Originally reported by devops.com. Published August 2018.
Overview
SnapLogic announced a set of updates to its Enterprise Integration Cloud platform aimed at bringing enterprise data integration workflows directly into DevOps pipelines. The headline change is native GitHub support, allowing teams to store, share, and version-control Snap connector integrations alongside application code. Additional announcements included Mesosphere DC/OS platform integration, a new service catalog, enhancements to the Iris AI recommendation engine, and improved API monitoring and pipeline search tooling.
GitHub Support: Integrations as Code
The most significant DevOps-facing addition is the ability to store preconfigured integrations—built with SnapLogic’s Snap connectors—directly in GitHub repositories. According to Craig Stewart, Vice President of Product Management at SnapLogic, this change has two main benefits:
- Collaboration across skill levels: Developers at any experience level can share preconfigured integrations via the same GitHub repositories they already use for application code, lowering the barrier to reuse.
- CI/CD pipeline inclusion: DevOps teams can incorporate Snap connectors into continuous integration and continuous delivery (CI/CD) workflows, treating integration configurations as versioned artifacts rather than one-off configurations.
SnapLogic also introduced a Patterns Catalog to make it easier for developers to discover and reuse existing integration patterns. The catalog acts as a searchable library, reducing duplicated effort and encouraging standardization across teams.
Mesosphere DC/OS Integration and the Road to Kubernetes
SnapLogic added support for the Mesosphere DC/OS container orchestration platform, a feature driven by direct customer demand. Stewart noted that this is the first step in a broader container orchestration strategy, with planned support for Kubernetes to follow. At the time of the announcement, SnapLogic characterized Kubernetes as the emerging de facto standard for container orchestration—a prediction that has since proven accurate.
Iris AI Engine Updates: Bidirectional Pipeline Construction
SnapLogic’s Iris AI recommendation engine, which suggests Snap connectors as developers build integration pipelines, received a meaningful update to how it can be invoked:
- Previously: Iris started recommendations from the first Snap connector in the pipeline, working forward.
- New: Start from the last Snap. When a developer places the final Snap on the canvas first, the Integration Assistant now works backward, suggesting preceding Snaps until the pipeline is complete.
- New: Outside-in construction. Developers can place both the first and last Snaps on the canvas, and the Integration Assistant fills in the middle, working from both ends toward the center.
These options give teams more flexibility in how they design pipelines, particularly when the destination system or the source system is well-defined before the intermediate steps are determined.
API Monitoring and Pipeline Search Improvements
Alongside the major feature announcements, SnapLogic enhanced its tooling for operational visibility:
- API monitoring: Updated tools for tracking the health and performance of APIs managed through the platform.
- Pipeline search: Improved search capabilities to help teams locate broken or misconfigured integration pipelines more quickly, reducing mean time to resolution for integration failures.
The Citizen Integrator Model and Enterprise Data Utilization
Stewart framed these updates within a broader SnapLogic strategy around self-service integration. The goal is to enable so-called citizen integrators—non-developer business users within lines of business—to leverage prebuilt integration patterns created by central IT teams, without requiring deep technical expertise.
SnapLogic cited a survey of 500 IT decision-makers conducted by Vanson Bourne on its behalf, which found that organizations were, on average, using only about half the data they collect, and that data influenced fewer than half of business decisions. The survey projected significant spending increases to operationalize data over the following five years.
The practical implication for DevOps teams is that integration is no longer solely an IT concern. As citizen integrators take on more responsibility, the need for reusable, version-controlled, and pipeline-compatible integration patterns becomes a genuine DevOps challenge—one that the GitHub support and Patterns Catalog are directly designed to address.
Key Takeaways
- Snap connector integrations can now be stored and versioned in GitHub, enabling them to participate in standard CI/CD workflows.
- A new Patterns Catalog supports discovery and reuse of preconfigured integration patterns.
- DC/OS support has been added, with Kubernetes support planned as a follow-on.
- The Iris AI engine now supports backward and outside-in pipeline construction, in addition to the original forward-only approach.
- Enhanced API monitoring and pipeline search tools improve operational observability.