.png)
In the rush to migrate to the cloud, many companies experience a wide range of difficulties related to combining various applications, servers, data engines, etc. into manageable, understandable arrangements. As these businesses usually don’t have the technical expertise needed to identify, isolate, and meld respective components, they require system integrators to come in and solve their internal problems. Understanding data flow, maintaining security, and facilitating customer communication are all profoundly important for cloud-based businesses, so SI are an integral part of any modernization process. However, even the computer gurus sent in to fix everything can run into certain issues in contemporary work environments. We’ve chosen to share some of our expert’s opinions on some of the challenges that System Integrators potentially face:
- Standing Out: What strategies distinguish you from all the other SIs competing for your customers? It is essential to capitalize on those unique differences that separate your company from other businesses.
- Maintenance: New technology is introduced frequently. This necessitates new instillation and coordination between increasingly complicated systems. It can be very difficult to combine older technology with modern systems. Furthermore, many businesses don’t have the luxury of shutting down while updating. So, much must be completed while ensuring data transfer, automation, and communication channels remain functional.
- Monolythic Systems: Often, aspects of a system that are functionally different are not architecturally separate. So, everything is interwoven. This makes isolating and modifying a singular piece without compromising the rest of the system more difficult.
- Risk Management: Finding a balance between providing easy access for administrators and customers, maintaining flow, and securing certain physical and logical zones is crucial. This process becomes more difficult if the SI is called in to work on a system that has already been created/completed.
- Costs: Time, resources, and man hours all add up during the process of implementing the changes that SIs are commissioned for. Different combinations of random, potentially obscure technologies make for increasingly difficult incorporation jobs.
- Software: While some software types interact seamlessly with others, certain combinations can result in huge problems. Updates, additional downloads, and customization may render formerly compatible software incompatible.
- Coordination: Finding common ground while combining multiple systems raises questions of IP and data ownership in addition to the demands of basic, technical integration. This stage can require a large deal of planning and cooperation between individuals representing those various components.
- Complexity: Certain systems have overwhelmingly large numbers of subsystems within each layer of their design. As there are multiple layers, the task of maintaining and documenting these innumerable components is truly massive.
It’s not just Software as a Service (SaaS) providers that requires the attention of integration specialists, but Platform as a Service (PaaS), and Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) businesses, too. The market potential is diverse and growing. As such, the customer base is plentiful, with ever increasing numbers of companies migrating to the cloud. However, the competition for these customers is developing quickly. Make sure the back end of your business is secure with enough infrastructure, automation, and support to ensure you can deliver on promises made to customers.
Let’s start working together. We encourage you to reach out to one of our SI experts to begin a discussion.
