Legacy often lingers because it is so crucial. According to Boomi, this is not something to worry about. You have a connector for almost every application to make heritage suddenly relevant.

When we turn to the Word within organizations legacy When we ask questions, we often get different interpretations. One calls it “not ready for the future”, the other calls it “junk to get rid of”. Kris Janssens, Senior Account Executive at Boomi, can understand the confusion: “Everything that is still running on-premises at the customer’s site is in fact legacy.” It doesn’t matter whether it’s an FTP server, a database or a mainframe – anything that was developed before cloud became a strategic choice for the business can be tagged in this way.”

Old programming languages ​​like Unix and Cobol are not suitable for the cloud. However, many important programs within organizations are often still based on this foundation. You can then shoot in a moment of stress and look for an alternative, or you can simply make the Legacy fit for modern applications.

Getting data from A to B

Boomi’s goal is simple: to automate IT processes. “We’re a cloud integration platform, Boomi Atomsphere, where we bring data from app A to app B in a very accessible way.” We immediately put a smile on our face. When we ask an organization to describe itself in a few sentences, we often get a three to five minute description. Not here, plain and simple.

The common thread through the entire legacy history are the so-called “connectors”. Janssens: “Boomi has no desire to develop anything for such tools. We make connectors for those applications and link them to the cloud.” Today, the company has more than hundreds of connectors that it can deploy immediately when an organization faces an integration challenge.

“What is individual is the integration process. Every company has its own applications that it has developed in a specific way over the years. When we need to automate two apps, we create a shortcut manually. This is usually done with low-code or no-code elements.”

The intention is that we not only look at the IT side of such a process, but also at the business side. Both sides have a way of working.

Kris Janssens, Senior Account Executive at Boomi

Boomi places great importance on the accessibility of such integrations. “There are no scripts involved,” says Janssens. “The intention is that we not only look at the IT side of such a process, but also the business side. Both sides have a way of working. Thanks to a convenient drag-and-drop system, we can easily change elements to deliver something mutually beneficial.”

Legacy or cloud native

You may, but are not required to, evolve legacy into a cloud-native application that you can build upon. Some things may have been running on a certain digital foundation for 30 years or more, and it’s best to stay away from that. Then, technology connectors can help leverage that data in other cloud-native applications.

Such technology connectors can be found everywhere today. Anyone shopping in a web shop like Coolblue or Bol.com only sees three or four screens on which they have to enter information and pay. There might be fifty different IT processes running in the backend, connecting different applications: invoicing, logistics, transport, price control, payment, etc. “That’s our main focus: making all these elements work together,” says Janssens.

“Business and IT processes have to fit together. You can innovate by integrating older applications with newer applications. It would be a shame not to get the most out of the data from legacy applications.”

Metadata as an asset

Every company is unique. The older the company, the more legacy and the fewer standards there are for integrating applications. Connecting everything with connectors is one thing, but what about all the metadata? “We have AI for that,” says Janssens. We roll our eyes, again one we think. He smiles and clarifies.

“We’ve been at this for more than 20 years and have collected a lot of metadata over the years. For example, take a business flow from ERP to CRM to capture an order. If that’s in SAP or Salesforce, we’ve done that maybe 5,000 times with other customers. We store this metadata in an AI layer that continually evaluates how all connections are performing.”

“If the next customer asks for such a link, we can recommend it with 90 percent certainty and show how everything will look before the rollout.” A small adjustment here and there at the customer’s request and we’re on our way. “

AI and mapping

Janssens points out the importance of metadata and how it has been used to generate knowledge for years. Boomi currently has around 20,000 customers. When 80 percent use that one application frequently, additional investments are made to provide even more flexibility.

“As of late last year, we have a new CEO, Steve Lucas. He wants to focus very heavily on AI in order to use this amount of data to automate IT processes at customers even faster. This process has been going on behind the scenes for some time, particularly in terms of integration and mapping.” The first results on generative AI within Boomi are now available for testing. Here you can sign up.

We’ve been at this for more than 20 years and have collected a lot of metadata over the years. We pack that into an AI layer that continuously evaluates how all connections are running.

Kris Janssens, Senior Account Executive at Boomi

Mapping is an important part of the AI ​​plan. App A, at its simplest, contains a table of customer information such as last name, first name, email, and phone number. These are all different areas to consider. App B also has this customer data, but the table looks a little different, for example it only contains a name and phone number. “With the help of Boomi AI, you can automatically link the two with each other via mapping.”

iPaaS as a key

It goes without saying that Boomi’s iPaaS solution (Integration platform as a service) as the cornerstone of every digital transformation. Every software vendor has its strengths, but Boomi is one of the few that takes center stage. It can blend old and new applications and offer the best of both worlds. Especially when the legacy can’t just be jettisoned, this is the one next best thing.

Janssens concludes the interview with an example from the banking world to show that companies are under pressure to innovate today. “Traditional banks today are afraid of the fast, hip start-ups and scale-ups that react more quickly to market changes. Take Mollie for example: you process a large amount of back-end payment traffic. Well-known banks are watching their development with suspicion. Thanks to Boomi, we’re helping traditional banks move fast and become more agile so they can innovate just as fast as these hip new startups.”

This is an editorial in collaboration with Boomi. More information about their solutions can be found here.