Open source vendors develop new app integration platform

Open source vendors MindTouch and SnapLogic have teamed up to develop an application integration platform for mid-tier companies. The new development builds on SnapLogic's DataFlow Server and MindTouch 2009.

Business Application Integration has been designed to bring traditional integration such as enterprise application integration (EAI) or Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) to those that traditionally could not afford the technology. And it has been designed to reach over the firewall into data stored in cloud-based applications. The combination provides both the integration engine and a presentation layer for the data. And both platforms use similar RESTful, web-orientated architectures, and are designed for extensibility and scalability. 

MindTouch 2009 offers a platform for creating, aggregating and sharing information regardless of form. It is part wiki, portal and application server, and includes integration with Microsoft productivity tools, database and CRM adapters, charting tools, and directory integration.

SnapLogic offers an open source data integration framework for integrating data on both sides of the enterprise firewall.

DataFlow Server includes links to Salesforce and SugarCRM. The platform lets users integrate software-as-a-service data with data behind the firewall on the back of reusable "snap-together" components and a browser-based design tool to create those integrations. The company was founded by Gaurav Dhillon, the founder and former CEO of Informatica.

"We put together package that is ETL, EAI with the presentation layer," says Aaron Fulkerson, CEO of MindTouch. "Nobody has applied enterprise 2.0 to this space. In order to do this deployment, your alternative would be to buy Tibco or Oracle components and the licensing alone would be a few hundred thousand dollars."

The platform, which Fulkerson says can be up and in less than a day, is discount priced at $4,99550 for 50 users up to 31 December.