Digitization helper - Flexibly usable cloud services

The topics of digitization and cloud services are linked almost like Siamese twins. There is hardly a company for which the use of cloud services is not also on the digitization agenda in order to design and implement end-to-end digital business models or also to put new productivity offensives into practice without delay.

And for good reasons: On the one hand, cloud services are a very effective means of making uncomplicated use of IT resources such as hardware, software and technological expertise in accordance with pay-as-use models.

Costly investments, which often take a disproportionately long time to implement, are simply not necessary when moving to a cloud environment. This applies to investments in hardware and software as well as to the provision of human resources.

This allows companies to focus more on their own core competencies and at the same time deploy profitable digitization assistants.

On the other hand, best-practice functionalities or required prefabricated process modules can be used quickly via the Cloud lever - either only a few or also very many at once. They are called up in accordance with cloud principles via clearly defined interfaces and booked simply and straightforwardly in self-service.

In a nutshell, cloud services offer increased flexibility for companies. Furthermore, market participants in the so-called old economy can drive forward what has been achieved on the basis of new technologies such as IoT, machine learning or big data. And this can be done without having to neglect the business, which has been successful to date, while at the same time meeting departmental demands for greater agility.

On top of that, cloud services often make it possible for disruptive business models to come to fruition or for innovations to be realized.

Operating models as required

As is well known, the range of different cloud services has increased significantly, especially in recent years, and in all cloud fields. Be it in the IaaS, PaaS, SaaS area or also as far as value-added services beyond this are concerned.

Of course, the topic of software-as-a-service with a focus on communication, monitoring and application services or the exchange of EDI messages with business partners is by no means left out.

Ideally, business integration or data exchange vendors support multiple services and operating models according to the needs of different customer groups.

This means that both private and public cloud services are offered to meet a wide range of requirements.

Public cloud services are practically always immediately usable standardized functional modules that already cover very far-reaching technical and business integration topics as well as take into account a large number of requirements when it comes to data exchange.

Mechanisms and procedures are implemented here that can be booked easily and in a time-appropriate manner, especially by specialist departments, with the self-service concept being the main focus here.

This extends to the possibility that employees in purchasing, design, production, controlling, sales/marketing, and IT departments, for example, can configure cloud services entirely on their own and thus use them without specialized expertise.

Provided private cloud services focus primarily on challenging integration issues, which are often also operated in a (dedicated) private cloud cell.

Larger companies are happy to make use of this service. Specifically, for example, when it comes to EDI messages having to be handled in a special or particular way; or when very high demands are placed on the throughput of EDI messages.

In this context, it is advantageous for private cloud customers if user companies are supported by special operating teams with extended services that go beyond purely technical cloud services support.

Such flexibly combinable additional services range, for example, from 24/7 support to complete all-round support in terms of business-to-business integration or data exchange.

In this context, practical cloud deployment, such as the use of the Seeburger Cloud, has shown that mixed operating models often prove their worth and are preferred by user companies.

Specifically, the company's own integration system (in Seeburger's case, the Business Integration Suite, BIS) is used on-premise and standardized public cloud services are used for the realization of specialized tasks.

For example, services for specialist departments: from solutions for exchanging engineering data and specialized services relating to electronic invoicing to services/solutions for supporting digital processes in the energy industry.

Hybrid cloud computing, a combination of private and standardized public cloud services, is also often used. The advantages of this are obvious: customers benefit from greater private cloud services flexibility on the one hand and optimized cost-effectiveness through standardized public cloud services on the other.

Requirements for professional cloud use

As already mentioned, companies today are in a comfortable situation of being able to fall back on cloud services for (almost) all purposes. Nevertheless, it should be pointed out that the cloud usage of provider X may very well differ from provider Y.

What are the key points here? What are the main aspects to pay attention to from the user's point of view? Or: Which important requirements should a cloud provider fulfill in the area of business integration or data exchange?

From the customer's point of view, the first priority is or must be to ensure highly secure cloud operation with strict specifications and controls. As a rule, this goes beyond what a customer's own operation is capable of, similar to managed hosting (keyword: emergency power generators or systems with multiple redundancies, up to data centers separated across continents, flexible adaptation of the infrastructure to computing power, bandwidths or even the creation of additional communication nodes in different countries, such as China).

This means that operation must be carried out by a cloud provider in German or local data centers, and certifications or audits (such as ISO 27001 or ISAE3402) must be verifiable.

Cloud providers also have formalized processes in terms of change management, reporting management (also in accordance with customer requirements) and escalation management.

In addition, it is essential that a cloud provider in general and those of business-to-business (B2B) services in particular both have internal operating processes in place and also work through them in a standardized manner at a high level. This is by no means the case everywhere.

If necessary, customers should also have optional access to dedicated service managers at the cloud provider. It is also essential to provide and ensure high SLAs, even for power-just-in-time B2B processes.

For example, in the high-performance processing of an immense number of EDI orders in a very narrow time window (for example, the processing of millions of EDI data in just a few hours).

Booming cloud services

At Seeburger, as a B2B specialist with over 30 years of experience in the field of business integration and a long-standing cloud provider, the services purchased by customers via the cloud have steadily increased.

They have a proven track record of helping companies with their digitization projects and offer support for special requirements from specialist departments (line-of-business services), for all integration tasks with comprehensive integration services, and for issues that require companies to cooperate closely with other companies (when setting up and operating digital ecosystems).

Seeburger pursues a stringent single-platform strategy. This means that all solutions offered by the company can be implemented and operated identically and with the same range of functions as cloud services or as on-premise solutions. This also accommodates any in-sourcing that may be considered at a later date. And without any out-of-round costs or cost intensity.

Steady expansion

The offerings for registered users of the Seeburger Cloud are diverse and are continuously being expanded, ranging from cross-industry services for the rapid connection of business partners to special tools for handling industry-specific requirements.

Using the cloud services is extremely simple. After registering free of charge, users can obtain information on the portal and book one or more services as required.

The costs are charged monthly depending on the actual usage. When business partners are connected, their access to the portal is also free of charge. The particular advantage of the Seeburger Cloud lies in its network character, i.e. the constantly increasing number of participating companies.

For example, suppliers who supply several customers in the Seeburger Cloud do not have to be connected by each company individually at great expense, but are available "at the click of a mouse" with all relevant information.