Key benefits of snapblocs vs. other iPaaS solutions are:

1. Decreases vendor lock-in
   
2. Increases innovation and flexibility by swapping 3rd party components 
   
3. Lowers TCO using open-source components
   
4. Improves ROI using larger open community support (with optional enterprise support, as needed)
   
5. SaaS model delivers rapid deployment and observability while reducing operational burden
   

Existing iPaaS solutions

Several open-source and commercial software products offer Integration Platform as a Service, in which a 3rd party provider delivers infrastructure and middleware to manage, develop and integrate data and applications.

For example, Informatica, MuleSoft CloudHub, SnapLogic, and Zaloni offer a fully managed service with continuous, automatic system updates in the Cloud, eliminating the need for manual upgrades and software maintenance.

Vendor technology lock-in

Current iPaaS solutions come with some form of vendor lock-in. Vendor lock-in is commonly defined as "Proprietary lock-in or customer lock-in," requiring the use of a specific vendor for products, services, and proprietary technology (i.e., data format, data model, network protocol, etc.). The expense of switching to another vendor or technology is cost-prohibitive. Vendor lock-in is a common problem for companies that use proprietary software, databases, or platforms. Issues that arise when moving to an alternative vendor require a substantial expense and business disruption. 

Vendor lock-in results in the relinquishment of control and the ability to choose alternatives. Business and IT processes become closely tied to the vendor, their tools, and software.

snapblocs decreases vendor lock-in

snapblocs helps avoid vendor lock-in and proprietary technology by providing a catalog of pre-built Architecture Blueprints based on widely used open-source software. These open-source software technologies often offer commercially supported solutions from the same vendors. snapblocs provides data platform solutions based on open-source software technologies and most of their open standards. 

snapblocs also allows the swapping of equivalent open-source technology components within its data platform stacks. For example, switch the Kibana monitoring UI with Grafana based on preference.

snapblocs helps to easily architect data platforms based on curated Architecture Blueprints and deploy them to cloud environments. Once deployed, add business applications (i.e., Microservices) and data (i.e., database, Object Storage like S3, etc.) using custom deployment methods. Manage those business applications and their associated data without requiring a snapblocs subscription. There is no snapblocs lock-in for managing applications or data.

Also, as platforms are deployed by snapblocs into any environment, manually manage them using native Kubernetes tools (i.e., kubectl) or other Kubernetes support software with or without snapblocs. Running platforms will be functional without snapblocs. However, without snapblocs, access to unique centralized management functions such as stack lifecycle management (pause, resume, clone, move) versioning/auditing, as well as some built-in observability dashboards, will no longer be available.

TCO and ROI

snapblocs improves ROI by:

1. Architecture Blueprints, reducing the time and energy to research, design, configure, provision, and scale a data platform solution.
   
2. Leveraging innovation from open-source technology 
   
3. Reducing time to value building business value sooner.
   
4. Providing a high level of automation
   
5. Supporting multi-cloud
   

snapblocs lowers TCO through:

1. Automation using managed services: Lowers operational burden and costs
   
2. SaaS self-service model - usage-based cost model
   
3. Built-in automated lifecycle management and observability
   

snapblocs SaaS model

No download into an environment is required to use snapblocs because snapblocs is a SaaS solution. After creating an account, log in to snapblocs on either a desktop or mobile browser to easily design and manage data platforms within cloud environments with no downloading or coding required.

snapblocs provides many widgets to customize stacks and their components easily. Components are pre-set with default values, making it easy to build a stack for a development or testing environment. Once tested on the lower environment, clone or move the stack to an upper environment and make the necessary settings for scaling, access permissions, etc., all through snapblocs.

Summary

snapblocs uses open-source software products as the driver for Architecture as a Service offering many benefits over current iPaaS solutions.

Businesses need to change and adopt technology solutions quickly to innovate and deliver business value faster than ever. Reducing vendor lock-in and changing solution components easily creates flexibility leading to faster delivery of underlying data platforms.

Lower TCO and ROI results from snapblocs Architecture as a Service model and its SaaS implementation and delivery model.