When COVID-19 hit, countless companies were ill-prepared to adjust to the changes it brought. As many countries face a rising tide of new coronavirus cases, we can try to apply what we’ve learned so far about what makes remote, digital-first business successful. Winning technology tools to look for should include these features: data integration, low code and easy access via browser. 

This is according to Ed Macosky (pictured), head of product at Boomi, a Dell Technologies Inc. business.

“We’ve seen this pivot of user engagement bringing … middleware and integration out of the shadows of IT into solving real problems as people are now disbursed around the world and at home,” Macosky said.

Formulating “integrative experiences” with data — from customers, employees, partners, etc. — is more important than ever, he added, noting Boomi’s 30% uptick in user activity over the course of the pandemic. 

Macosky spoke with Lisa Martin, host of theCUBE, SiliconANGLE Media’s livestreaming studio, during AWS re:Invent. They discussed Boomi’s partnership with Amazon Web Services Inc. and the tools needed to quickly produce real services and applications with data. (* Disclosure below.)

Low code, speed to the front

Beyond backend integration, a tool’s usability is better measured through how much skill it requires; as for the results it produces, look especially at time to value, Macosky advised. 

Boomi’s integration platform as a service enables users with low-code development accessible from anywhere through a browser. It runs in the AWS cloud and connects to AWS EventBridge for event-driven data experiences, SQS message queueing service and Amazon Redshift data warehouse. Users can run workloads anywhere, including Boomi’s own cloud, which will soon release a Kubernetes-based version for rapid scaling up and down, according to Macosky. 

“You don’t have to be a pure, hardcore Java developer to get things done,” he stated.

For example, when small businesses that weren’t IT-enabled needed to gather COVID-related info from the government to relay to customers, Boomi stepped in. Its “Boomi for Good” initiative put out a free solution called Answers on Demand.

“Within two weeks, we had over 2,500 customers from all different shops around the country that registered and basically were able to, by themselves, stand up a FAQ … within their webpage and chatbots that they were able to embed on their page, all in a low-code way,” Macosky stated. 

Watch the complete video interview below, and be sure to check out more of SiliconANGLE’s and theCUBE’s coverage of AWS re:Invent. (* Disclosure: Boomi sponsored this segment of theCUBE. Neither Boomi nor other sponsors have editorial control over content on theCUBE or SiliconANGLE.)

Photo: SiliconANGLE