Due to the popularity of the Dell Boomi Overview, I am doing similar article about Informatica Cloud. In a previous post I talked about iPaaS tools. One of the industry leading iPaaS tools which has been gaining a lot of popularity and acceptance is Informatica Cloud. In this post I will provide an overview of this tool along with the functionality and uses cases.
What is Informatica Cloud?
Informatica Cloud is an on-demand cloud integration and ETL platform for connecting applications and data. It is the cloud offering by Informatica and contains many of the sames features as their products. It enables customers to design ETL processes between cloud and on-premise applications. It has self contained development, administration and monitoring through an accessible on-demand web interface.
Architecture
Secure Agent
At the first part of the Informatica Cloud architecture is the Secure Agent. This is a lightweight program which connects on-premise data and cloud applications. It is installed on a local machine behind the enterprise firewall and processes data locally and securely. All upgrades with Informatica Cloud updates and releases are automatically sent and installed on the Secure Agent on a regular basis.
At the first part of the Informatica Cloud architecture is the Secure Agent. This is a lightweight program which connects on-premise data and cloud applications. It is installed on a local machine behind the enterprise firewall and processes data locally and securely. All upgrades with Informatica Cloud updates and releases are automatically sent and installed on the Secure Agent on a regular basis.
Connectors
The second part of the Informatica Cloud architecture are the connectors. These are pre-built integration solutions for connecting applications, data and devices. Connectors act as connectivity to Cloud applications (ex: Salesforce, Workday, Amazon Redshift) and on-premise applications (SQL Server, Dynamics CRM, Teradata)
The second part of the Informatica Cloud architecture are the connectors. These are pre-built integration solutions for connecting applications, data and devices. Connectors act as connectivity to Cloud applications (ex: Salesforce, Workday, Amazon Redshift) and on-premise applications (SQL Server, Dynamics CRM, Teradata)
Connectivity
Use Cases
Data Synchronization:
System Maintenance Tasks:
Data Replication:
Mappings:
Monitoring:
- Cloud application to cloud application
- SaaS to SaaS
- On-premise application to cloud application
- On-premise application to on-premise application
System Maintenance Tasks:
- Create Update Delete (CRUD) operations
- Bulk pulling and loading data to 3rd party systems/applications
Data Replication:
- Copy data sets
- Backup or Warehouse data
Mappings:
- Processes to extract, transform and load data from multiple sources to multiple targets
Monitoring:
- Activity log of all successful and unsuccessful jobs
- Audit log of all events by users in an organization
- Dashboard summary of tasks, availability and data processed
Development
Development in Incormatica Cloud is divided among Data Synchronization Tasks and Mappings. Data Synchronization tasks are ETL based tasks that load data from a source to a target and provide some transformation during transit. Mappings are flows that allow for chaining multiple complex operations (filter, join, functions) together to build a complex integration process.
Reporting
Reporting in Incormatica Cloud is divided among an Activity Log and Activity Monitoring. Activity Monitoring provides a list of all currently running jobs/processes. Each job/process is listed along with a start date/time as well as rows processed thus far. The Activity Log provides a summary of all successfully and unsuccessfully complete jobs/processes. Each process is also provided with information like date/time, status, success rows, error rows and top level error message. The user can drill down into each process/job and download a session log which contains detailed execution information at a logging level.
Learning Resources & Links
- Informatica Website - https://www.informatica.com/
- Free 30 Day Trial of Informatica Cloud - https://www.informatica.com/trials/informatica-cloud.html?offer=30day-ICLogin&s_tnt=117504:3:0#fbid=WycRFhTSAlT