How to choose the right integration technology: Steps, pitfalls and real-world lessons

Why do so many integration projects stall before they even start? It’s not due to a lack of options, it’s because the wrong technology gets chosen in the first place. Buried in product comparisons and vendor promises, many organisations overlook the fundamental question: What do we actually need?

Selecting an integration platform isn’t just a box-ticking exercise, it’s a decision that affects your organisation’s agility, security posture and ability to deliver services. Get it right, and you’ll build reliable connections between teams, systems and partners. Get it wrong, and you may face delays, cost overruns and brittle architecture that resists change.

This guide is for decision-makers who want clarity, not buzzwords. It sets out a practical approach to choosing integration technology based on real-world requirements, long-term strategy and critical thinking.

What is a technology selection process?

A technology selection process is a structured method that helps organisations identify the most appropriate tools to support a specific set of goals or solve defined problems. In the case of integration technology, this process ensures that the chosen tools align with your organisation’s technical requirements, business goals, regulatory obligations and internal capabilities.

Rather than starting with vendor demos or price comparisons, a good selection process begins with understanding your organisation’s context: the systems already in place, the challenges faced by teams, the direction of future digital initiatives and the constraints imposed by budget or regulation. Only then does it move into defining criteria, exploring available options and validating them in practice.

A disciplined approach to technology selection not only improves decision-making, but also builds stakeholder buy-in and reduces the risk of costly implementation failures. It shifts the focus away from short-term fixes and toward sustainable, strategic investment.

Common integration technology types

Before you begin evaluating vendors or planning a proof of concept, it’s crucial to understand the main categories of integration technologies available today. Each has distinct characteristics, strengths and limitations, and the best choice will depend on your use cases, architecture and internal resources.

Below are the main categories of integration technologies your organisation should be familiar with:

iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service)

iPaaS solutions are cloud-based platforms designed to connect applications and data across both cloud and on-premises environments. They typically provide a visual interface, prebuilt connectors and built-in monitoring capabilities. These platforms are particularly effective for organisations that require faster project delivery, reduced infrastructure management and broad support for both legacy and modern systems.

Key characteristics:

• Hosted and managed in the cloud.
• Offers low-code design for faster configuration.
• Supports a wide range of data formats and protocols.

Well-suited for: organisations looking to standardise integrations across teams, adopt cloud-native infrastructure, or modernise legacy connectivity.

API Management Platforms

API management platforms are focused on creating, publishing and governing APIs at scale. These tools provide a centralised point of control for managing security, rate limiting, versioning and analytics. They’re essential for organisations that are adopting an API-first approach or building digital ecosystems involving partners and third-party developers.

Key characteristics:

• Manages API lifecycle from design to retirement.
• Includes developer portals, security enforcement and analytics.
• Often integrates with identity and access management tools.

Well-suited for: public-facing services, internal APIs and partner integrations where security, visibility and control are priorities.

Enterprise Service Buses (ESBs)

ESBs are middleware solutions that facilitate communication between applications using messaging, transformation and orchestration. They support synchronous and asynchronous patterns and are often found in larger, complex IT environments with diverse technologies.

Key characteristics:

• Designed for enterprise-scale integration.
• Strong in message routing, protocol bridging and orchestration.
• Typically run on-premises, though cloud-native ESBs are emerging.

Well-suited for: organisations with established infrastructure needing complex, message-based workflows across multiple systems.

Event-Driven and Streaming Platforms

These technologies are designed to process and act upon real-time events. Using publish-subscribe models, they allow systems to respond immediately to changes in data, system status or user behaviour. Platforms like Apache Kafka or AWS EventBridge fall into this category.

Key characteristics:

• Supports real-time, high-throughput data movement.
• Enables microservices and decoupled architectures.
• Designed for scalability and resilience.

Well-suited for: scenarios involving real-time analytics, IoT, fraud detection, or any system that must react to data as it’s generated.

Hybrid and Modular Platforms

Hybrid integration platforms are built to bridge legacy and modern systems across diverse environments. They often combine elements of iPaaS, API management and ESB in a modular way. These platforms allow teams to incrementally modernise without needing to replace everything at once.

Key characteristics:

• Supports multiple deployment models: on-premises, cloud and hybrid.
• Provides unified monitoring and management.
• Flexible licensing and modular architecture.

Well-suited for: organisations with mixed environments or those taking a phased approach to digital transformation.

Key steps to select the right integration technology

Selecting the most appropriate integration technology requires more than a feature checklist. It demands a careful, sequential approach that brings together strategy, technical evaluation and real-world validation. Here's how to approach it in a structured, logical way:

Step 1: Define your business and technical requirements

Start by clarifying the problems you need to solve and the outcomes you expect. Define the goals behind your integration efforts. Are you aiming to connect cloud services, retire legacy systems, or support a digital transformation initiative? Articulate expected results in terms of data availability, service speed, operational efficiency, or compliance posture.

On the technical side, gather details about the systems involved, data formats, security standards and operational environments. Document performance expectations, availability targets and any architectural constraints.

Step 2: Assess your current IT landscape and skills

You can’t plan the route without knowing your starting point.
Before committing to any technology, take stock of your current environment. What integration tools are already in use? What’s working and what’s creating bottlenecks?

Equally important is assessing internal skill sets. Do you have middleware experts, data engineers, or developers comfortable with APIs? Or would a low-code solution be a better fit? This step helps determine whether to upskill, hire, or rely on external partners during implementation.

Step 3: Prioritise integration use cases

Focus brings impact.
It’s tempting to look for a tool that can do everything. But not all use cases are equally urgent or valuable.

Identify and prioritise the top integration scenarios that align with your business needs. Examples may include connecting a new CRM to your ERP, enabling real-time partner onboarding, or automating regulatory reporting. By focusing on high-priority use cases, your evaluation becomes far more targeted and relevant.

