Integration specialist MuleSoft launched the latest version of its platform today, and with it introduced a drastically expanded feature set and ecosystem.  Mule iON SaaS Edition is designed to save cloud providers and SIs much more code than before, the company said.

Mule iON covers a lot of ground in an effort to achieve the promised reduction in integration costs. It comes with graphical mapping and a drag and drop app development interface, along with an actual DevKit that allows clients to make their own connectors for any API. In addition a self service portal for end users of a given service has been added, alongside an ‘Operations Center’ that gives the admin access to dashboards, SLA-related notifications and other system alerts.

Equally notable is the number of pre-made components and that MuleSoft tossed in together with the increased customization. Over 20 integration apps and 100 cloud connectors are included in the bundle, and cover some the most common tasks, from data migration to process orchestration.

The roll out of iON is coupled with a new partner program that is focused on growing the channel as much as possible by providing resellers almost as many tools as the actual platform. That means training, support, certification and other goodies.

“We chose Mule iON to help us eliminate the pain of custom integration, letting us focus on our core business,” said Nate DaPore, President and CEO of PeopleMatter. “Since partnering with MuleSoft, we have reduced our customers’ go-live time by weeks. The Mule iON platform has performed exceptionally for our leading customers. MuleSoft is a strategic part of our growth and success in 2012 and beyond.”

Integration for the cloud has been big lately. In particular that can be said of the news around HP Cloud Services, the new AWS competitor that seems to be attracting new partners left and right since launch last week.