There’s no doubt the world is enthralled by the promises of cloud computing. What’s not to like about freeing up enormous capital expenditures in favor of subscription-based services for functionality that someone else has to worry about? Well, the fact is that most SaaS applications are merely silos of their own, not significantly improved from the legacy systems they were designed to replace.
What about APIs, you ask? David Linthicum dispels the API warm and fuzzy when he talks about early attempts to organize cloud APIs: “…while it makes an interesting conversation, consumer concerns still surround vendor lock-in and portability issues.” He’s absolutely right. Most companies are already using several cloud applications and are being forced to choose standards that could be a big problem down the road if they decide to change vendors or add new applications. APIs can and do change with unnerving frequency, creating points of failure and headache.
For all of the great things cloud can deliver, unless a business has a way to quickly integrate cloud-to-cloud and cloud-to-on-premise software, it’s just replacing today’s problems while creating tomorrow’s.
The promise of Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
There is good news in the midst of what could be considered dark clouds (pun intended): There is a cure for the woes of silo’d cloud. On Tuesday, TIBCO announced the launch of Cloud Bus, putting down a significant marker in the iPaaS arena.
The glass ceiling for IT has been broken when it comes to cloud. Unlike before, companies now have the ability to cut out the hardware, and even the software if they choose to, with a cloud solution that reduces costs and shortens time to market. Companies with options can become more agile to better serve their customers. The cloud is the starting point to breaking IT’s reliance on the old ways of doing business.
We’re well beyond any question about whether 
Our lives are becoming increasingly elastic with businesses who empower our constantly changing lives as our greatest allies. Service relationships used to be agreed upon as strict packages measured in multi-year contracts with hefty cancellation fees. Mobile phones, insurance plans, and cable subscriptions – anything you couldn’t own outright, involved an ironclad, unchangeable contract. But that’s increasingly passé as businesses tap into the natural ebb and flow of consumer and business life. Namely, if you want to use, rent, or borrow something for a month, a week, or just this moment, an arrangement can be made.
Visiting the neighborhood supermarket on weekends to shop for groceries has become a weekly occurrence for most working people. We all know buying food everyone in the family likes can be a difficult task. I normally have a lot to purchase during these visits because my wife and I have different kinds of breakfast. I am a person who loves the full English breakfast while my wife prefers the delicacies of Indian cuisine.
