Implications of Integration and Interoperability for Enterprise Cloud-Based Applications

Enterprise's adoption of cloud-based solutions is often hindered by problems associated with the integration of the cloud environment with on-premise systems. Currently, each cloud provider creates its proprietary application programming interfaces (APIs), which will complicate integration efforts for companies as they struggle to understand and manage these unique application interfaces in an interoperable way. This paper aims to address this challenge by providing recommendations to enterprises. The presented work is based on a quantitative study of 114 companies, which discuss current issues and future trends of integration and interoperability requirements for enterprise cloud application adoption and migration. The outcome of the discussion provides a guideline applicable to support decision makers, software architects and developers when considering to design and develop interoperable applications in order to avoid lock-in and integrate seamlessly into other cloud and on-premise systems.