I recently wrote a blog about the basics of SAP Cloud Platform Integration Services (CPIS) that explained at a high level how it worked. I received great feedback from customers on this topic. Since Boomi is used by many SAP SuccessFactors customers for integration today, several people asked me to write a follow-up that explains how the latest CPIS functionality stacks up against Boomi.
SAP Cloud Platform Integration Services vs. Boomi
Both SAP Cloud Platform Integration Services and Boomi deliver an effective, centralized platform for enterprise-grade integration. From a development perspective, there are some differences in how the process flows are constructed in CPIS and Boomi, but the concepts are similar. One initial difference is that while Boomi has more standard connectors available, CPIS is seen as a better fit with SAP technologies because it can use SAP role-based authorisations for its web services and because SAP Cloud Connector works only with CPIS.
From an operational perspective, the monitoring and tracing capabilities of CPIS and Boomi are fairly similar. Boomi is web-based only, but you can deploy it locally or in the cloud. CPIS, on the other hand, is web-based or local (Eclipse) based development, but deployment is cloud only (except SAP PI).
Here are a few other points about CPIS and Boomi:
- CPIS content can be re-used in SAP PI.
- CPIS allows you to download and distribute your project archive file. With Boomi, it can only be copied to another instance .
- CPIS integration definitions can be built in the Integration Center and exported, but those from Boomi cannot.
- CPIS includes many examples and templates that are relevant to SAP and SAP SuccessFactors integration and new SAP SuccessFactors reference content is only being developed for CPIS. For example, Employee Central Service Center integration is only available for CPIS. Boomi customers need to buy additional CPIS licenses.
- CPIS fits well into the broader SAP Cloud Platform landscape, which can include application development and hosting.
- CPIS allows for XSLT mapping, an alternative to graphical mapping that allows a much more flexible approach to transforming data.
- CPIS offers increased compatibility with SAP Process Orchestration and SAP Solution Manager.
- Some elements in CPIS, however (like certificates for SFTP), still require raising an OSS ticket with SAP.
Which should you choose?
While I feel there are significant benefits to SAP Cloud Platform Integration, some customers may still be on the fence. For SAP SuccessFactors customers, I think CPIS will be more suitable over the longer term, specifically with regards to pre-packaged content. However, for customers that are more interested in an ‘any-to-any’ integration, Boomi’s broader functionality in terms of adapters might appeal more right now.
Customers with SAP-specific integration needs will find SAP specialized integration resources aligning to CPIS more and more. This is important because the familiarity with SAP APIs can be crucial to successful integrations. Also, the availability of pre-packaged content can significantly reduce development costs and speed up learning.
