This month: Top 5 Integration Challenges and a RAML introduction. We had a great discussion on the perception of Integration, the reality to pre-packaged integrations, overcoming growing system landscape complexity, API ownership, and the importance of integration in achieving decentralisation. Be sure to join the next meetup https://www.meetup.com/London-Mule-ESB-Meetup/

1. LONDON MULESOFT USER
COMMUNITY.
SEPTEMBER 2016.

2. AGENDA.
EACH COMMUNITY SESSION WILL CONTAIN A
TOPIC ON INTEGRTION STRATEGY AS WELL AS DEEP
DIVE ON A PARTICULAR TECHNOLOGY HOT TOPIC.
JOIN IN THE OPEN DISCUSSION AMONGST FELLOW
INTEGRATION PRACTIONERS.
Welcome to the relaunch of the London MuleSoft Community.
We want to hear from you!
INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMUNITY
Pace Integration lead a session to discuss the top 5 integration
challenges facing enterprises today. Be ready for debate!
TOP 5 INTEGRATION CHALLENGES
Hear from our resident MuleSoft expert on the latest in RAML,
and how the MuleSoft platform makes life easy for those
designing APIs.
INTRODUCTION TO RAML
01
02
03
This is what the community is about – not just the beers and
pizza – but the opportunity to network with your peers.
Q&A, DRINKS AND MEET & GREET
04

3. THE COMMUNITY.
This is your chance, be part of the exciting and
dynamic world of the connected enterprise.
Share your integration experiences both
good and bad.
A safe environment to learn and share with
your peers.
Build your network and discuss a variety of topics key to
successful enterprise integration with the Mulesoft
Anypoint Platform.
We want the community to be interactive.

4. GREAT TOPICS.
SAP Integration with Mule
We have some initial ideas on topics, but want this to
be shaped by YOU. Tell us what’s important in the
community, a huge challenge, a great achievement.
DevOps for Mulesoft
What is C4E?
API Security
Marketing APIs
HR Integration
DTC & Commerce
Industry 4.0
Pace Layering
Interface Monitoring and Operations
File Integration with Cloud Hub
Hybrid Integration Patterns
API Led Connectivity
MuleSoft Workday Connector
Firewalls & Connectivity & CloudHub Configurations
DevOps tool configuration with Mulesoft
Business Logic within Anypoint
ELK Solution For Mule
MFT, File Sharing (S3)
How Mulesoft works with traditional ESBs
IOT scenarios + Anypoint Edge
STRATEGY TECHNOLOGY

5. AGENDA.
EACH COMMUNITY SESSION WILL CONTAIN A
TOPIC ON INTEGRTION STRATEGY AS WELL AS DEEP
DIVE ON A PARTICULAR TECHNOLOGY HOT TOPIC.
JOIN IN THE OPEN DISCUSSION AMONGST FELLOW
INTEGRATION PRACTIONERS.
Welcome to the relaunch of the London MuleSoft
Community. We want to hear from you!
INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMUNITY
Pace Integration lead a session to discuss the top 5 integration
challenges facing enterprises today. Be ready for debate!
TOP 5 INTEGRATION CHALLENGES
Hear from our resident MuleSoft expert on the latest in RAML,
and how the MuleSoft platform makes life easy for those
designing APIs.
INTRODUCTION TO RAML
01
02
03
This is what the community is about – not just the beers and
pizza – but the opportunity to network with your peers.
Q&A, DRINKS AND MEET & GREET
04

6. PACE IS A SPECIALIST TECH CONSULTANCY
FOCUSED ON ENTERPRISE SYSTEMS INTEGRATION
STRATEGY.
TOP 5 INTEGRATION
CHALLENGES

7. PERCEPTION.
“We don’t see things as they are.
We see them as we are.”
Anais Nin, Essayist

8. PERCEPTION.
Integration is often seen as a technical service, that is a back office activity.
• Integration is mission critical but is often seen as something that happens automatically.
• In the background project teams code point to point at what is perceived as a low cost,
commodity service.
• We all know integration is as much about understanding the business processes as it is about
the technology it’s implemented through.
• The true value of decoupled API led integration is unknown to companies – we as integration
practitioners face the challenge of tangibly showing the value.
The API revolution presents established integration capabilities the opportunity to reposition
themselves closer to the business & product owners. But changing culture and perception are
the most challenging within an organisation.

9. PRE-PACKAGED.

10. PRE-PACKAGED.
When advising your organisation on the integration needs of a given solution be wary of “out the
box” and use the community for guidance on real-experience with new vendors.
“Out-of-the-box functionality is a product that works immediately after
installation without any configuration or modification.”
• As Integration architects we have been advocates for reusable assets for years.
• In some cases the software vendors, particularly SaaS, market pre-delivered or pre-packaged
integration solutions that work “out the box”.
• However there is often hidden or embedded code that is customised for each end point (&
customer), rather than true accelerated packaged integrations.
• One of the worst examples are for "cartridge" based patterns where code is inserted on target
applications, often unsupported or running in a manner which does not provide resilience or
upgrades.

