BOOMI

Boomi AtomSphere Frequently Asked Questions
Q: How do I access AtomSphere?
A: Because AtomSphere is an online service, there is no appliance or software to buy, install or maintain. Just point your browser to the login page at www.boomi.com and login.

Q: How do I sign up for AtomSphere? Can I download a demo?
A: You can sign up for a free trial under the ’30 Day Free Trial’ section of the Boomi website.

Q: What applications can I integrate using AtomSphere?
A: An up-to-date list of supported applications can be found on our website.

Q: Is any training required to learn to use AtomSphere?
A: AtomSphere is designed to be user friendly and anyone with basic IT skills and knowledge of the applications they plan to integrate should be able to build integration processes easily. Our customers have reported that using AtomSphere is similar to using other web-based software. However, Boomi’s Support Team offers weekly training sessions via webinar.

Q: Is there any training involved/included?
A: We hold various training/webinar series throughout each month, including a Boomi Basics Course every Monday at 12:30pm EST. You can find full details on all upcoming webinars at www.boomi.com/news_and_events

Q: What Support is available?
A: We have many support options to give you the help you need:

Free 30 Day Trial! Go to www.boomi.com
Submit support tickets to support@boomi.com
Live Chat – 8am-9pm ET is embedded into the application
Forums
Help Wiki Documentation
Premier Support
Boomi Basics Training Webinar Series - Every Monday @ 12:30pm EST
Q: How do I contact Customer Support?
A: All of the available options for support are listed in the above question. Your easiest and quickest path to access support is through the Live Chat embedded into Boomi AtomSphere.

Q: What sort of skill set is required to configure AtomSphere?
A: We aim for our service to be a visual, configuration based approach to integration. You do not need to be a developer to utilize the service; you simply need to understand where the data resides in the source system and where the data needs to be integrated in the destination system. The typical roles that utilize AtomSphere would include Systems Analyst, Application Administrator, or Business Process Engineer.

Q: What platforms do I need to have in order to run AtomSphere?
A: Since Boomi hosts the application, all you need is a computer or an alternative device that can run a Web browser. It doesn’t matter what type of hardware or operating system you’re running.

Q: What involvement is required from my company’s IT department to set up my integration processes?
A: Very minimal involvement from your IT department is typically needed. Typical involvement from the IT department would include allowing you access to the source/destination applications or allowing you to install a Boomi Atom to gain access to your on premise application.

Q: Can Boomi’s customer support team help me set up my integrations?
A: We have designed AtomSphere to be largely self-service and our website contains a number of resources to help you including documentation, videos, webinars, and training courses that are free. You also have access to Boomi forums and “chat” support from within AtomSphere . Your support level will determine the availability of these services and specific response times. Consulting services are also always available from our professional services team for a fee.

Boomi Basics
Q: What’s an Atom?
A: An Atom™ is a lightweight, dynamic runtime engine created with patent pending-technology, Boomi Atoms contain all the components required to execute an integration process. There is a full-featured dashboard to monitor the status and health of all Atoms and integration processes whether they are deployed in the cloud or on-premise.

Q: Where are Atoms hosted?
A: Boomi Atoms are completely self-contained and autonomous and can be run on virtually any server. They can be deployed “in the cloud” for SaaS to SaaS integration (e.g. Boomi’s data center, an ISVs data center or a third-party data center such as Amazon) or behind a company’s firewall for SaaS to On Premise integration.

Q: What is an Integration Process?
A: The main component in a Boomi integration is the Process. A Process represents a business process- or transaction-level interface between two or more systems. Examples of a Process might be “Salesforce Account Synchronization to accounting system” or “Sales Orders from Company ABC to QuickBooks.” Processes contain a left-to-right series of Shapes connected together like a flow chart to illustrate the steps required to transform, route, and otherwise manipulate the data from source to destination.

Q: What is a Connector?
A: Connectors get and send data in and out of Processes. They enable communication with the applications or data sources between which data needs to move or, in other words, the “end points” of the Process. Those applications and data sources can range from traditional on-premise applications like SAP and QuickBooks to Web-based applications like Salesforce.com and NetSuite to data repositories like an FTP directory, a commercial database, or even an email server.

Q: How does Boomi differ from an Application Programming Interface (API)?
A: An API opens up secure access to data in an application but it does not accomplish the integration itself. An API is like an electrical socket – until something is plugged into it, it just sits there. Boom integration Connectors are like “plugs.” Boomi Connectors plug into and API and abstract the technical details of the API and transportation protocols used to communicate with various applications and data sources, allowing you to focus on the business data and logic of the integration. A Connector is really a combination of two Components: a Connection and an Operation. Think of the Connection as the where and the Operation as the how. These two components determine the type of data source, how to physically connect to it, and what type of data records to exchange.

Q: Are there any limitations to the kind/amount of information being integrated?
A: No, we have benchmarked the Boomi Atom to be able to handle very large volumes, upwards of 1,000,000 records an hour.

Q: How often would we need to run the integration? How close to real time information can I get?
A: We support both real-time event-based and schedule-driven executions. We have a scheduler built into Boomi AtomSphere. You can schedule an integration to run based on intervals you define (up to every 1 minute) or on an advanced schedule (more flexible). We also have an external API that will allow you to call an integration to be run in real-time from an external source or application.

Q: Are the integrations manageable by either event OR specific dates?
A: Yes, our system will allow you to schedule your integration process to run at specific dates/intervals, up to every one minute. We also provide an API that will allow you to include event driven integration into your integration process.

Q: Does AtomSphere integrate with shopping carts & e-commerce functionality?
A: Yes, please refer to our website for a full list of supported applications.

Q: If Boomi’s platform is hosted in “the cloud”, how can I integrate my on-premise data and legacy applications?
A: We offer the ability to deploy a Boomi Atom behind your firewall. This Boomi Atom is the run time engine that gives you secure access to your on premise application without having to make any changes to your firewall.

Using Boomi
Q: How do you ensure the data is secure during the integration process?
A: Boomi AtomSphere Connectors go through application specific security reviews where applicable. All data that is passed between the Boomi Atom onsite and our data center is sent over a secure HTTPs channel with 128 bit encryption. Learn more about AtomSphere’s security

Q: How is error handling managed?
A: Error handling is administered via our ‘manage’ tab where users can see the integration process, its executions and all associated log and status notifications. Boomi AtomSphere also includes retry capabilities to ensure messages that had an error during transit are delivered; an Atom also tracks its state to ensure that only unique data is processed. Finally, decision logic can be configured to query destination applications to ensure duplicate data is not sent to the application.

Q: If I have on-premise sources, how do I test my integration process in the hosted environment? Do I have to deploy an atom to do my testing?
A: Yes, the Boomi Atom would reside onsite, allowing you access to the on-premise application through Boomi AtomSphere.

Q: Does the internet and/or AtomSphere need to be up for my Atom to run?
A: Yes, because the Boomi Atom that resides onsite has no GUI, it must be in fairly constant contact with the data center. One important design aspect of AtomSphere is that, much like the Internet itself, it is a distributed architecture, eliminating single points of failure. It is important to note that even during planned maintenance of the platform, deployed Atoms continue to run and process normally.

Q: Do you have rollbacks for changes to an integration process?
A: Yes, we offer version control for our integration process allowing you to rollback to a previous integration process should the need arise.

Q: Is Test Mode an actual test of the process flow of the integration and is the destination getting updated/changed?
A: Yes, test mode actually executes the integration process as designed, so the source and destination will get updated. Boomi AtomSphere provides the concept of ‘Environments’ for those that wish to have the same integration process pointed to different locations (ie. Test, QA, Production).