Step 4: Shortlist candidate platforms

With clear needs and priorities, you’re ready to narrow the field.
Now begin market research. Look for tools that align with your use cases, technical constraints and cloud strategies (e.g., Azure, AWS, Boomi, WSO2).

Review independent analyst reports, case studies and platform certifications. Contact technology partners to request demos tailored to your needs. Evaluate support models, pricing transparency and strategic roadmap alignment.

Step 5: Run Proof-of-Concept (PoC) pilots

Theory only gets you so far, now it’s time to test.
Select one or two platforms from your shortlist and design a focused PoC. Aim to simulate real integration scenarios, including error handling, performance under load, data mapping and security configuration.

This hands-on step will surface limitations that marketing materials won’t show. Involve your development, security and operations teams early to get a holistic view.

Step 6: Evaluate vendor support and ecosystem

You’re not just choosing a tool, you’re joining a community.
Platform longevity and success often depend on what surrounds the product. Evaluate the maturity of documentation, availability of training, responsiveness of support and presence of a partner network.

A strong ecosystem not only accelerates your implementation but also ensures you’re never solving problems alone.

Step 7: Analyse long-term TCO and scalability

Don’t just look at licensing, look at the full cost of ownership.
Calculate beyond the initial licensing fee. Include development effort, training needs, runtime expenses, platform maintenance and future expansion scenarios.

Assess scalability in terms of performance, integration volume, geographic reach and the ability to adapt to new business models or acquisitions.

Step 8: Align with Governance and security policies

Last but never least is trust and compliance.
Your chosen integration platform must fit within your organisation’s broader security and governance frameworks.

Ensure that it supports your data classification policies, auditability standards, encryption protocols, identity management systems and data residency needs. 

Technology integration assessment checklist

Before committing to any platform, it’s vital to carry out a thorough internal assessment. This checklist is designed to help your organisation evaluate both your needs and the suitability of different integration technologies in a structured and objective way:

Real-world examples

These organisations faced complex, high-stakes integration challenges and used structured evaluation processes to choose the best-fit technology. Here's how they did it:

Sky: Transforming customer self-service with Boomi

Industry: Media & Telecommunications
Use case: Modernising customer service by integrating diagnostic tools

The challenge:
Sky UK was managing more than 20 disparate service and diagnostic systems. This fragmentation resulted in inconsistent customer experiences, increased call centre pressure and delays in issue resolution. The need was clear: integrate these systems in real time to support a unified self-service interface for over 24 million customers.

The process:

• Sky conducted a Proof of Concept focused on integrating service data into a real-time view.
• Chose Boomi iPaaS due to its ability to handle hybrid environments (on-prem and cloud), low-code tooling and fast API orchestration.
• Emphasised minimal disruption to critical legacy systems.

The result:

• Launched the “Future Assurance View,” a new self-service tool that consolidated technical diagnostics across platforms.
• Reduced average handling time in call centres by improving visibility.
• Recognised at the National Technology Awards for enterprise innovation.

Why it worked: Boomi offered real-time orchestration with rapid development cycles, critical for a consumer-facing transformation.

Barclays: Ensuring regulatory compliance with Boomi scribe

Industry: Financial Services
Use case: Automating integration documentation across business units

The challenge:
Barclays, operating in one of the most heavily regulated sectors, faced growing pressure to standardise how integration flows were documented and validated. Teams across different regions and legacy systems lacked consistency, risking non-compliance with FCA and internal audit standards.

The process:

• Conducted an internal assessment revealing high effort required for manual documentation.
• Piloted Boomi Scribe, an AI-powered documentation module integrated with Boomi’s platform.
• Focused on generating auto-updated records of integration changes and access flows.

The result:

• Reduced audit preparation time by 30% across EMEA.
• Achieved standardisation in how integrations were documented, versioned and reviewed.
• Enabled faster onboarding of new regulatory requirements.

Why it worked: Barclays combined a platform already embedded in their stack (Boomi) with advanced documentation automation to address compliance at scale

Guy’s & St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust: Simplifying NHS system integration

Industry: Healthcare
Use case: Streamlining integration documentation and oversight in a high-compliance environment

The challenge:
The Trust operates a complex mix of systems: EHRs, appointment platforms, external referral services, all of which must be integrated, secured and auditable. Keeping technical documentation up to date was time-consuming and inconsistent, especially during NHS Digital audits.

The process:

• Piloted Boomi Scribe to auto-document integrations between core healthcare platforms.
• Focused on interoperability standards like HL7 and NHS Spine integrations.
• Used Boomi’s visual tools to share flows with governance teams.

The result:

• Reduced documentation effort by 60%.
• Gained better visibility over patient data flows and integration bottlenecks.
• Passed multiple audit reviews with minimal remediation required.

Why it worked: Automation through Boomi Scribe allowed the Trust to shift resources from documentation to delivery, while meeting strict governance requirements.

Conclusion

Every connection you build today shapes your organisation’s ability to respond tomorrow. Too often, organisations rush into decisions based on familiarity, marketing noise or urgency, only to find themselves locked into tools that limit more than they enable. But integration should not be a constraint, it should be an accelerator.

This is your opportunity to rethink what integration means for your future.

A well-chosen platform can break silos, simplify complexity and prepare you for the changes you can’t yet predict. It allows teams to build with confidence, adapt with speed and deliver with integrity. And most importantly, it gives you control over your data and how you use it.

If you’re at a crossroads facing legacy constraints, entering a cloud transformation, or simply unsure of the next step, don’t decide in isolation.

At Claria, we help organisations make integration a competitive advantage. Contact us today to explore your options, validate your thinking, or simply gain a trusted perspective. 

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Mariluz Usero

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