11. LANDSCAPE COMPLEXITY.
“Any intelligent fool can make things bigger and
more complex…it takes a touch of genius – and a
lot of courage to move in the opposite
direction.”
Albert Einstein

12. LANDSCAPE COMPLEXITY.
Without the appropriate amount of governance your enterprise integration landscape complexity
can rapidly increase leading to costly consolidation projects – get the right integration strategy
for your organisation in place upfront.
Increased access to low-entry SaaS solutions & traditional enterprise applications
leading to growth in the number of systems within large scale enterprises.
• Multiple technologies fulfilling the same business purpose, often leading to replication of data
models and business process interfaces.
• With integration and middleware applications underpinning the majority of these processes,
enterprises face the challenge of exponential growth of interfaces and middleware tools.
• A lack of a clear integration strategy quickly leads to increased costs, complexity and
frustration at the pace of change (always reinventing).

13. API OWNERSHIP.

14. API OWNERSHIP.
Whilst API familiarity is increasing, product ownership within the business can be
a challenge in cases where APIs are seen as technical.
Ownership of the APIs is key to ensuring API Lifecycle Management. A well defined API is more
than the technical realisation but rests with clear definition of process functionality – knowledge
that sits with the business.
• A good API requires clear product ownership, with an iterative and agile refresh process.
• This in itself creates challenges with how to blend the immediate API requirements, with
idyllic data modelling.
• The API owner needs to use the right tooling to ensure valuable APIs are documented and
adjusted according to the consumption requirements.
• Product owners typically in the business can be reluctant to accept APIs if seen as technical –
strong comms and education required to change perception.

15. DECENTRALISATION.
“The real trick in highly reliable systems is
somehow to achieve simultaneous centralization
and decentralization.”
Karl E. Weick, Organizational Theorist

16. DECENTRALISATION.
Highlight to your leadership that any decentralisation agenda will be dependent on LOBs being
able to commoditise services accessed via the integration layer. And whilst it’s positive it still
requires balanced governance to protect the core enterprise.
Whilst empowering business platforms, there is a key challenge in finding the right
level of self-service, balanced with need to protect core enterprise.
• Agile companies, promote the strategy of smaller DevOps teams, rather than centralised IT
functions, that often become a bottleneck with an "order taker" mentality.
• A massive challenge and cultural shift takes place in the IT functions to release the governance
models enable decentralised services.
• Line of business teams bypassing IT are likely to underestimate the challenges and risks of
integration.
• As integration is across business areas it plays a critical role by providing services that can be
easily consumed and drive speed.

17. AGENDA.
EACH COMMUNITY SESSION WILL CONTAIN A
TOPIC ON INTEGRTION STRATEGY AS WELL AS DEEP
DIVE ON A PARTICULAR TECHNOLOGY HOT TOPIC.
JOIN IN THE OPEN DISCUSSION AMONGST FELLOW
INTEGRATION PRACTIONERS.
Welcome to the relaunch of the London MuleSoft
Community. We want to hear from you!
INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMUNITY
Pace Integration lead a session to discuss the top 5 integration
challenges facing enterprises today. Be ready for debate!
TOP 5 INTEGRATION CHALLENGES
Hear from our resident MuleSoft expert on the latest in RAML,
and how the MuleSoft platform makes life easy for those
designing APIs.
INTRODUCTION TO RAML
01
02
03
This is what the community is about – not just the beers and
pizza – but the opportunity to network with your peers.
Q&A, DRINKS AND MEET & GREET
04

18. RAML SESSION.
We had such a good discussion on the first topic we didn’t get to present on RAML, but we’ll be
sure to include it one of our upcoming community of practice sessions.

19. AGENDA.
EACH COMMUNITY SESSION WILL CONTAIN A
TOPIC ON INTEGRTION STRATEGY AS WELL AS DEEP
DIVE ON A PARTICULAR TECHNOLOGY HOT TOPIC.
JOIN IN THE OPEN DISCUSSION AMONGST FELLOW
INTEGRATION PRACTIONERS.
Welcome to the relaunch of the London MuleSoft
Community. We want to hear from you!
INTRODUCTION TO THE COMMUNITY
Pace Integration lead a session to discuss the top 5 integration
challenges facing enterprises today. Be ready for debate!
TOP 5 INTEGRATION CHALLENGES
Hear from our resident MuleSoft expert on the latest in RAML,
and how the MuleSoft platform makes life easy for those
designing APIs.
INTRODUCTION TO RAML
01
02
03
This is what the community is about – not just the beers and
pizza – but the opportunity to network with your peers.
Q&A, DRINKS AND MEET & GREET
04

20. Sign-Up for MeetUp: meetup.com/London-Mule-ESB-Meetup/
Follow us on LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/pace-integration
Email: connect@paceintegration.com
NEXT SESSION: MuleSoft Summit, The Brewery,
London, Wednesday October 19th