In the increasingly crowded space for “as a service” platforms, differentiation can be a challenge. There’s software as a service, platform as a service, infrastructure as a service, monitoring as a service, and even anything as a service. It’s a big-aaS list.

Amid the acronym jungle is integration platform as a service, or iPaaS, and a leader in this area is Boomi Inc., acquired by Dell Inc. in 2010. Despite the crowded landscape for service-based solution providers, Boomi’s executives feel that the company’s presence in the cloud-native world sets it apart from others in the integration space.

“This is our profound differentiation,” said Chris Port (pictured), chief operating officer for Dell Boomi. “This is why we have the advantage in that space; we are single instance, multi-tenant. People will talk about all the customers they have, but all of ours live on one instance of Boomi.”

Port spoke with John Furrier (@furrier) and Lisa Martin (@LisaMartinTV), co-hosts of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s mobile livestreaming studio, during Dell Boomi World in Las Vegas. They discussed new product offerings and partnerships announced during the conference, how Boomi has supported Dell Technologies Inc. in-house, the approach taken by Dell management when Boomi was first acquired, and future priorities for the coming year. (* Disclosure below.)

This week, theCUBE features Chris Port as its Guest of the Week.

New deal with Pivotal

Boomi went to great lengths this month to emphasize its “profound differentiation” and capitalize on its perceived advantage. The company’s announcements included the Boomi API Gateway and Developer Portal, support for blockchain platforms, a professional-services offering for enterprise customers, and bot-driven iPaaS automation development.

Boomi also introduced a new Data Services for Pivotal Cloud Foundry which will support iPaaS deployment in Pivotal Kubernetes and Pivotal Application Services. This partnership with Pivotal Software Inc. is part of a deliberate strategy by Boomi to form new alliances in the technology ecosystem.

In addition to the product and services announcements, the company also introduced a new Technology Partner Program, designed for independent software vendors, system integrators, and app developers. This is in addition to the kinds of linkages Boomi can establish with “family” members from Dell EMC.

“We think there’s tremendous opportunity with partnerships, not just with Dell Technologies, but with Pivotal, with Virtustream, with potentially VMware,” Port said. “You’ll continue to see us announce things and explore those.”

Boomi on Boomi and Dell

Meanwhile, Dell Technologies is finding plenty of opportunities to employ the Boomi offering in-house. In a blog posted in April, one of Dell’s information technology directors described how Boomi was called on in 2017 to combine Dell, EMC and VMware customer service operations, necessitated by one of the largest mergers in tech history the previous year.

The three businesses had different customer relationship management systems, and Dell needed a solution that would integrate the networks and allow common exchange of critical customer data. Boomi was the choice.

“It’s Boomi on Boomi, but it’s Boomi on Dell Technologies as well,” Port said. “Dell has one of the largest service cloud deployments in the world. A lot of that will be powered by Boomi.”

Incubate not integrate

After Boomi was acquired by Dell eight years ago, speculation increased that the company might be spun-off. Software rival MuleSoft Inc. went public in 2017, and its stock soared over 45 percent in the debut. MuleSoft was recently acquired by Salesforce Inc. for $6.5 billion.

But in his role as chief integration officer at the time of the Boomi acquisition, Port was positioned to preserve the special advantage and “startup edge” that the fledgling company offered in a space that was just beginning to come into its own. Boomi has stayed in the fold.

“Part of the design point of the acquisition, part of the selling point to Michael [Dell] and his leadership team at the time was to incubate Boomi; don’t try to integrate it,” Port explained. “My job as the chief integration officer at the time was to really protect versus integrate. I would argue that’s carried on eight years later.”

Asked about future areas of focus and investment for Boomi, Port described a strategic approach that mirrored much of the news coming from the Las Vegas event this month. It’s product innovation, a go-to-market strategy and continued expansion of customer success initiatives.

“First and foremost, it’s the product,” Port said. “It’s continuing to build out global capabilities, it’s continuing to hone and focus our partner capabilities, and it’s also figuring out how to leverage Dell Technologies.”

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of the Dell Boomi World event. (* Disclosure: TheCUBE is a paid media partner for Dell Boomi World. Neither Dell Boomi, the event sponsor, nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE