Here Are The 5 Leaders In Gartner's 2016 Magic Quadrant For Integration Platform-As-A-Service

Integration Is Everything

The explosion of data sources across enterprise IT has been a boon for software vendors developing products that connect disparate systems. For organizations looking to deploy ever-more-complex environments, often as cloud and on-premises hybrids, data integration is becoming an essential IT component, and a preferred method for consuming the technology is as a cloud service.

For its latest iPaaS Magic Quadrant report, market researcher Gartner evaluated 17 companies that offer Integration Platform-as-a-Service solutions to support application, data and process integration projects.

Only five of those vendors landed in the Leaders quadrant -- and they weren't the enterprise software behemoths one might have expected.

These are the five Leaders using the cloud to break down data silos.

Methodology

Gartner looked at data integration vendors offering their products as cloud services, and ranked them for its Magic Quadrant on two criteria: ability to execute and completeness of vision.

"Ability to Execute criteria aim at rating providers' ability to deliver an iPaaS solution that meets the expected set of functions, ensuring that customers' integration projects succeed while growing providers' revenue and market share," according to Gartner.

"Completeness of Vision criteria aim to assess providers' ability to meet emerging requirements and drive enterprise iPaaS adoption (in new territories and toward a more strategic positioning), while also growing a profitable and self-sustaining business."

Execution is represented on the Y-axis of Gartner's chart, and vision on the X-axis. That lands competitors into one of four quadrants on the chart: Niche Players (low in both criteria), Visionaries (complete vision but lacking execution), Challengers (good execution but lacking vision), and Leaders (excelling in both vision and execution).

Dell Boomi

Dell acquired Boomi, an experienced iPaaS developer based in Berwyn, Pa., in 2010. Now the hardware giant from Round Rock, Texas, offers the integration platform ranked highest by Gartner on both axes of the Magic Quadrant.

Dell Boomi AtomSphere is complemented by Dell Boomi master data management (MDM) cloud hub service and Dell Boomi API Management.

The Dell Software Group unit boasts 3,800 customers using AtomSphere, and a growing partner network of systems integrators and SaaS providers.

The platform enables hybrid deployments by supporting a wide range of integration use cases, including advanced capabilities for development, test and operations teams. Dell's working on support for Docker to make the platform more flexible and open.

Gartner notes the acquisition of EMC might impact semiautonomous business units inside Dell such as Boomi.

Informatica

Informatica is a veteran developer of data integration technologies, offered through its Informatica Platform.

The Informatica Cloud, which delivers integration in an as-a-service model, leverages the Informatica Platform, and is sold in a variety of editions.

The company based in Redwood City, Calif., was re-privatized last year, partly funded by investments from Salesforce and Microsoft. It enjoys strong market share with some 4,500 iPaaS customers.

Gartner commended Informatica for leveraging the channel.

"Through broadening partnerships with independent software vendors (ISVs), SaaS providers and implementation service providers, Informatica continues to extend its iPaaS market reach," Gartner noted.

Cost has been raised as a concern by some customers, as has the versatility of the platform, which still skews toward Salesforce deployments, according to Gartner.

MuleSoft

MuleSoft offers integration services through iPaaS and on-premises solutions.

The Anypoint Platform supports service-oriented architecture, SaaS integration and API management. The platform was extended last year to implement Electronic Data Interchange interactions and asynchronous messaging.

MuleSoft, based in San Francisco, has more than 900 customers. The company, founded in 2006, doubled its clients and bookings in 2015, targeting enterprise accounts increasingly dependent on hybrid deployments.

Gartner commended MuleSoft for having a vision to extend beyond basic iPaaS functionality with a "growing portfolio of capabilities, adapters and endpoints."

Some concerns raised by Gartner were the discontinuation of the Starter version of its platform, leaving only the Enterprise version with a higher price point. And while revenue grew significantly in 2015, that growth wasn't reflected in its support and services team.

SnapLogic

SnapLogic pivoted from offering traditional software in 2013 with the release of the SnapLogic Elastic Integration Platform.

The iPaaS product provides a large set of native iPaaS capabilities geared for cloud service integration, analytics and big data integration use cases.

The platform has been growing fast, more than tripling its customer base in 2015 to more than 450 organizations. The company also established partnerships with several ISVs, SaaS providers and global system integrators, Gartner noted.

" The SnapLogic iPaaS offering is functionally rich and well-proven for a variety of use cases. It supports hybrid deployments and provides rich and differentiating features for analytics and big data integration," Gartner said.

But SnapLogic's professional services organization is still small, and system integrator partners can only deploy relatively few SnapLogic engineers.

"Until plans for strengthening its own and its partners' capacity are fully implemented, user organizations may experience difficulties in finding SnapLogic skills," Gartner noted.

Jitterbit

Jitterbit, founded as a developer of integration solutions in 2004, launched Jitterbit Enterprise Cloud Edition in 2010, built atop AWS.

The company, based in Alameda, Calif., released Jitterbit Harmony Cloud Platform in 2014 for the integration of diverse cloud, enterprise and on-premises environments, as well as API-enablement of integration projects and processes.

The iPaaS product provides data integration, process automation and API support in a highly integrated platform. Harmony has been growing fast, now with more than 900 paying customers and more than 40,000 freemium users.

Gartner noted that Jitterbit has evolved its focus on integration of IoT and big data to capitalize on digital opportunities.

But " while Jitterbit continues to grow its customer base, it still has a relatively limited market presence compared with its major competitors," Gartner said.

Visionaries, Challengers, And The Rest

In the integration space, the giants of the IT industry are all playing catch up.

Oracle, SAP, IBM and Microsoft all only landed in the Visionaries quadrant, meaning they need to advance their executional chops to join the Leaders. The cloud-based integration offerings from those software behemoths are still relatively immature compared with those from the smaller specialists who have been at it for many years. Celigo, an integration and professional services company, also ranked as a Visionary.

On the other side of the Magic Quadrant, the only vendor ranked as a Challenger was Adaptris, a U.K.-based developer with a long history of application integration and a global presence.

Gartner placed in the Niche Players quadrant several smaller companies: Scribe Software, Youredi, TerraSky, Actian, DBSync, and Attunity.