With the growth of companies and the increasing degree of digital transformation, there is ever greater use of systems, apps, and services. Text, data, and information are stored in all these different systems.
In modern IT landscapes, it is becoming increasingly complex to exchange this data between systems, requiring more and more systems to be implemented, monitored, and interconnected. This circumstance is complicated by the fact that you are often dealing with a mixture of on-site systems as well as cloud-based systems. In the translation processes in particular, there are many different systems used as sources of content, including editorial systems, product information management (PIM) systems, shop systems, content management systems (CMS), and enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems.
To reduce this complexity and save time and money at the same time, it is necessary to let your systems “talk” to each other. Read on to learn how easily all of this can be accomplished using cloud middleware.
An Article by
Flurina Schwendimann
Freelance Translator
The use of cloud middleware makes it easier for different systems to interact and reduces the load on your IT resources.
What exactly is middleware?
The term “middleware” is used to refer to an intermediate application. In computer science, software that acts as a “middleman” or connector between two other applications is designated as “middleware.” The middleware provides additional features or services and runs in the background. Middleware enables otherwise incompatible systems and applications to communicate with each other. Another way to look at it is that the middleware acts as a “translator” that conveys information from one “language” to another so that data can be managed and transmitted.
There are obvious advantages associated with middleware, as you can use it to connect systems and applications, to save time, and also to optimize your processes.
Middleware conveys information between systems so that data can be managed and transmitted.
Connectors in translation processes
Middleware in the form of application programming interfaces (APIs) has already been in use in the translation industry for some time, simplifying the integration of new applications (such as editorial systems, PIM systems, and CMS) into the translation management systems (TMS). These interfaces make it possible to launch translations directly from the respective content system, for example. The data is automatically transferred to the TMS, which creates the translation job, saving a great deal of time and effort. Use of this technology keeps you from having to constantly copy texts from one system to the other and then back again.
It is often the case that reasons of time or expense prevent urgently needed APIs from being implemented.
However, as the number of applications increases, it becomes more and more complex to implement, monitor, and interconnect these interfaces. In day-to-day business, this has the consequence that software integrations are not implemented even though they are urgently needed – simply because resource capacities and budgets are lacking.
But that’s no reason to give up on the idea! When faced with such situations, it is now possible to rely on cloud middleware, which allows you to deal with your interfaces in a manner that is consolidated and much simpler than before.
The characteristics of cloud middleware
Cloud middleware provides a solution to what is likely one of the most common interface management problems: resource capacity.
It is often a question of who will provide the necessary middleware and maintain it over the long term. It’s a key issue because these arrangements make it possible to get maximum performance out of the resulting processes – and not every company has sufficient IT resource capacity to pull it off. To reduce the workload of IT departments and accelerate the integration process, cloud solutions are now the best choice.
Cloud middleware is a secure, fast, and cost-effective solution for integrating a variety of different applications and systems while also being agile, scalable, and easy to implement. Cloud connectors enable software architecture that is stable and lean while interacting efficiently and running unobtrusively in the background.
Another interesting feature is that cloud middleware is often provided in the form of “Middleware as a Service” (MWaaS), a package of cloud-based automation options. It allows you to optimize and coordinate your translation processes, for example, and the costs always remain transparent.
Cloud middleware is a secure, fast and cost-effective solution for integrating various applications and systems.
Cloud connectors in the translation process
In translation, cloud middleware can link content management systems to your translation management system. It doesn’t matter whether you use on-site systems or cloud versions. If the software is integrated using a cloud connector, the content streams are consolidated in a central location, making it much easier to implement and monitor the interfaces and reducing the technical complexity by several orders of magnitude. Even companies with very limited IT resource capacities can integrate interfaces very efficiently on this basis. The translation processes can be automated and greatly accelerated.
Cloud middleware allows content and translation management systems to be linked much more easily and quickly.
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The advantages of cloud middleware
- Fast interface setup: Using cloud middleware, setting up a new interface usually takes just a few minutes, saving your IT department a great deal of time and sparing them unnecessary aggravation.
- Automatic interface updates: Forget about the time-consuming process of manually updating all your interfaces. Using cloud middleware, the interfaces are always kept up to date automatically.
- Central management of all system integrations: Cloud middleware for your interfaces makes it possible for you to view all processes at a glance and implement central health monitoring.
- Flexible and scalable middleware: Your middleware grows with your company. Whenever you need new applications and systems for content creation and translation, it is easy for you to connect them to your translation management system.
- Data security: It was long the case that data transmission via the cloud was viewed with a great deal of skepticism, especially in Germany. The good news is that local cloud providers have taken this concern to heart, with data transfer now encrypted and the information often hosted in Germany. This can vary depending on the provider, of course, so you should look into the details in advance.
- Cost transparency thanks to the licensing model: You can always keep an eye on the costs of your cloud solution thanks to the Middleware-as-a-Service arrangement.
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The bottom line
Interface management in the translation process becomes more complex as more systems are connected. In the future, the use of cloud middleware will be crucial for enabling work that is flexible, efficient, and fast. The objective of cloud connectors in the translation sector is to integrate systems so that they communicate smoothly with each other, simplify processes, and are secure.
If implementing, monitoring, and networking interfaces are posing a growing challenge to your IT department, it is high time to consider using cloud middleware.
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