jberk in BlogInsights

Why to Choose Hybrid Integration Platforms?

Hybrid Integration Platforms

The implementation of Hybrid Integration Platforms (HIPs) in business is growing year by year. In fact, the global HIP market was valued at approximately $36.5 billion and is projected to reach $91.9 billion by 2030, reflecting a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 14.1%.

So, they have rapidly become the reference capability framework to tackle the requirements of any digital transformation. But what exactly is a Hybrid Integration Platform? What is their real value for business? Today, we’ll analyze the essentials of this growing tendency.

Why Hybrid Integration Platforms Have Become So Essential?

Over the past few years, integrations have become a bottleneck for many businesses. The large number of apps and, above all, the emergence of GenAI have generated a demand for new integrations that exceed the capabilities of the average organization. In fact, we could think of the growth of SaaS sprawl and Shadow IT because of this.

On the other hand, costs also start playing an essential role, as almost no organization can afford to renew or replace its entire digital infrastructure every time it needs to integrate a new system. So, in short, businesses look for ways to make integration simpler and more efficient to manage these changes across people, processes and architecture. And there is where hybrid integration platforms (HIP) become more prevalent.

What Is a Hybrid Integration Platform?

In our digital landscape, businesses operate in complex IT environments that combine cloud applications, on-premises systems, APIs, and legacy software. In this context, Hybrid Integration Platforms (HIP) are middleware suites for developing, securing, and governing integrations across applications, systems, and data.

In other words, this is a system integration framework designed to unify these diverse ecosystems. This way, it enables seamless communication between different technologies while maintaining security, scalability, and governance.

What are the core functions of HIPs?

So, Hybrid Integration Platforms unify the diverse digital ecosystems within a complex IT environment. But, while it has several capabilities for this, we summarized the main ones as it follows:

Interoperability: They facilitate integration between disparate applications, whether cloud-native, on-premises, or legacy systems.

API Management: HIPs often include API gateways, allowing organizations to expose, monitor, and secure APIs efficiently.

Data Synchronization: They ensure real-time or batch data synchronization between connected systems.

Automation & Orchestration: HIPs streamline workflows, enabling event-driven and process automation across multiple applications.

HIPs vs. Alternative Solutions

Solution	Pros	Cons	Best For
Hybrid Integration Platforms (HIPs)	– Unifies cloud, on-prem, and legacy systems – Scalable and future-proof – Supports APIs, event-driven, and batch processing – Strong security and governance	– Higher complexity in setup – Can be costly for small businesses – Requires expertise for governance and optimization	Enterprises with complex, hybrid IT ecosystems needing scalability and flexibility
Point-to-Point (P2P) Integrations	– Simple to set up for few applications – Direct, fast connections – Low initial cost	– Hard to scale as integrations grow – High maintenance effort – Creates data silos and technical debt	Small businesses or one-off integrations
Enterprise Service Bus (ESB)	– Centralized control for on-premises systems – Reliable for structured workflows – Strong message routing and transformation	– Less effective for cloud and SaaS integrations – Can become a bottleneck in large-scale environments	Enterprises with strong on-premises IT needing centralized integration
Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)	– Cloud-native, ideal for SaaS integration – Low-code/no-code options for rapid deployment – Scalable and cost-effective	– Limited support for on-premises and legacy systems – May lack full governance features	Businesses prioritizing cloud-first, SaaS-heavy environments
Custom-Built Integrations	– Highly tailored to specific business needs – Full control over security and logic	– Expensive to develop and maintain – Hard to adapt to new systems – Scalability challenges	Organizations with unique or highly specialized integration needs

What are the most popular HIPs in the market?

1. SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP)

SAP BTP is an iPaaS that offers a suite of services, including database and data management, AI, analytics, application development, automation, and integration. It provides prebuilt integration flows, connectors, and APIs that enable integrations with SAP and third-party applications. Besides, since it’s an open platform, it can run on any hyperscaler, including AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure.

2. Oracle Integration Cloud Service

Oracle Integration Cloud Service is a cloud-based integration tool that seamlessly integrates on-premise applications with Oracle Cloud (SaaS) or other cloud apps. It combines capabilities of app integration, process automation, visual application building, and integration analytics into a single unified cloud service, offering:

Real-time and batch-based integration.

Structured and unstructured processes.

Case management.

Stream analytics.

Integration insight.

3. ServiceNow IntegrationHub

ServiceNow IntegrationHub is a feature within the Now Platform that provides process automation capabilities to extend workflows beyond the ServiceNow environment. It offers a library of spokes (pre-built connectors) for integrating with third-party applications and services, enabling users to quickly connect and automate tasks across systems.

