2. @LiaisonTech
Topics
• Cloud Services Brokerage
– Emergence
– Business Challenges
– Definition in the context of business processes & integration
• Benefits of using a Cloud Services Broker
• Factors to consider about whether to seek a Cloud
Services Broker
• Transformation and evolution of IT roles
• Sample business case(s)
• Keys for success
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4. @LiaisonTech
Emergence of Cloud Services Brokerage
• Emerging cloud based services
– Breakdown of integrated systems (SAP/Oracle) now Software as a Service
– Data as a Service
– Every company will encounter multiple third-party cloud services:
• SalesForce.com
• SugarCRM
• Concur
• Kronos
• StrikeIron
• MercuryGate
• NetSuite
• Integration needs to solve for
– Published API’s that are complex
– On-premise to cloud & cloud to on-premise
– Cloud to Cloud
– Cloud Services Brokerages to Cloud Services Brokerages
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5. @LiaisonTech
Business Challenges - Increasing Complexity and Risk
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• Acceptance of cloud
applications, iPaaS,
SaaS, DaaS
• How to implement &
maintain control
over data without
disruption?
• Growing & changing
number of data
sources, formats,
points
• How to govern data
integrity & quality? Growing
• Cannot keep up
with pace of
change and still
respond to
business needs
• How to overcome
barriers to
adoption?
Number &
Diversity of
Connections
• Need to identify,
categorize, and
segment key
information
• How to consume,
harmonize,
manage, leverage,
enrich and
integrate?
Big Data
Looming
Emerging
Cloud-Based
Systems
Developing
Standards
6. @LiaisonTech
Emergence - Cloud-Based Data Centric
Services
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Application Centric Cloud Services
• Insulated from complexity to keep the
business model intact
• Very focused and optimized in a specific
business process or “use case”
• Leverage and scale is “the” key to
sustainability and business health
Users of Cloud Services
• Dynamic needs across a wide
range of applications and services
• Growing variation and volume of
data needed to drive the business
• Regulatory Compliance necessitates
a somewhat reactive posture
Infrastructure & Data
Centric Services
Workflow
Rules Engine
Cloud Brokerages
• Bridge the needs of Users and Application centric
Cloud Services
• Business model is built on embracing and managing
complexity, providing a simplified interface to both
Users and Cloud Service Providers
Customer
”Big Data”
Cost Controls
Innovation
Compliance
Time to Market
USERS CLOUD BROKERAGE
SFA
CRM
Other
HR
Semantic
Integration
Data Translation
& Harmonization
Complexity Buffer
Complexity Buffer
CLOUD APPLICATIONS
7. @LiaisonTech
Definition of Cloud Services Brokerage
• Normalizes and simplifies consumption by consolidating
multiple third party services into one
– Brokering connections to these clouds and helping customers
leverage these services.
– Includes the bundling of services/connections to other clouds,
data enrichment and value-add for integrated business
processing. – Gartner
– Provides value by aggregating, normalizing, customizing and
enhancing information
– Helps avoid a new point-to-point connection problem by being
a ‘hub’
• Needs to be ‘data aware’ and an expert in data
integration and data management
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8. @LiaisonTech
Definition Cloud Services Brokerage
• Buffers customers from technical
details of interacting with these clouds
– Integration skills, platform, tools
– Provides managed services
– Customers call upon services as needed
for updates and new projects
• Sometimes called:
– Cloud Integration Brokerage
– Integration Platform as a service (iPaaS)
– Enterprise Application Integration (EAI) in
the cloud
– Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) in
the cloud
– Enterprise Service Bus (ESB) in the Cloud
– Integration in the cloud
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Experts
(Services)
Integration
Tools
Platform
10. @LiaisonTech
Cloud Services Brokerage Platform & Tools
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• Data management
– Data quality
– Data integrity
– Data enrichment
• Data transformation
• Any-to-Any data integration
• Secure data transactions
– Connections
– Data In transit
– Data at rest
– Encryption
– Tokenization
• Extended visibility and
activity monitoring
11. @LiaisonTech
Factors to Consider in Seeking Outside Help
• Capabilities for cloud integration
– Quickly establishing and maintaining
connections, services & API’s
– Increasing number of disparate
systems and business relationships
– Increasing variety of data
– Handling the hybrid of fixed internal &
external systems integration needs
– Sharing information between clouds
– Ability to synchronize data across
cloud platforms
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12. @LiaisonTech
Benefits of Using a Cloud Services Broker
• Simplification
– Relationship with a single provider
– Single point of entry to multiple clouds
– Singular façade with coherent, uniform services
– Provides a common visibility layer
– Handles security, certificates
– Directs transaction to destination
– Seamless integration whether on-premise or cloud-based business
services
• Allows businesses to focus on their core competency vs.
learning how to interact with new cloud services
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13. @LiaisonTech
Benefits of Using a Cloud Services Broker
• Can start small and can leverage services as business
scales or encounters significant events like:
– Changing distribution methods or channels
– Trying out new lines of business
– Mergers & acquisitions and divestiture
– Business partners coming and going
• Future proofing - ensure that business stays up with
latest technologies
• Fast time to deployment
• Cost considerations
– Fixed (predictable) pricing
– Shift from capital expense to operating expense
• Increased reliability
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14. @LiaisonTech
Benefits of Using a Cloud Services Broker
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• Customers have access to subject matter experts on
demand with:
– Experience connecting systems and working with cloud-based
services
– Best practice domain expertise (holistic vs. project focused)
– Experience in many vertical markets and solving many types of
complex integration challenges
– A trusted advisor role
• Unique specialty in addressing the data layer level
– Resolving data quality issues at the source (breaking through
information silos on behalf of customers)
– Enriching data, adding significant value to services
– Enabling analytics and business intelligence
15. @LiaisonTech
Transformation of IT’s Role
• Cloud Services Brokers handling complex data
integration shifts the focus for IT to refining business
processes and innovation
• Focus on core business and partnering with the
business
– Business model design
– Value networks
– Business processes that deliver sustained competitive
advantage
• Find new methods and avenues to differentiate &
compete
– Try new things at low risk/cost, freedom to experiment
– Enable new distribution channels
– Think of new ways to leverage technology
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16. @LiaisonTech
Evolution of IT’s Role
• Increasing business strategy alignment
– What to leverage from 3rd parties
– How to apply services to achieve business goals
• Managing an ecosystem of partners and vendor
relationships & orchestration
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17. @LiaisonTech
Case Study - Solution & Results
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Challenge Solution Results
Urgent need to migrate away
from current provider that
was a fulfillment partner and
integration is not their core
competency and not
extensible
Need to integrate with online
stores, multiple partners,
multiple fulfillment partners
Need to provide order
management, stock checks,
tax calculations, real time
credit card authorization,
financial processing,
fulfillment processing
Need to provide current,
accurate, complete product
information and pricing
across the enterprise
Need to have agility for rapid
changes moving forward
Outsourced partner
integration
Outsourced transaction
processing
Advanced routing capabilities
MDM hosted solution
Develop governance &
extracts from multiple
sources
Provided discrepancy
reporting
Migrated customer off of
fulfillment partner
Provided real time stock
checks, calculations and
transaction processing
Single data source
reduces errors between
online and customer systems
Lower costs
Ability to scale for new
acquisitions and expanding
markets
Allows more focus on core
business
18. @LiaisonTech
Case Study Business Processes
• Inventory/stock check
• Tax calculation
• Credit card authorization
• Split and forward to fulfillment
• Split, calculate and forward to ERP
• Order tracking/status
• EDI processing
• MDM with 3 legacy source systems
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19. @LiaisonTech
Case Study – Solution Walk Through
Stock Check
Tax Calculation
Credit Card Auth.
