What is integration middleware? Here’s what you need to know

As organizations adopt an ever-growing number of applications, they’ll have a hard time connecting them in-house as well as maintaining these connections at scale. 

Similarly, as organizations look to offer customer-facing integrations, they may struggle to keep pace with clients’ integration demands over time. 

To help you address either scenario, you can look to invest in an integration middleware solution. 

We’ll break down everything you need to know about this type of solution by covering its definition, use cases, benefits, drawbacks, and more.

Integration middleware definition

It’s a 3rd-party platform that facilitates communication and data exchange between disparate systems and applications, typically by using their APIs. 

Integration middleware provides a set of services and capabilities that allow for the efficient and effective integration of applications, databases, and other systems. These services include data transformation, routing, message queuing, and application connectivity. By abstracting the underlying complexities, middleware enables developers and organizations to focus on business logic and value creation, rather than getting bogged down in the intricacies of system integration.

Related: What is external system integration?

Examples of using integration middleware

Here are several examples across numerous industries:

• Recruiting: Imagine you offer a candidate sourcing tool. You can integrate your product with clients’ ATS solutions to sync candidates in, or near, real-time. You can also sync all of the fields that your clients’ recruiters care about, all but ensuring they have all the context they need to reach out to the candidate.
  

• Lead management: Your ability to respond to leads quickly can ultimately determine whether you’re able to convert them successfully or not. To help facilitate a fast “speed-to-lead”, you can integrate your marketing automation platform with your CRM and build a sync where once a candidate reaches a certain lead score in the former, they’re automatically added to the latter.
  

• E-Commerce: Integration middleware can play a pivotal role in connecting an online store with various back-end systems, like inventory management, CRM, and supply chain management systems. Inventory levels and customer orders can be synced in real-time across these systems.
  

• Healthcare: You can integrate patient data from various sources (like electronic health records, lab systems, and imaging systems) to provide a unified view. This is critical for healthcare providers in making informed decisions and offering personalized care.
  

• Banking and financial services: In banking, middleware is often employed to integrate various banking applications and databases for smooth transaction processing, risk management, and customer service. Middleware enables banks to offer real-time banking services and ensure compliance with financial regulations.
  

• Supply chain management: Middleware can integrate various components, like inventory systems, shipping and logistics applications, and vendor management systems, ensuring a smooth flow of goods and information across the supply chain.

Related: Examples of Software integration

Why organizations turn to middleware

Organizations turn to integration middleware for several compelling reasons.

Complexity management

As organizations grow and evolve, their IT ecosystems become increasingly complex. Middleware helps manage this complexity by providing a unified platform for integration, reducing the need for custom-built integrations for each new application or system.

Cost efficiency

By reducing the need for custom integrations and providing out-of-the-box connectivity options, middleware can significantly lower integration costs.

Agility and flexibility 

Middleware allows organizations to be more agile and responsive to changing business needs. It enables quick integration of new systems and applications, supporting faster innovation and adaptation.

Data consistency and accuracy 

Middleware ensures that data remains consistent and accurate across different systems, which is crucial for decision-making and operational efficiency.

Scalability

As businesses grow, their technology needs change. Middleware platforms are generally scalable, allowing for the addition of new integrations and capabilities as the organization expands.

Where traditional middleware platforms fall short

Despite their advantages, traditional middleware platforms have certain limitations:

Long learning curve

Traditional middleware solutions can be complex and may require specialized skills to deploy and manage effectively. This complexity can lead to a steep learning curve for IT teams.

Rigidity and lack of adaptability

 Many traditional middleware platforms are not designed for the dynamic and fast-paced environment of modern businesses. They may lack the flexibility needed to integrate with newer technologies or adapt to changing business requirements.

High costs 

Traditional middleware solutions can be expensive, not just in terms of initial investment but also in ongoing maintenance and operation costs.

Performance issues 

In scenarios with high volumes of data or real-time processing requirements, traditional middleware might struggle to meet performance expectations.

Cloud integration challenges

With the increasing adoption of cloud services, traditional middleware often falls short in effectively integrating cloud-based applications and services with on-premises systems.

Security concerns

As the integration point for multiple systems, middleware can be a critical point of vulnerability. Older middleware platforms may not be equipped with the latest security features to protect against modern threats.

Related: Challenges of SaaS integration

Final thoughts

As you explore middleware integration solutions for customer-facing use cases, you’ll likely come across unified API solutions, which essentially offer a single, aggregated API that lets you offer a whole category of integrations (e.g. HRIS).

This approach offers scalability, as you can offer dozens of integrations through a single integration build, and through Merge, you’ll also be able to maintain and manage your integrations easily and effectively.

‍You can learn more about Merge by scheduling a demo with one of our integration experts.

Integration middleware FAQ

In case you have any more questions on integration middleware solutions, we’ve addressed several more below.

What is integration and middleware?

Integration refers to the process of connecting applications, typically through APIs, while middleware is a tool that helps facilitate integrations.

What are some types of integration middleware products?

Here are a few you’ll likely come across:

• Enterprise service bus (ESB): offers a bus-like infrastructure where applications can connect and send data to one another. This is considered a legacy approach to building internal integrations

• Integration platform as a service (iPaaS): supports internal and/or customer-facing (embedded iPaaS) API-based integrations

• Unified API: enables you to add many integrations to your product by connecting to a single API

• Robotic process automation (RPA): uses custom scripts to mimic human activities (e.g., copying and pasting data) between applications 

What are some common integration middleware products?

For internal integrations, popular middleware solutions include Mulesoft, Boomi, Workato, and TIBCO; while for customer-facing integrations, some widely-used solutions include Tray.ai, Merge, and Finch.

When does it make sense to use integration middleware?

It depends on the internal engineering resources at your disposal as well as the volume and complexity of the integrations you want to build. That said, in most cases, it’s more cost-effective to outsource integrations, as each integration not only takes hundreds of hours to build but also countless more hours to maintain over the course of the integration’s lifespan. 

What does an integration middleware engineer do?

Their job inherently varies based on the organization they work for, the integrations they’re responsible for building and maintaining, and their specific level. 

At a high level, these engineers typically manage the full lifecycle of integration projects via integration middleware. As a result, they often need to be fluent in using the integration middleware tool adopted by their respective employer.