iPaaS Integration: Your Questions Answered

In today’s energy sector, the pace of change is relentless. The energy transition is accelerating. Utilities are under pressure to fast-forward the shift to renewables. End-users are becoming more engaged and are searching for innovative services that can help them cut their energy use and save money. 

If your utility can keep up with the pace of change, it’s an exciting time to be a part of the industry.  

But for many utilities, IT architecture is holding them back. And it’s not surprising. It’s an architecture that has grown up over time with successions of IT teams making the best, most expedient choices for that moment. But often the result is spaghetti IT. And this spaghetti is now holding back IT teams and their utilities. 

That’s why it’s time for a change. A modern iPaaS integration platform delivers the flexibility and scalability that utilities need. Now and in the future. It gives utilities the ability to, not only keep up with the pace of change, but to lead the transition through data-driven innovation and insights. 

But switching IT architecture can sometimes seem like a daunting prospect. As we talk with utility IT professionals around the world, many raise similar concerns. That’s why we’ve put together this Guide for iPaaS Integration answering the questions we’re asked the most.

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Core capabilities of an iPaaS             

An integration platform as a service (iPaaS) provides capabilities to enable its subscribers to implement and operate data and application integrations. 

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Benefits of an iPaaS                                  

Explore the key benefits and improvements an iPaaS can offer over traditional integration methods and techniques.                                                     

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Why should Utilities avoid Point-to-Point (P2P) Integration?              

How integration was achieved in the past is no longer fit for purpose in today's digital utility landscape. We share some insights why utilities should avoid Point-to-Point (P2P) integration.

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What does "Design for Uncertainty" really mean?

Design for Uncertainty is one of the key IT architecture principles, but how to design an IT architecture for uncertainty still puzzles many utilities.

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Why use an integration platform between MDM and SAP IS-U?

We help explain key reasons why an integration platform or enterprise service bus is essential for an integration between MDM and SAP IS-U.                 

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Why use an integration platform between HES and MDM? 

Main reasons why an integration platform or enterprise service bus is essential in the integration between HES and MDM.                                          

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WHAT IS INTEGRATION?                           

Integration is the process of combining different parts of an organization or system into a single, cohesive entity.

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How much does it cost to develop an integration?

In this article we described the various cost elements to consider when calculating the Total Cost of Ownership of an integration solution.           

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How much does an integration cost?

As one of the leading providers of an Enterprise iPaaS, we use experience from many integration projects to give some reference numbers that can be used to estimate the cost of integration.

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WHY FOCUS ON AN EVENT-DRIVEN INTEGRATION ARCHITECTURE?

Process-driven integration design creates many shortcomings and challenges for big data integration and real-time application integration for today's data-driven utilities.

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WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN AN ESB AND AN IPAAS?

ESB (Enterprise Service Bus) and iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) have similar kinds of role to play; they integrate enterprise applications and systems. But, there are certain differences.             

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HOW IS A DATA HUB DIFFERENT FROM A DATA LAKE? 

It's essential to understand the difference and purpose of each type of structure, and the role it can play in modern data management infrastructure.

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WHY DO UTILITIES NEED A SMART METER OPERATIONS CENTER (SMOC)?    

SMOC is an essential component of a smart meter infrastructure, as it enables utilities to effectively manage and monitor the rollout and operation of their smart meter network.

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WHY DO DEVELOPERS PREFER LOW-CODE OVER VISUAL PROGRAMMING AND MODELING?

Many platform vendors advertise "Visual Programming and Modelling" as one of the main benefits of their iPaaS offering, but it has several drawbacks decision makers might consider.

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WHAT IS A DIGITAL INTEGRATION HUB (DIH) AND CAN I USE UTILIHIVE AS A DIH?

This time, we want to explain the what, why and advantages of a Digital Integration Hub (DIH). And (spoiler alert) yes, Utilihive can be used as a Digital Integration Hub.

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Is Utilihive a Meter Data Management (MDM) system?               

When discussing a modern AMI that requires integration processes and system integrations with various legacy applications we are often asked if Utilihive is a MDM system.

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CAN UTILIHIVE INTEGRATE WITH SMART METERS OR SMART METER PROTOCOLS SUCH AS DLMS/COSEM?

Technically, it would not be a problem to implement common meter protocols. However, there are two main reasons, why this process is better handled by a Headend System.

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WHAT DATA MODEL IS BEING USED IN UTILIHIVE AND CAN THE DATA MODEL BE FLEXIBLE?                                          

We are often asked what data model is being used in the Utilihive integration platform and if this data model can be flexible. In this article we answer this question.

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CAN I DEPLOY AND OPERATE UTILIHIVE IN MY OWN CLOUD SUBSCRIPTION?        

Utilihive is an entirely containerized integration platform built on cloud-native technologies. You have the flexibility to choose from various operational and deployment scenarios.

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IS UTILIHIVE ONLY FOR UTILITIES OR CAN I USE IT IN OTHER INDUSTRIES TOO?

Utilihive was originally developed with utilities and the energy sector in mind. However, the platform’s capabilities can also be used to help solve mission-critical integration in other industries.

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DO YOU OFFER A FREE TRIAL VERSION OF UTILIHIVE?                                          

Our experience shows that a scaled-down or limited version of Utilihive doesn’t give clients or partners an accurate demonstration of what the platform can deliver.

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AS A SYSTEM INTEGRATOR, I’M LOOKING FOR WAYS TO ACHIEVE FASTER TIME TO VALUE. HOW CAN UTILIHIVE HELP?

Utilihive helps System Integrators accelerate project turnaround time. You become more agile. Your clients get the results they want, faster.       

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How can Utilihive help optimize my resources as a System Integrator?                                            

Automation is accelerating across all industries. But this is increasing rather than decreasing organizations’ reliance on highly skilled workers.

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Does Utilihive Support the “Enterprise Integration Patterns”?                                             

In this article we describe how Utilihive supports the most relevant Enterprise Integration Patterns (EIP) in its Utilihive (F)Lowcode DSL.

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how does Utilihive compare to Cloudera as a data platform?           

One of the common questions we get asked is how the Utilihive platform compares with other solutions in the market.                                         

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How does Utilihive compare to Apache NiFi?                                           

We asked Thorsten Heller, CEO and Chief Innovator at Greenbird, to compare Apache NiFi and Utilihive.                                                                              

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How does Utilihive compare to Mulesoft / Anypoint as a data integration platform?

Critical capabilities of two leading data integration platforms are compared.                                                                                                                    

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WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS OF USING UTILIHIVE INSTEAD OF CLOUD SERVICE PROVIDERS' INTEGRATION SERVICES?

All public cloud providers offer a variety of cloud services you might want to leverage to build your integration solution. However, there are many reasons why Utilihive may be a better choice.

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If you have a question that we haven’t covered in the following articles, we’d love to hear from you.