Dell Boomi Releases iPaaS SDK for Technology Partners to Ease Development of Connectors

Written by Jeffrey Schwartz
November 7, 2018

Boomi is looking to broaden the reach of its iPaaS connectors.

(Pictured above: Dell Boomi CEO Chris McNabb on stage at Boomi World in Las Vegas, Nov. 6.)

BOOMI WORLD — Looking to broaden its integration platform as a service (iPaaS) portfolio, Dell Boomi is launching a new technology partner program designed to make it easier for ISVs, systems integrators (SIs) and developers to build connectors between various applications and platforms.

The company revealed the new program at the Dell Boomi Partner Summit this week, on the eve of its second annual Boomi World conference in Las Vegas. Dell Boomi is regarded as a leading iPaaS provider, which provides interoperability among different applications and platforms, though it faces increased competition from MuleSoft, acquired by Salesforce.com in March for $6.5 billion.

MuleSoft’s key advantage is its API gateway, which Dell Boomi is now addressing with the new technology partner program. It includes the release of a software development kit (SDK), development and testing resources, support, training and marketing support.

While Dell Boomi will roll out its own API gateway in January as part of its expanded iPasS portfolio, the company wants to make it easier for its variety of ISV, SI and solution provider partners to build connectors. The new technology partner program is already available to partners.

“They get the SDK, they get the ability to build connectors and they can test interoperability compatibility with their solutions on the platform and get resources from Boomi,” said David Tavolaro, VP of global business development at Dell Boomi.

Tavolaro, who leads Dell Boomi’s partner program, said 65 percent of its business is indirect. The company also is looking to make it easier for partners that don’t have developer skills in the Boomi iPaaS platform to build connectors.

David Tavolaro

Dell Boomi now has 350 partners and Tavolaro said the company is looking strategically to add partners as its core iPaaS platform addresses key business and IT transformation opportunities, including tying data from the edge via IoT capabilities and blockchain.

Jade Global is a systems-integration partner that last year started using Boomi for large clients looking to provide connectivity among various data silos. Vinit Verma, associate director of integration at Jade Global, welcomes the new SDK.

“It will help us build our own connectors,” Verma said, noting he’s looking to integrate Microsoft Teams with Confluence, pending the release of the APIs from Microsoft.

A new capability called Connect Now is now able to provide a self-service function for OEM partners – primarily ISVs – as well as their customers. Tavolaro said this will reduce resistance among partners that lack these skills.

“The benefit for embedded partners for that is if they push the Connect Now capability into their product and then obviously offer it embedded to their end customers, it can take some of the risk out of the embedded partners’ need to be able to do that integration, which is a sales hurdle,” Tavolaro said.

Boomi’s business has grown 80 percent over the past year, said CEO Chris McNabb, who noted that the company has 7,500 enterprise customers. McNabb emphasized the role the company’s partners have played in that growth.

“Those partners are executing over 1,000 projects in 35 countries today as we continue to work with them,” McNabb said. “It’s our partners experience and expertise that bring unique capabilities, allowing you to shorten the time that your projects take, allowing you to complete your projects faster and quicker than ever before.”

Dell Technologies CEO Michael Dell joined McNabb on stage to emphasize Dell Boomi’s role in the parent company’s focus on accelerating digital-transformation initiatives. Dell acquired Boomi eight years ago, after the company helped address its own need to integrate different solutions.

“A lot of customers struggle with the change management and need our help, so we recognize that,” Dell said. “So we’re doing more to make it easy to implement services; obviously, the ecosystem partners play a big role.”