Last week was a busy week for on-demand data integration. On Friday I attended Metamorphosis 7.0, a partner-focused event for our ApexConnect partner Pervasive Software. Jeff Kaplan at THINKstrategies kicked the day off with a great overview of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) revolution. He included some very interesting statistics on legacy on-premise software deployments (31% of IT projects are cancelled), the differences between outsourcing and "out-tasking" (outsourcing has failed), and an update on how SaaS is becoming mainstream for organizations of any size.

Mike Hoskins from Pervasive then did an overview of "Agile Integration" outlining the spectrum of data migration, extraction, interface, exchange, and data quality phases. Pervasive makes a distinction between data integration and business integration and they currently have multiple options available for Salesforce customers:

• Business Integrator
• Salesforce Integration for SAP
• Data Catapult

Pervasive is also a member of the Salesforce Incubator program.

The event then included many presentations from partners who are currently using Pervasive integration technology as part of their applications. I found the sessions from AppExchange partners Xactly and Eloqua to be particularly interesting. Xactly uses Pervasive technology to power the rules-based engine behind their incentive compensation management application and Eloqua has an event-based architecture that is used to automate demand generation and synchronize sales and marketing departments. Eloqua has partnered with Pervasive for over two years.

Andrew Leigh from Salesforce then provided a great overview of The 5 Paths to Integration Success with salesforce.com. The presentation included a number of great integration customer examples and no shortage of acronyms for this mostly technical audience (SOA, API, SLA, WSDL, and FUD to name a few). The conference wrapped up with a panel moderated by Jeff Kaplan which included an interesting discussion about the potential future for integration-as-a-service and the possibilities for an enterprise service bus or even a data warehouse in thy sky.

Software 2007 is this week in Santa Clara. I hope to see you there.