In the previous article of our last chapter of Data Integration Best Practices, we took a look at how to describe integrations in such a way that everybody – from developers to business users – understands the requirements correctly. We also discussed why you eventually might need some type of an integration layer to keep your integration projects under control. In this article, we continue reviewing some tips that revolve around preparing for and running an integration project.

As we continue to expand across new industries and regions, we’re excited to share Cargill’s digital transformation story and how it turned to Kong Enterprise to create a unified API platform across existing legacy and newer cloud native systems. We talked to Jason Walker, senior enterprise architect at Cargill, about their journey to microservices. What was the driver for Cargill’s move to microservices?

After months of work, countless user conversations, and a great team effort we’re happy to announce the release of DreamFactory 3! This is undoubtedly the most exciting release in several years, addressing a great number of customer requests and addressing numerous important enhancements. This release is ready to be cloned via GitHub. Docker users can spin up the 3.0 release made available via our Docker repository.

At Monex, our aim is to provide our investors with the best financial services and liberal access to capital markets. That means continually providing reliable and up-to-date services for our customers. But recently we’ve experienced issues updating our back-end system when installing new services or modifying existing ones. This led us to look into using an API, to save time and simplify the processes related to the development of new products and services.

The UK continues to be a growing hotbed for tech innovation. At Kong, we’re seeing fast adoption for our Kong Enterprise platform in the UK from organizations across a wide range of industries, including e-commerce, financial services, on-demand services and travel/hospitality, among many.

This year has been momentous in Kong’s journey as we have tripled in size, outgrown multiple offices and announced a successful Series C round. Today, we celebrate yet another huge milestone with the news that Forbes has included us in their annual list of Next-Billion Dollar companies. We are honored to receive such recognition and to be on the same list as 24 other ground-breaking companies that I can imagine are as elated as we are right now.

Microservices are a type of architectural style for building software that has been gaining popularity. The concept was first introduced at a tech conference in 2011 and has been adopted by many Agile enterprises such as Netflix, Amazon, Uber, SoundCloud, Groupon, eBay, to name a few. So, what are microservices? What are the benefits of microservices? And why are so many large enterprises have been implementing this method into their DevOps and continuous testing strategies?

As we grow our footprint globally, we’re gaining strong momentum in the UK. We recently added several fast-growing, London-based organizations to the Kong Enterprise community. These organizations are turning to Kong to help power their core business applications and accelerate application development as they shift to microservices-driven architectures.

So far, in our blog series Data Integration Best practices, we have covered the different types of high-level and low-level problems occurring in data integration projects. We have also addressed the different types of integration, the systems that move data and even the pricing aspect of such a project. Ten articles later, we arrived at best practices moving forward. In this last chapter, we are going to talk about some tips that revolve around preparing for and running an integration project.

Editor's note: Today’s post is by Anuschka Diderich, Platform Lead at KPN, a 130-year-old Dutch landline and mobile telecommunications services company. Read on to learn how KPN is connecting people using API-powered products and services. “I’ll connect you.” Those were the first words uttered over the line in 1881, when the first public telephone network in the Netherlands started operating.