Dominic
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Data At Scale For AI At Scale: How To Think About Data Readiness
This week's episode of the Enterprise Alchemists is another live recording from Integreat 2024 in London! This week we have Maks Shah of Syngenta; we had a fascinating conversation during the after-event cocktail party — which is why this episode is a bit shorter than normal. Maks's key takeaway was that "there was a common theme throughout all the presentations this afternoon, and that was that your data has to be fit for it". There is no hashtag#AI success without the data to feed it with. Establishing a solid data foundation is step zero on your journey to hashtag#GenAI.The Rise of Agent-Based AI Systems in Enterprise IT, with Jeremiah Stone
Guy and Dominic talked to Jeremiah Stone, SnapLogic CTO, about the rise of agentic AI, and what that means for traditional conceptions of enterprise architecture: "As an industry, we're turning the corner from shiny object, what does it do, to all right, drop it on your foot". And one of the things that we have learned is what is needed to get GenAI into production: "pair programming, but it's a pair programming model that is pairing a business process expert or an organizational implementer with a technical expert or a technical implementer". We mentioned Nicole Houts and Chris Ward, who did exactly that sort of pair programming here at SnapLogic, with some very significant results. We recorded right before Integreat 2024 in London, so I'm afraid the audio quality isn't up to our usual standards. This was our first time trying to record in the field, so let's call it a learning experience. Fortunately, there is as ever a transcript, so if you prefer to follow along by reading, please do that. There are also links in the show notes to the resources that we mentioned in our conversation.Securing SnapLogic APIs in Hybrid Deployments: The Role of WAF
Securing SnapLogic APIs in Hybrid Deployments: The Role of WAF APIs play a vital role in integrating on-premises, cloud-based, and third-party applications for SnapLogic integration workloads. As API connectivity scales over time, so does the need for robust security measures to protect these integration points from potential threats. This is where a Web Application Firewall (WAF) can be leveraged by organizations to ensure API security. A WAF, positioned between client applications and SnapLogic's Groundplex clusters (as seen in the diagrams), helps by inspecting and filtering traffic to and from SnapLogic's API endpoints. The WAF provides defense against a wide range of common web threats, including: SQL Injection Cross-site Scripting (XSS) Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks Brute-force attacks Organizations can implement a WAF in front of their SnapLogic's Groundplex clusters, whether in cloud environments like AWS, Azure, or on-premise data centers, to monitor and control API traffic. This ensures that only legitimate requests reach the integration layers, helping to prevent malicious traffic from compromising your critical data and services. The WAF inspects incoming API requests for common security threats, such as SQL injections, cross-site scripting (XSS), and other vulnerabilities, ensuring that integrations running in SnapLogic operate within a secure framework. This added layer of protection not only shields your infrastructure from external attacks but also helps maintain the integrity and performance of your API-driven workloads. Key Benefits of Deploying a WAF Enhanced API Protection: A WAF scrutinizes incoming requests, identifying and blocking malicious payloads, ensuring the APIs that connect your cloud apps and on-premise systems remain secure. Scalability and High Availability: In SnapLogic’s hybrid environments, including on-premise and cloud (Azure/AWS), a WAF helps ensure traffic is balanced and high availability is maintained, even during periods of peak demand. Compliance Support: Many industries require stringent security standards (e.g., HIPAA, GDPR). A WAF helps ensure SnapLogic's API traffic meets these regulatory requirements by preventing unauthorized data leakage and access. Traffic Filtering and Logging: WAFs can analyze traffic patterns and provide detailed logs of API interactions. This is valuable for detecting anomalies and improving incident response times. SnapLogic supports multiple deployment models, including on-premise and cloud configurations. Below are two typical deployment scenarios showing where WAF integrates into the SnapLogic runtime infrastructure (Snaplex) Single Region - Cloud-Native SnapLogic Deployment (Azure/AWS/GCP) In cloud-based deployments, organizations leverage platforms like Azure and AWS to scale SnapLogic integration workloads. A WAF (such as Azure Application Gateway) can be deployed in front of the API Gateway to add an additional security layer for all API interactions. This setup helps ensure that integrations can securely connect to a wide range of cloud apps and data sources, protecting them from external threats. On Premise - Multi Cluster Configuration In this example of an on-premise setup, an organization deploys a WAF (such as Akamai) in the network’s DMZ (Demilitarized Zone) to protect SnapLogic’s Groundplex clusters. The WAF inspects all incoming traffic from external clients and forwards only secure and legitimate API requests to the internal SnapLogic Groundplex nodes. This approach helps ensure that sensitive integration workflows, databases, and applications remain isolated from external threats. Traffic Flow Here’s a description of the flow of an API request as it passes through a Web Application Firewall (WAF) to the SnapLogic Snaplex infrastructure. 