Order Confirm
3rd Party
Integration
SAP
Homegrown
System
21. @LiaisonTech
Keys for Success
• Navigation of technical landscape &
responsiveness to change at all levels
– Interoperability inside and outside of the
organization among systems and across
business partners
• Have a good handle on data management
and integration
– Allow for better segmentation & analysis by
having consistent, accurate data
• Migrate to cloud when you are ready, for
areas that make sense and are
manageable
• Be in a position for Business Process
Agility (speed, any to any, agnostic)
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22. @LiaisonTech
Summary
• Collecting, assembling and making use of information is
getting more complex
• Standards alone cannot solve this problem
• Every company has challenges with harmonizing and
managing data
• Cloud Services Brokerages (CSBs) can help navigate
the emerging and complex technology environment
• The core competency of emerging Data Aware Cloud
Brokerages is to localize and manage data complexity
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23. @LiaisonTech
Solutions
• Data Integration
• Data Management
• Data Security
For more
presentations:
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• Global headquarters in Atlanta
• European offices in Finland,
Netherlands, Sweden, UK
• More than 7000 customers
worldwide in over 46 countries
ABOUT LIAISON
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Additional Resources
Notas do Editor
The world does not need another acronym, yet they just keep coming. CSB (Cloud Services Brokerage) is new to the scene and, for some, may need demystifying. Will define CSB and explain why it is important in the context of business processes and data integration. She will also discuss the evolution of IT roles and the importance of looking forward with agility to changing business models and technologies.
common ones are
currency look up, address validation, data as a service - multiple shipping information
stock checks for purchasers, but also doing stock checks to suppliers
Growing diversity of data as businesses become more networked
Standards play a role but cannot keep up – triage complexity at best in most industries
Cloud services are being accepted more generally and now specifically for data management
Cloud is in the Mix for Point to Point integration
SOA emerging in the cloud without governance and standards
Data Challenges
Governance - Quality & Integrity
Harmonizing
Data Synchronization
Aggregation
Security of data in transit and at rest throughout integration cycle
Managing interactions/integration points with stability
Customers have a single connection to their CSB and like other integration areas, are abstracted away from technical details.
Doing business with a single provider can make the transition to cloud computing easier than having multiple relationships.
Cloud services brokerage is a business model where a company or other entity adds value to one or more (generally public or hybrid, but possibly private) cloud services on behalf of one or more consumers of those services.
The CSB [Cloud Services Brokerage] role consolidates all third-party external technical and commercial interfaces into one on behalf of cloud services consumers.
Provide an aggregation point for all types of business partner interactions as well as offering data integration and customization services.
Recognizing a CSB
Direct contractual relationship with service consumers; cannot be behind the service providers, May or may not have a direct contractual relationship with original service providers, Must broker at least one cloud service,
Must add non-trivial value on top of original service Must retain and leverage IP to avoid one-off solutions. Must broker one service to many customers, or many services to one customer, or many services to many customers.
Not a product that we expect you to conform to and change your business to get it to work.
Take the complexity away of dealing with multiple vendors for software, hardware, outsourcing and perpetuating the same cycle
Experiment and try new things to innovate due to low risk of consuming services and low barrier to entry
Core business vs. plumbing
Realize leveraging data and promises of BI and Analytics
Do not need to retain staff for support and updates or ramp up for new integration projects due to business changes*ERP Example
Required Core Competency (project vs. holistic approach)
For our customers, we are the hub – SOA architecture allows us to plug in for new connections and integration requirements
Change to IT partnering with the business on innovation, instead of a bottleneck of support, provisioning, etc…
supports any-to-any standards and protocols, technology agnostic
unifies intra-enterprise (A2A) and inter-enterprise (B2B) computing
provides a framework for cloud computing on-boarding (i.e. SaaS)
enables increased enterprise agility, interoperability, and flexibility
Agility technically
No vendor lock-in of Cloud based services needs to be possible moving forward
We are the guardian of your integration path
Liaison has the platform and tools to migrate from say SugarCRM to SFDC if you change your mind in the future or they go under, we can help you!
Canonicals as a service to ease understanding of data and portability and interoperability
You do an acquisition with multiple instances of SFDC or other system xyz, we help you