We perform an in-depth analysis of customers current and future Integration needs to recommend a solid Cloud Integrations strategy, this article serves as an introduction to some of the basic concepts, differences and similarities between SAP CPI and Dell Boomi. Each customer has distinct Business requirements, so the tools of choice for Integrations are purely subjective to their business needs.
SAP Cloud Platform Integration and Dell Boomi deliver an effective, centralized platform for enterprise-grade integration. In general, Most of the SAP customers are now choosing SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) as an alternative to Dell Boomi for new SuccessFactors Integration projects compared to the time when Dell Boomi was the preferred/only tool of choice for SuccessFactors.
Boomi developers may recognize similarities and can relate to SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) at a high level but there are definitely some differences up close.
SAP Cloud Platform Integration and Dell Boomi Differences Between Companies:
Development
There are a few differences in how the process flows are developed in SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) and Dell Boomi, but the ideas of Message connectivity, transformation and routing are similar.
Dell Boomi and SAP CPI both package an integration into Process or Iflows but the theme of stateful persistent integration is common.
Dell Boomi Process-
SAP CPI iFlows-
While Dell Boomi has increasingly rolled out standard connectors available, SAP CPI is viewed as a superior fit within SAP ecosystem since it can utilize SAP system authorizations (SID) for its connectivity and SAP Cloud Connector for its on-premise SAP system access.
On-Premise Connectivity
Dell Boomi and SAP CPI have abundant connectivity options to 3rd party applications but for its On-Premise connectivity needs, they both have different approach. CPI uses SAP Cloud Connector which only works with SAP Cloud Platform products. Dell Boomi requires installing Local on-premise Atom for integrating Intranet applications.
Dell Boomi On-Premise Atom -
SAP CPI - Cloud Connector -
Mapping Types
SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) follows the same SAP PI/PO approach of mapping XML only data. On the other hand, Dell Boomi gives you the flexibility to map Non-XML structures which saves some development steps. The Mapping between XML message and File based schemas, a common scenario for many customers is a multi-step process in SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI).
SAP CPI has a different layout for working on field mapping compared to Dell Boomi, but the differences are more in the look and feel rather than functionally. Individual field mapping functions are mostly similar on the two platforms. Developers moving from SAP PI/PO will find almost all the functions present in SAP CPI.
SAP CPI Mapping screens
Dell Boomi Mapping screens
Change Management
In SAP CPI, the developer has the responsibility to maintain the version of artifacts. There are separate buttons for “Save” and “Save as version.” You could leave an iflow artifact in “Draft” status which is sometimes confusing when multiple developers are working in the systems. In Dell Boomi, this challenges of artifact version management is not that apparent.
In Dell Boomi, every time the user saves a change to a Process, a new version is generated that can be restored easily.
Differentiating between ‘saving’ & ‘saving as version’, Dell Boomi results in creating lot of versions and finding the right one can get tricky in case of restore is required. However, in CPI users can maintain a cleaner history with only necessary versions but it must be performed diligently by the developers each time they make a change.
At ABUSINESS, we solve SAP CPI iFlow version management problem beautifully using DOST Add-On® which addresses the Content Management challenges, gives SAP CPI platform extra points when it comes to user-experience, availability of enterprise Governance and Risk-control enabled solution.
Contact us to learn more about DOST Add-On® solutions for SAP CPI integrations for different types of companies.
User/Developer Experience
The SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) interface has some UI hiccups that distinguish it from Dell Boomi which can definitely be improved.
While SAP CPI is constantly improving, organizations running stable Dell Boomi environments are reluctant to make a switch to SAP CPI especially when it comes to Developer experience. Dell Boomi’s drag and drop method of working with components into a process is better and more fluid compared to SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI) click to point click method.
Dell Boomi has a slight advantage in its UI offering for integration design-time environment but SAP has been significantly fixing the shortcomings present in its older SAP CPI releases before 2018. Being on cloud, the customers never noticed downtime when these improvements were being rolled out however we still suggest a long way to go for SAP in rolling out a more delighted developer user experience (especially the message mapping GUI).
SAP Cloud Platform Integration and Dell Boomi Similarities Between Companies:
Deployment Model - Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS)
The capacities of SAP CPI/Dell Boomi are genuinely comparable as both are Integration platform as a Service tools (iPaaS) and support primarily cloud integrations. Dell Boomi is web-based, however, you can deploy it locally or in the cloud. SAP CPI, then again, is a web-based but deployment is on SAP cloud-only.
Scripting/Custom Coding
Dell Boomi developers familiar with Groovy script will be happy to see that it’s also supported in SAP CPI in addition to JavaScript.
The SAP CPI web UI is not the greatest for scripting and debugging, but in recent times we have seen significant improvement related to session caching and recovery of unsaved data in case of session loss.
SAP Cloud Platform Integration and Dell Boomi Features:
SAP Cloud Platform Integration (CPI)
- Integrate processes and data for A2A & B2B scenarios
- Customize SAP integration scenarios
- Very Suitable for SAP Integrations and beyond
- Safe and reliable processing and data integration
- Pre-packaged integration content
- Public APIs
- Custom adapters
- Integrate applications, data sources from SAP, non-SAP & on-premise as well as in the cloud etc…
Dell Boomi
- Leader in iPaaS category
- Create and publish integration processes
- Very Suitable for Non-SAP budgeted integration scenarios
- Build custom, semi-custom integrations
- Enterprise-grade security and scalability
- Low-code integration platform
- Connect existing IT systems and assets etc...
Conclusion
SAP Cloud Platform Integration and Dell Boomi are similar enough “Functionally” for developers to adapt to the newer platform quickly.
Dell Boomi established itself earlier in the game as Leader in the iPaaS category but as ABUSINESS predicted years ago SAP will eventually mature its Cloud Computing iPaaS platform and take away a significant market share of the pie with the help of its S/4HANA, C/4HANA, SuccessFactors, Hybris, etc. customers.
Hope these similarities, differences, benefits, and features will help you select an effective platform for your Cloud Integrations. For more information you can visit the SAP help portal.
SAP Customers
ABUSINESS recommends choosing SAP CPI paired with SAP cloud technology platform services for its holistic capabilities within and outside of the SAP ecosystem, especially for customers running S4HANA, C4HANA, SAP ERP, SAP HCM, SAP CRM cloud applications as their digital core.
Non-SAP Customers
Customers who do not have any significant SAP system touchpoints may be better off running Dell Boomi as their cloud integration platform. Dell Boomi wins points when it comes to cost and non-SAP world scalable designs.
Cloud Platform Integrations
We specialize in SAP CPI/Dell Boomi implementations and Enterprise Application Integration(EAI) advisory services with the best customer experience.
Contact us at info@abusinesstech.com to discuss your Cloud Integration strategy!
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