Streamlining Integration for a Growing Enterprise
Specialty Wholesale Food Distributor
The client, a rapidly expanding Specialty Wholesale Food Distributor with multiple brands, faced a significant challenge. Their brands, obtained mostly through acquisitions, each had their unique Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) system. The traditional approach required each ERP to be integrated with their main website, which ran on Optimizely. This method was neither scalable nor efficient, especially given the client's trajectory of continued growth.
Challenge
Multiple ERPs: With the acquisition of different brands, the client's technological landscape expanded, inheriting various ERPs - three distinct systems from the Middle East acquisitions alone.
Security Concerns: The IT team was keen on ensuring that all data traffic remained closed to their clientele and wasn't public. This meant additional security configurations with every new integration.
Non-Uniform Data Handling: Some of the older ERP systems worked differently - some exported only files, leading to inconsistencies in data handling and integration.
Solution
Decoupling Optimizely and ERPs: The first step was to make Opti agnostic to the various ERPs, which meant building an architecture that was independent of the specific ERP being used.
Azure API Gateway: Instead of Opti directly communicating with each ERP, an Azure API Gateway was introduced as a middleman. The gateway served as a front-end API, handling all routing and security implementations. This ensured that regardless of where the data originated, there was a standardized method for the website to pull or push information.
Back-end API Integration: With the API gateway in place, when a new brand is onboarded, the middleware requires minimal adjustments. Opti communicates with the gateway, which in turn, integrates with the back-end API.
Azure Technologies: Multiple Azure tools were utilized to enhance and secure the integration process:Azure Key Vault: Centralized storage for credentials and URLs.
Azure Function & Service Bus: Vital building blocks to structure the architecture, ensuring flexibility and scalability.
Redis Cache: Used to cache data, making sure the system runs efficiently.
The Restructured System Led To:
Improved Scalability: The architecture now supports the addition of diverse ERPs without major changes on the Optimizely side.
Unified Security: The Azure API Gateway ensures that there's a consistent approach to securing APIs.
Standardized Data Handling: Whether it's file-based or API-based, the website has a standardized way of retrieving or sending data.
In conclusion, by leveraging Azure's suite of tools, the challenges posed by a diverse set of ERPs and security concerns were effectively tackled. This positions the company advantageously, allowing it to seamlessly integrate new acquisitions in the future.