emite IPaaS Integration Cache
- Stephen Irecki
The emite IPaaS Integration Cache serves several key purposes, all aimed at improving performance, reducing latency, and minimizing load on connected systems. Here's a breakdown:
Reducing Latency: Caching frequently accessed data eliminates the need to repeatedly fetch it from the original source system. This significantly speeds up integration processes, especially for data that changes infrequently. Imagine retrieving customer details; if they're cached, the integration can grab them locally rather than querying the CRM every single time.
Minimizing API Calls/Load on External Systems: Many integrations involve interacting with APIs of other services (e.g., Salesforce, SAP, etc.). These APIs often have rate limits or usage costs. Caching responses from these APIs reduces the number of API calls, saving resources and potentially avoiding throttling issues. If the same data is needed multiple times within a short period, the cached version is used, thus respecting the external system's resources.
Improving Performance for Repeated Operations: Certain integration tasks might involve complex data transformations or lookups. Caching the results of these operations can drastically improve performance, especially if the same transformation or lookup is needed multiple times within the same integration flow or across multiple executions of the same integration.
Handling Transient Errors/Outages: If a connected system becomes temporarily unavailable, the cached data can be used as a fallback, allowing the integration to continue functioning (albeit with potentially slightly stale data) until the connection is restored. This provides a level of resilience.
Example Scenarios:
Customer Data Synchronization: Caching customer details retrieved from a CRM system to avoid repeated API calls to the CRM.
Product Catalog Integration: Caching product information from an ERP system to speed up order processing.
Lookup Tables: Caching frequently used lookup tables (e.g., country codes, currency conversions) to avoid repeated database queries.
API Rate Limiting: Caching API responses to reduce the number of API calls and stay within rate limits.
A typical Action’s Cache configuration can look something like this:
In summary, caching is a powerful technique used to enhance performance, improve reliability, and reduce the load on connected systems. It's a critical component for building scalable and efficient integrations.