1. API Request from the Client Application Originating from the client (either a web application, mobile app, or another API client), the API request is sent over the internet to an endpoint. This request is typically directed at the API Gateway, which acts as the initial point of contact for all external API calls. The request contains various headers, data payloads, and parameters that specify what kind of operation (GET, POST, PUT, DELETE, etc.) the client wants to perform on the API. 2. Traffic Hits the Web Application Firewall (WAF) Before reaching the Snaplex infrastructure, the API request first passes through the WAF. The WAF is typically deployed between the public internet and the organization's internal network (cloud or on-premises). Inspection and Filtering: The WAF inspects the API request for any malicious content or behaviors that could indicate a security threat. This might include: SQL Injections Cross-Site Scripting (XSS) Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks Brute-force attacks Any other patterns that could compromise the API or application. Traffic Policies: Based on predefined security policies and rule sets (specific to the organization’s needs), the WAF determines if the request is safe to proceed or needs to be blocked. Requests that violate any of the rules (e.g., malformed headers, suspicious payloads, unexpected request methods) are blocked or redirected. 3. API Gateway or Load Balancer If the request passes through the WAF without being flagged as a security threat, it is forwarded to the organization’s API Gateway or load balancer. In a cloud-based architecture, this could be services like AWS Elastic Load Balancer or Azure Application Gateway, which manage API traffic and distribute it across backend resources. In an on-premise architecture, similar load balancing and routing components manage the flow. The API Gateway ensures that traffic is efficiently routed to the appropriate Snaplex nodes and that only valid, secure API requests proceed. 4. Reaching SnapLogic Groundplex Clusters After passing through the WAF and load balancer, the API request reaches SnapLogic's Groundplex clusters. Depending on the deployment (on-premise, AWS, Azure), the clusters can be distributed across different regions and environments. Within the Groundplex clusters, the request is processed by SnapLogic’s integration pipelines. The Groundplex cluster executes SnapLogic tasks, which involve data integration, orchestration, transformation, or connection to third-party applications, databases, or APIs. The request might trigger various integration workflows, such as: Connecting to an on-premise database (e.g., Oracle, MySQL) to retrieve or update data. Calling an external cloud-based service (e.g., Salesforce, Workday, etc.). Processing data transformations (ETL/ELT) in a data pipeline.Architecting for Product Success: Navigating Cloud Partnerships and Vendor Commitments
This week GuyM and I are joined by peterngai to talk about how the job of a Principal Architect differs from that of an Enterprise Architect. Basically, Peter architects the product that we advise customers on how to deploy — but there's a lot more to it than that!Evolving Enterprise Architecture: Mastering Composability with Kams Narayan
For this episode of Enterprise Alchemists, Guy and Dominic were joined by Kams Narayan, Director of Product Management for APIM at SnapLogic. We were interested to discuss what it means to have a truly API-led architecture, also known as a composable architecture, and what some of the key considerations should be when adopting this model.Transforming Academia and Industry: Insights into Generative AI with Greg Benson
For this episode of Enterprise Alchemists, Guy and Dominic were joined by Greg Benson, Chief Scientist at SnapLogic and Professor of Computer Science at the University of San Francisco. There is nobody better to talk us through what is going on with AI and GenAI right now, where it is going next, and what consequences it is likely to have for both academia and industry.Recipes for Success with SnapLogic’s GenAI App Builder: From Integration to Automation
For this episode of the Enterprise Alchemists podcast, Guy and Dominic invited Aaron Kesler and Roger Sramkoski to join them to discuss why SnapLogic's GenAI App Builder is the key to success with AI projects. Aaron is the Senior Product Manager for all things AI at SnapLogic, and Roger is a Senior Technical Product Marketing Manager focused on AI. We kept things concrete, discussing real-world results that early adopters have already been able to deliver by using SnapLogic's integration capabilities to power their new AI-driven experiences.
