What Is Mulesoft? Features, Certifications, and Integration With Salesforce

What Is MuleSoft’s Anypoint?

Mulesoft provides one single platform for APIs and integrations. MuleSoft can:

1. Use reusable assets to build APIs faster with clicks or code
2. Transform data using ML!
3. Test APIs and integrations on a single platform
4. Plug into the CI/CD pipeline and ensure 99% uptime
5. Troubleshoot on one single interface

How Does MuleSoft Achieve This?

Before we answer this question, let us first understand what middleware is, what iPaaS is, and how MuleSoft is the best of both worlds.

Middleware: Middleware technologies aim to eliminate the pain of integration by creating a communication layer between two systems – like a semi-permeable membrane with the bidirectional flow. Middleware provides a centralized platform for interaction between legacy systems and SaaS – a place that allows easy retrieval and storage of data. 

MuleSoft’s Mule Enterprise Service Bus is a Java-based middleware solution that is reliable and easy to scale. It works with the Anytime Platform to perform any of the functions that middleware is supposed to. Mule ESB can also do more by connecting to the Anypoint Platform and help companies build Service Oriented Architecture, which opens the door to higher possibilities.

iPaaS: Integration Platform as a Service, iPaas is a platform that allows building and deploying integration within the cloud and between the cloud and the enterprise. PaaS eliminates the need for middleware as it allows users to deploy on-premises or on-cloud applications and build integration flows on the cloud itself.

The latest news by Gartner points towards the potential of iPaas as a platform that can encourage the buying, selling, and exchange of integration flows (both out-of-the-box and custom-built patterns) between users, service providers, and integration providers MuleSoft’s ESB integration with CloudHub gives the middleware solution to unequivocal iPaaS capabilities.  So, how does MuleSoft achieve this? MuleSoft recommends that APIs be organized into three categories:

1. System APIs: System APIs handle greeting and expose data from core assets without allowing users to change the base. 
2. Process APIs: Process APIs are allowed to shape data to suit business needs and processes. They help make data more consumable. These APIs may be the data analytics expert’s best friend. 
3. Experience APIs: These APIs are UI/UX oriented and are all about how the audience consumes data on apps and devices. These APIs are likely required to be reusable to enable faster deployments.

MuleSoft Anypoint Platform gives the organization the suite needed to create these different types of APIs to lock/unlock data, compose data, and restructure data without compromising uptime.

The Development Lifecycle on Anypoint Platform

The Anypoint Platform is a combination of 5 components:

1. Anypoint Design Center: This component provides tools to design, document, and test APIs in a web-based graphical environment. The toolset includes API Designer, Studio, and Flow Designer. Users can build integrations and implement APIs in low-code environments, create data transformation with drag-and-drop interface or code, and test integrations manually, automatically, or within CI/CD.
2. Anypoint Management Center: This component is what you’ll need once the tests are passed and the code needs to go into the production phase. The Management Center guides you through deployment, management, and monitoring of APIs and integration in the cloud or on-premises. It connects with Customer 360 service as managers can track key metrics like API usage, transactions by region, and performance with prebuilt or custom dashboards.
3. Anypoint Exchange: Okay now that you have your API in production, it doesn’t end here. You can choose to contribute your work on Anypoint Exchange, much like Salesforce AppExchange. You can also store connectors, templates, examples, API definitions, even API fragments in a privately shared space. What’s more – developers can access public records to see if they can reuse/recycle available code to foster fast deployments.
4. Mule: Mule is the underlying engine; the processor that puts all the above components together.
5. Runtime services: The runtime services support auxiliary functions like temporary data storage and message queuing.

The best part about Anypoint is that its systems are based on a typical development cycle. There is no interruption at any level and fits very well into the CI/CD Pipeline.

Understanding the Need for MuleSoft:

MuleSoft is a funny-sounding name, right? Here’s what the company has to say – The "mule" in our name comes from the drudgery, or "donkey work," of data integration that our platform was created to escape. Also, like a mule, we deliver the strength of a donkey to haul the heavy workload, and the speed of a racehorse to get it done quickly. 

IT project demands are increasing at a rate of 32%. Enterprise technology is at an all-time high with an average number of applications that organizations running up to 900! Out of these 900, a measly 23% of applications are able to talk to each other. Integrations have become a messy business in a world where digital transformation is now no longer a choice, but a necessity. Industrial Revolution 4 has brought with it IoT, AI, cloud computing, blockchain, SaaS, ML, and the list goes on. With everything happening all at once, taking care of core systems without compromising security is key in staying ahead of the competition.

A recent study found that nearly 70% of IT’s time is dedicated to keeping the lights on rather than spending it on innovation. With so much downtime, where is the question of fast-deployments and quick ROI? MuleSoft could possibly be the signifier of The Little Engine That Could – a lesson that every company undergoing a digital transformation now needs.

MuleSoft Certification

As companies continue to ramp up the digital transformation game, specialists who can handle the tasks well will grow in demand. If you think you or your company can benefit from MuleSoft you can take up certification courses offered online. Here’s everything you need to know:

Each of the courses is role-specific. You can book them online. Make sure you have all the prerequisites in place before starting any course. As for certification, exams are available for the following recognitions: 

For developers:

1. MuleSoft Certified Developer - Level 1 (Mule 4)
2. MuleSoft Certified Developer - Level 1 (Mule 4) DELTA
3. MuleSoft Certified Developer - Integration and API Associate (Mule 3)
4. MuleSoft Certified Developer - API Design Associate (RAML 1.0)
5. MuleSoft Certified Developer - Integration Professional (Mule 3)

For Architects:

1. MuleSoft Certified Platform Architect - Level 1
2. MuleSoft Certified Integration Architect - Level 1

All certifications are MCQ based and can be taken online or at testing centres. Certification costs range from $125 to $375. Flexible Training Credits are available with each certification.

Salesforce and MuleSoft: Why They Work Together

Most Salesforce aficionados would agree that organizations typically use many applications that are available on Salesforce – not just one or two Apart from Salesforce native applications, there are also other applications that Salesforce itself needs to integrate with. Say, Sales Cloud for B2B and B2C sales management. SAP for Order Management, Service Cloud for Customer Support, and so on and Gmail for Mail automation. And each of these systems may or may not need to produce data that is visible to the customer on Customer 360. As the company grows, things get more and more completed – and using MuleSoft can help to scale, reusing, and flexing much simpler. 

Conclusion

As companies continue to ride the IT 4 wave, there’s a much-needed all-rounder solution like MuleSoft to help keep things connected, integrated, and organized at an organic level. A winning formula to avoid the eye of the hurricane that transformations bring it may seem, there’s no doubt that Gartner has nothing but praises for the Magic Quadrant Leader in both Full Life Cycle API Management and Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service category.