Enterprises are integrating 100 apps, APIs, and data sources to streamline operations. Hence, the global iPaaS market is exploding. Research suggests that the iPaaS market was valued at $2.1 billion in 2023 and is expected to reach $12.3 billion by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 38.4% during the forecast period (2025–2030). Recently, Google Cloud has entered the world of connectivity with Application Integration, its native iPaaS solution that integrates Apigee and Duet AI within the Google platform.
In this article, we will explore how the newly introduced Google Cloud product for Integration, Application Integration (iPaaS), is poised to challenge the existing major players in the iPaaS space. We will see how the Google Application Integration, packed with Apigee and DuetAI, differs by a country mile from the rest of the platforms.
What is Application Integration?
While AI may be the latest star, another AI, Application Integration, is quietly undergoing its own evolution and revolution. Shedding its legacy names such as ESB (Enterprise Service Bus), Enterprise Middleware, and Message Brokers, it’s emerging strongly as an Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS).
Application integration is the unsung hero of enterprise IT, which hardly gets the glory of data platforms or shiny front-end systems. It is the glue that keeps 100s of different IT systems together, cutting across various protocols, working seamlessly without any friction, orchestrating complex workflows, and moving data from one system to another. It’s like the plumbing layer of enterprise IT systems.
About Google Application Integration
Every business with growing IT systems demands seamless connectivity to be more agile and respond quickly to market trends. Gone are the days of convoluted integration approaches based on more academic principles and architecture, which were never truly applicable to real-world systems.
Enter Google! Yes, Google has launched its own iPaaS, bringing the power of application integration, AI co-pilot(Duet AI), and APIM (Apigee) under one roof of GCP. With Google’s already strong cloud offerings, the addition of Google Application Integration (iPaaS) is poised to disrupt this space. Simply because Google Cloud Application Integration isn’t just about connecting apps; it’s about connecting your business to its full potential. Here is how:
- Intuitive drag-and-drop interface: There is no need for clunky developer studios or millions of libraries on developer machines. Build your integrations with ease right from the browser. Even better, develop with simple prompts! Just say what you want to build. More on that here.
- Pre-built connectors for 100+ applications: Connect your CRM, ERP, CPQ, Core Business Systems, database & more, and the entire Google Cloud ecosystem with pre-built connectors
- Manage APIs with Apigee: Application Integration enables developers to connect their existing applications and build and manage APIs within the same interface.
- Connect Integration Flows and APIs with real-time insights: Leverage Google’s data powerhouses, like BigQuery and AutoML, for actionable insights. Use the out-of-the-box BigQuery connectors to respond to market dynamics in real time.
- Duet AI, your development co-pilot: With Google Cloud Application Integration, you tell Duet AI what your integration process should do, and it does the job for the developer, ALMOST!, leaving the developer to fine-tune and deploy only. Developers can quickly generate integration skeletons in just minutes, which usually takes days. I never imagined such a thing would exist in my lifetime, for application integrations at least!
How is the API used in Google Application Integration?
APIs are simply the bridge between apps. They let different applications “talk” to each other, share data, and perform tasks collaboratively. Think of APIs as a waiter taking orders (data requests) from one app to another and returning the results.
Source : Google
APIs are natively embedded into the system through integration with Google Cloud’s full-featured API management tool, Apigee. Developers can use Apigee to design, publish, secure, and monitor APIs within the same interface where workflows are developed. By triggering API calls inside integration pipelines, they can pass or transform data between systems and expose integration logic as APIs or external apps to consume.
This deep API integration enables API-led architectures, where integration logic is modular, scalable, and easier to govern. Whether you are connecting legacy ERP systems or exposing AI-powered services to other apps, Google Application Integration and Apigee make a powerful enterprise-ready solution.
How does Application Integration complement AI?
Not the Terminator kind!AI is another intelligent software trained on a massive, massive, huge data set. It learns from patterns and can make predictions, automate tasks, and even understand your intent. Think of it as a super-powered assistant helping you build integrations faster and smarter. But they are a point-in-time intelligence, not an ever-evolving one(yet).
