News

Dell's Boomi Updates 'Integration Cloud' with AtomSphere Spring 11 Release

• By John K. Waters
• 04/27/2011

Dell has announced that its recently acquired Boomi software will now include Java Message Service (JMS) connectors for middleware products from IBM, WebMethods, Tibco and Progress Software.

Boomi -- a SaaS integrator that touted its flagship SaaS integration platform, AtomSphere, as an "integration cloud" -- was acquired by Dell in November. AtomSphere is designed to connect providers and customers of cloud, SaaS and on-premise applications with no additional software or appliances.

The new release, AtomSphere Spring 11, seems to be aiming to simplify the path to the cloud for large enterprises. Along with the JMS connectors, it comes with new capabilities for large-scale data management and migration and "anywhere integration monitoring" -- all of which simplify the move to cloud computing, the company points out, through "easy integration with existing enterprise IT environments."

But cloud/SaaS integration with on-premise systems is fast becoming an essential service for companies of all sizes, says Dennis Callaghan, senior enterprise software analyst at The 451 Group. "Much of the early usage of these cloud integration technologies was around connecting Salesforce.com with internal applications," Callaghan said in a prepared statement. "While that remains an important use case, we're seeing increasing demand for connecting other SaaS applications with internal applications or each other. Meanwhile, larger enterprises that have already made significant investments in middleware need cloud integration services that extend and enhance that legacy middleware, protecting their valuable IT investments."

Boomi co-founder Rick Nucci, now Dell CTO, says the new features in AtomSphere Spring 11 were designed with mid- to large-size businesses in mind "to simplify their path to the cloud."

"Enterprises are looking to quickly take advantage of the flexibility, innovation and efficiency of the cloud without sacrificing the investments they've already made in on-premise applications and middleware," Nucci said in a statement. "Customers want to integrate the new with the old, reaping the benefits of the cloud without having to rip and replace what they already have."

Leading the list of new features in this version of AtomSphere is that JMS connector, which the company calls a "Legacy Middleware Cloud Gateway," which plugs into users' existing middleware solutions to do things like "govern" the movement of data, implement data security before the firewall, and gives connectivity access to more than 70 SaaS apps.

This release also adds change data capture capabilities based on a cache-analysis approach. By automatically reducing the size of data sets processed via focusing on changed data only, this capability can speed up data transit. Dell says this is one of the first cloud integration platforms to offer it.

There's also support for large data processing in this release with support for "hundreds" of GB files per atom, and its parallel processing capability supports terabyte-sized files.

Other improvements include "intelligent optimization" of Salesforce.com Integration and a new API for "anywhere integration monitoring," which provides access to AtomSphere for third-party monitoring tools.