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Cloud Services Brokerage Demystified

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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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Emergence of Clouds Services Brokerage - Integration Types

• Types of integration – On-premise to on-premise

• Intra-enterprise• Application-to-Application (A2A)

– Business-to-Business (B2B)• Inter-enterprise• E-commerce• EDI/VAN• MFT

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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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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?

• Cannot keep up with pace of change and still respond to business needs

• How to overcome barriers to adoption?

• Growing & changing number of data sources, formats, points

• How to govern data integrity & quality? Growing

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

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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

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

InnovationCompliance

Time to Market

USERS CLOUD BROKERAGE

WorkflowRules Engine

Infrastructure & Data Centric Services

SFA

CRM

Other

HR

Semantic Integration

Data Translation & Harmonization

Co

mp

lexity Bu

ffer

Co

mp

lexity Bu

ffer

CLOUD APPLICATIONS

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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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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

Experts (Services)

Integration Tools

Platform

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Cloud Services Brokerage – Professional Services

• Management consulting– Process optimization– Project planning– Domain expertise & specialization

• Solution architecture • Service aggregation & centralized governance• Customization & implementation (SDLC)

– Cloud Services Brokerage– On-going managed services & operations support

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Cloud Services Brokerage Platform & Tools

• 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

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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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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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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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Benefits of Using a Cloud Services Broker

• 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

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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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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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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 sourcereduces errors between online and customer systems

Lower costs

Ability to scale for new acquisitions and expanding markets

Allows more focus on core business

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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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Case Study – Solution Walk Through

Order P

lace/Confirm

Order P

lace/Confirm

Order Place/Confirm

Order Place/Confirm

Shipping Confirm

ation

Catalo

g Dat

a Con

firm

ation

Tax Calculation

Tax Calculation

Credit Card Auth.

Credit C

ard Auth.

Inve

ntor

y F

eed

Stock Check

Inve

ntor

y Fe

ed

Inventory Feed

Order Confirm

3rd Party Integration

SAP

Homegrown System

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Suppliers

Case Study 2

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Platform MDM, Transformation,

Integration, CSB Security

Business-to-Business (B2B)

Third-PartyLogistics

OutsourcedManufacturer

FinancialInstitutions

Customers

Orders & Invoices

Orders

Orders & Inventory

Orders & Receipts

Cash Transactions

Cloud-Based Services (SaaS, DaaS)

Expenses

Employees

Contacts & Orders

Web Services

CurrencyWS

InventoryPricing

WS

Shipments & InvoicesFreight WS

Application-to-Application (A2A)

CustomerSingle Connection

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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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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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Solutions

• Data Integration• Data Management • Data Security

Multinational

• Global headquarters in Atlanta• European offices in Finland,

Netherlands, Sweden, UK• More than 7000 customers

worldwide in over 46 countries

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Additional Resources