mention venture capital funding) recently with the intention to enter this market in a big way. The company has been around for a few years selling 'on-premise' integration platform software, but is making the leap into Integration-as-a-service.
How will the incumbant ESB vendors (webMethods, Tibco, Sonic) react? So far they are silent. Conventional wisdom is that no single vendor can offer both on-premise and on-demand solutions. There are too many trade-offs.
It is likely that additional pure-play vendors will enter Boomi's space before the end of the year, but they have the market mostly to themselves at the moment. We'll be watching to see what they do with it.
