Integration Cloud Service (ICS) and SOA Cloud Service are two cloud integration products that have been launched by Oracle in recent times.
The first question that arises is why two products?
- The primary difference between the two is the range of functions that can be done. While SOA cloud Service is basically SOA Suite in the cloud and intended for hardcore developers who are used to working with SOA Suite and want to continue leveraging its multiple capabilities like MDS and the ability to achieve very complex integrations.
- ICS is more of a lightweight service that can be used to achieve simple, lightweight integrations that do not require much complexity. Oracle intends ICS to be used by technically inclined clients without the need for a hardcore developer to come in and save the day!
In our opinion, the main differentiating factor of ICS from other integration cloud products is the rich variety of connectors that they offer (currently 50) that includes connections to other cloud products like RightNow, Eloqua, SalesCloud and various social media like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and a lot more.
Without further ado, let’s get started with how to request a trial of ICS from Oracle:
Request A Trial of ICS:
- Go to cloud.oracle.com and Click on ‘Try for free’ on the top right corner, and scroll down to ‘Integration Cloud’, click ‘Try for free’.
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- After you have signed up, you will be directed to the below page, where you would be asked to fill up your personal details like Name, Company, Phone Number etc. (you know the drill). Two fields to note are ‘Service Name’ and ‘Identity Domain’, you should put in some thought as to what do you want to fill in here, because these would appear in any endpoints that you would expose to be used by clients calling your ICS services. For example, I named ‘Service Name’ as ‘integration’ and ‘Identity Domain’ as ‘<companyname>’.
- After you click submit, you should get an email within a couple of days from Oracle asking you to ‘Activate Your Trial’. After you click on that, you should get an email soon with your login details, and you all set to go!!
An Introduction to the UI (User Interface) of ICS:
Once you login to ICS, you would see this screen:
There are a number of cards on the homepage, a short introduction to each of these cards:
- Connections: Connections are the various connectors which can be utilized to communicate with external applications. Communication can be done with conventional systems like File, FTP etc., and also with new social media and other applications, like LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, Evernote etc.
- Integrations: Integrations are processes which utilize connections (among other things) to implement a business process.
- Dashboard: Provides an overview with multiple cards and reports detailing things like the success rate of requests, number of total integrations which are currently active etc. Also lets you download diagnostic logs for individual requests.
- Lookups: A bit like DVMs in SOA Suite, can cross-reference values of the same attribute/element when mapping from one system to another.
- Packages: A bit like partitions in EM console, can be used to group together similar integrations.
- Agents: Agents are used to connecting to on-premise applications. For example, if you are using on-premise systems like ERP/SAP and also using Oracle ICS in the same implementation, you would have to use an agent to connect to the ICS application.
- Adapters: Adapters lists all the adapters that are available that are available for external communication. Currently, about 50 adapters are offered.
Other than this, there are also four home tabs on the top right side:
- Home: An overview page where you can see all the options mentioned above.
- Designer: Here, new instances of the above-mentioned artifacts (connections, integrations etc.) can be created and viewed.
- Monitoring: Same as the dashboard (mentioned above)
- Administrations: Used for things like changing log levels, any notifications, and managing certificates which have been installed in your ICS instance. For example, the twitter certificate has to be installed before a connection can be made with the Twitter API using the Twitter connection.
This is all in nutshell about Integrated Cloud services. We cover this in introduction module of our Oracle Integration Cloud Services Training where we also cover about configuring Adaptors and connections, Configuring integrations, Data Mapping, Lookups, SaaS, On-premises integration agents, Security, Schedules, Versioning, Activating, Monitoring integrations and much more.
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