Integration
Feb 22, 2025
·
6
minutes read
Integration maintenance is a critical task for modern businesses, but it comes with challenges that can strain resources and impact growth. Here's a quick overview of the main problems and solutions:
By adopting these strategies, businesses can reduce costs, improve scalability, and ensure smoother operations. For a deeper dive into each solution and real-world examples, keep reading.
Integration maintenance can drain resources and slow down progress. Here are some of the most common challenges organizations face:
Third-party APIs often introduce changes or behave in unexpected ways, causing frequent headaches for engineering teams. Here are some typical breaking changes and their effects:
| Common API Breaking Changes | Impact on Integration |
|---|---|
| Endpoint URL modifications | Integration stops functioning entirely |
| Response field renaming | Causes data mapping failures |
| Authentication updates | Breaks the connection |
| New mandatory fields | Existing requests fail |
| Data type changes | Leads to processing errors |
These changes can disrupt workflows, requiring constant monitoring and adjustments to keep integrations running smoothly.
As businesses grow, maintaining custom integrations becomes increasingly difficult and costly. Large enterprises, for example, spend an average of $3.5 million annually on labor costs for custom integrations . Despite using an average of 843 applications, only 29% of these are properly integrated .
MuleSoft CEO Brent Hayward highlights the issue:
"Organizations across industries have experienced a rapid shift toward interacting with customers and employees through digital channels... Companies that empower their IT and business teams to easily integrate apps and data will be able to unlock the full capacity within their organization to drive innovation at scale and gain competitive edge."
This lack of integration not only adds complexity but also limits the ability to scale efficiently.
Integration maintenance takes a toll on engineering teams, affecting their productivity and focus. IT teams spend over one-third of their time on integration projects , pulling them away from core product development. This leads to:
Only 26% of organizations use project resource management tools to effectively allocate resources . Adding new customers to the mix makes these challenges even harder to manage, emphasizing the need for more efficient solutions.
The next sections will explore targeted strategies to address these ongoing integration issues.
Creating standardized integration methods helps reduce maintenance challenges and ensures systems are easier to scale. Here's a breakdown of key elements:
| Component | Purpose | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Documented ETL processes | Defines clear rules for data handling | Reduces errors |
| Unified naming conventions | Promotes consistency across systems | Eases troubleshooting |
| Version control standards | Tracks updates effectively | Simplifies rollbacks |
| Data transformation rules | Maintains data quality | Boosts processing efficiency |
These practices form a solid base, making it easier to adopt agile development strategies.
Low-code platforms are changing the game for integration maintenance. According to projections, 65% of application development will rely on low-code platforms by 2024 . Here's how they compare to traditional methods:
| Aspect | Low-Code | Traditional |
|---|---|---|
| Development Cost | Lower, fewer coding resources | Higher, requires specialists |
| Implementation Speed | Hours instead of weeks | Weeks to months |
| Required Expertise | Moderate technical skills | Advanced technical skills |
| Maintenance Burden | Much lighter | Intensive and ongoing |
Take Laminar as an example: it uses low-code tools to shift integration tasks outside the core codebase. This approach cuts deployment time from weeks to hours, freeing up engineering teams without compromising quality or scalability.
To keep integrations running smoothly, regular monitoring is essential. A strong monitoring system should include:
These practices ensure your integrations remain efficient, reliable, and easy to maintain over time.
Good documentation should include technical details (like authentication flows, rate limits, and API endpoints), business logic (use cases, data mappings, validation rules), maintenance procedures (such as troubleshooting steps and backup processes), and change management (update histories and rollback procedures).
Here’s a practical example: In March 2023, Mailchimp's client Spotify managed to lower email bounce rates from 12.3% to 2.1% within 60 days. They achieved this by adopting detailed documentation practices as part of their Email Verification API rollout, successfully managing a massive 45-million-subscriber database .
Thorough documentation not only simplifies troubleshooting but also ensures secure and scalable integrations.
Lapses in integration security can lead to serious risks. Take the 2013 Target breach, for instance - credit and debit card data for over 40 million customers, along with personal details of about 70 million individuals, were compromised . To avoid such disasters, organizations should focus on these key security measures:
| Security Layer | Implementation | Impact |
|---|---|---|
| Authentication | OAuth tokens, API keys, JWT | Ensures secure identity verification |
| Access Control | Role-based permissions, MFA | Reduces risk of unauthorized access |
| Data Protection | TLS/SSL encryption, secure vaults | Safeguards sensitive information |
| Monitoring | Real-time alerts, audit logs | Enables early detection of threats |
Regular security audits and penetration testing are also essential to maintain a strong defense.
The tools you use for integration play a big role in supporting these security practices.
Low-code platforms have made integration easier by separating integration tasks from the core codebase. According to Merge, a platform serving over 10,000 organizations, including Korn Ferry and Navan, the right tools should simplify maintenance. Merge’s platform alone has handled over 80 million API responses .
When selecting tools, consider these factors:
Choosing the right tools ensures smoother integrations and long-term operational efficiency.
Integration maintenance has evolved, with standardized processes and low-code platforms leading the way. According to an IDC report, organizations using these approaches have seen enhanced efficiency and reliability, achieving a 509% ROI over five years through low-code and intelligent process automation solutions .
By adopting unified methodologies and approved tools, companies have managed to speed up delivery times and simplify the integration of new data sources. This approach addresses challenges like API changes, scaling custom integrations, and limited resources effectively . The financial advantages also highlight the growing preference for scalable, integrated solutions.
For context, traditional in-house integrations can cost more than $620,000 annually, while standardized platforms significantly reduce these expenses . The low-code market's forecasted growth to $187 billion by 2030 further underscores this shift .
Industry experts emphasize:
"Standardized processes are inherently optimized for efficiency, eliminating unnecessary steps, redundancies, and bottlenecks that can hinder productivity." - SixSigma.us
To stay ahead, organizations need tools and strategies that simplify complexity while allowing for scalability. By leveraging standardized methods, low-code platforms, and strong security practices, teams can overcome critical challenges like unpredictable API changes and engineering bottlenecks. This approach ensures smooth, secure, and scalable integrations for long-term success.