4. MuleSoft Anypoint Platform

Owned by Salesforce, MuleSoft’s Anypoint Platform is a comprehensive hybrid integration platform that allows businesses to connect applications, data, and devices across on-premises and cloud environments. Its particularity is that provides a unified solution for API management, design, and publishing, facilitating seamless integration across various systems.

5. AWS AppFlow

AWS AppFlow is a fully managed integration service that enables users to securely transfer data between AWS services and SaaS applications like Salesforce, ServiceNow, and others. It allows for the creation of data flows without writing code, supporting both scheduled and event-driven data transfers.

6. Azure Logic Apps

Azure Logic Apps is a cloud-based integration service that enables the creation and running of automated workflows to integrate apps, data, services, and systems across enterprises. It offers a vast array of connectors to facilitate seamless integration with both Microsoft and third-party services.

7. GCP Apigee Integration

Apigee Integration, part of Google Cloud’s Apigee API Management platform, allows organizations to design, secure, deploy, and manage APIs with integration capabilities. It enables the connection of existing data and applications, both on-premises and in the cloud, facilitating seamless data flow across systems.

How HIPs can be used for AI integration in businesses?

As businesses increasingly adopt AI, seamlessly integrating them with existing systems becomes a critical challenge. Organizations usually face many roadblocks like legacy constraints, data silos, and security risks, while they have to look for scalability and real-time adaptability to secure the success of AI deployment.

However, Hybrid Integration Platforms can play a key role as they ensure that both AI models and data pipelines function efficiently within an enterprise ecosystem. We can summarize the ways in which HIPs help businesses in the adoption of AI tools as follows:

Data Unification & Accessibility: AI models require vast amounts of structured and unstructured data. HIPs connect disparate data sources, ensuring AI applications have real-time access to high-quality data.

Automated Workflows & Orchestration: AI-powered automation, such as intelligent chatbots and predictive analytics, can be embedded into business processes using HIPs’ event-driven and API-based integrations.

Scalability & Cloud Interoperability: Many AI solutions run on cloud platforms. HIPs provide seamless cloud-to-cloud and hybrid connectivity, ensuring AI workloads operate across on-premise and cloud environments.

Security & Compliance: AI implementations must adhere to data privacy regulations. HIPs enforce governance policies and monitor data flows to maintain compliance with industry standards.

What are the challenges behind HIPs adoption?

While HIPs offer robust integration capabilities, organizations often encounter several challenges when adopting them. So, here’s a look at common obstacles and HIPs solutions:

Challenge 1: Complex IT Ecosystems	Solution
Businesses often operate across multiple clouds, legacy systems, and SaaS applications, creating integration silos.	HIPs provide pre-built connectors, APIs, and middleware solutions to unify diverse IT environments.
Challenge 2: Integration Costs & Maintenance	Solution
Custom integrations can be expensive to build and maintain over time.	HIPs offer low-code/no-code tools and reusable integration components, reducing development time and costs.
Challenge 3: Scalability & Performance Issues	Solution
As businesses grow, integration workloads can become bottlenecks.	HIPs provide auto-scaling, cloud-native capabilities, and event-driven architectures to handle increased workloads.
Challenge 4: Data Latency & Synchronization	Solution
Real-time data processing is essential for AI and analytics.	HIPs support streaming data pipelines, real-time APIs, and batch processing for optimal data flow.
Challenge 5: Security & Compliance Risks	Solution
Data breaches and non-compliance with regulations (GDPR, HIPAA, etc.) are major concerns.	HIPs incorporate access controls, encryption, and compliance monitoring to enforce security policies.

To build or to buy: that’s the question

So, hybrid integration platforms were mostly thought of as a tool for organizations to build a unified digital landscape by piecing together key capabilities from existing tools (like API management software, iPaaS solutions, etc.) from a variety of vendors into a cohesive system. However, this can be an expensive and cumbersome process, which can give an end result that doesn’t meet all requirements.

That’s why many organizations prefer to build their own Hybrid Integration Platform instead of buying it. This is legitimate, but we must bear in mind that, while it could bring a complete solution, it takes many resources and time to build such a platform from scratch. Besides, you probably need specific talents to do it, which are not easy to find these days.

But don’t worry. At Inclusion Cloud we can help you in either choosing the right HIP for your business or finding the right talents for your project. Let’s connect and see how to empower your business with a Hybrid Integration Platform. And don’t forget to follow us on LinkedIn for more insights and trends!