AI models are trained, of course, with lots of data! But they are often trapped with point-in-time knowledge. This means that AI models cannot get real-time data or respond to real-time knowledge-based questions. This is where Application integration becomes the missing link, injecting real-world data and intelligence in real time. Here’s how:
- Data Feed: Application Integration provides a continuous feed of data, fueling the AI models with more intelligence about real-time changes to data.
- AI Plugins: Application integration allows us to integrate AI models as another application into any part of the business, integrating the AI capabilities into web apps, phone channels, customer service agents, and executive-level functions.
- The Learning Loop: Application Integration can provide AI models, the feedback loop, feeding its actions and applied results back to the model to refine and fine-tune its model. Sounds scary at times.
- AI as a Service: Application Integration can expose AI models as APIs via Apigee, letting other applications tap into their brilliance and creating a collaborative AI ecosystem for broader impact.
Business Benefits of Google Application Integration
1. Business Agility at Its Core
Makes your business agile by responding to market trends with quicker solutions and faster time to market. With its low-code tools and Duet AI assistance, Google Application Integration enables rapid deployment, supporting your go-to-market strategy.
2. Smooth Mergers and Acquisitions
Seamlessly integrate or disintegrate with pre-built connectors with minimal downtime and any impact on day-to-day business operations or customer experience.
3. Scalable Process Automation
Automate all manual feeds with autonomous processes and free your teams from repetitive tasks by orchestrating end-to-end automation across cloud and on-premise systems. Scale your business with data and market demands with AI-powered real-time triggers.
4. Unified, Personalized Customer Experience
Provide a unified and consistent customer experience across all channels, such as CRM, marketing, support, and billing. Real-time data ensures that the data flows across the integration are consistent. Offer a contextual user experience across every digital touchpoint.
5. IT Flexibility to Match Business Demands
Whether planning to launch a new product or enter a new market, you can slice and dice IT systems as necessary with a robust integration platform connecting it all. Build modular, reusable APIs and integrations that evolve with your needs without working on it from scratch.
Conclusion
Google Cloud Application Integration is not just any iPaaS platform but a revolution in how modern enterprises connect systems, data, and experiences in an AI-first world. It tightly connects the other GCP services and capabilities, like API management through Apigee and AI-assisted development with Duet AI. Google offers a comprehensive solution to simplify complexity and accelerate innovation.
Unlike traditional platforms that consider integration a backend utility, Google iPaaS stands out as a strategic enabler that enables you to deliver a consistent customer experience across channels to stay ahead of the competitive edge. Lead the digital transformation with the future of connected systems.
From BigQuery and Vertex AI to Cloud Functions and Cloud Armor, businesses can leverage the broader Google Cloud ecosystem to build integrations that don’t just connect applications but also evolve with time and demand.
Frequently Asked Questions
1. What is the difference between API and application integration?
APIs are interfaces responsible for communicating between two systems or software in a single function or data level. Application Integration ensures connectivity and data flow between multiple systems to create a synchronized ecosystem.
2. What is Google Application Integration, and how is it different from other iPaaS platforms?
Google Application Integration is Google Cloud’s native iPaaS. It combines integration, API management, and AI-assisted development to create quick connectivity among multiple systems. It provides low-code development in real-time using natural language prompts. Businesses can easily integrate with other advanced GCP services like BigQuery and AutoML.
3. How does Duet AI help in building integrations?
Consider Duet AI like a development co-pilot. It generates base logic for workflows by describing the desired integration in natural language. It reduces the dependency on manual efforts to accelerate the development process.
4. Does Google Application Integration support non-Google apps and systems?
Yes, Google Application Integration supports non-Google apps, with over 100 pre-built connectors for systems such as Salesforce, SAP, Oracle, ServiceNow, and various other databases, offering greater connectivity flexibility. Contact us to integrate third-party systems with your Google Cloud Platform.
5. What role does Apigee play in the Google Application Integration platform?
Apigee is a powerful API management platform from Google. It allows you to expose, secure, scale, and monitor APIs created through an integration flow, all within the unified environment on Google Cloud.