Ask the Developers: The Future Envisioned by "HULFT Square"

The newly launched iPaaS (cloud-based data integration platform) "HULFT Square" from Japan as an innovative platform service for free and secure data utilization. The new iPaaS platform, HULFT Square, is a cloud-native platform indispensable for agile development and DX promotion, and is developed by Saison Information Systems (now Saison Technology), which has powerful tools such as HULFT, a file integration software with a global track record, and DataSpider Servista, which boasts numerous deployments as data integration software. We asked Mr. Saburo Arima, the executive officer in charge of DevOps, who spent three years developing the HULFT Square platform, about the development process of HULFT Square, its features, and the future vision of the platform.

▼Profile
Executive Officer and HULFT Square Product Development Manager SAISON INFORMATION SYSTEMS CO., LTD. (currently Saison Technology)
Saburo Arima
*Titles and affiliations are those at the time of interview.

"HULFT Square" offers a new option: SaaS

HULFT Square has now been launched.
Please tell us about the process that led to the development of HULFT Square.

Cloud utilization has been gaining attention in Japan since the late 2000s, and by around 2018, some companies had begun to develop their entire business infrastructure on the cloud. At that stage, the cloud, along with on-premise systems, had become an essential option for building a company's infrastructure, and there was a desire for an environment in which HULFT and DataSpider Servista could be used as SaaS. Meanwhile, agile development and digital transformation (DX) have become commonplace topics for many companies by 2020, making SaaS an essential option rather than on-premise systems, which was a major factor behind this.

As many companies are calling for the promotion of digital transformation, a SaaS environment is indispensable.

In order to advance DX, it is necessary to start as quickly as possible, fail quickly, and gain experience, which is what was actually desired. The approach of spending several years getting approval, securing a budget, and then implementing it on-site is no longer viable in today's world. We have offered cloud-based solutions such as DataSpider Cloud, but we decided that we should offer HULFT and DataSpider Servista as our own managed services. And because HULFT has a proven track record globally, we designed the service as a SaaS from the start with a global perspective, not just domestically.

What kind of concept is HULFT Square?

HULFT Square is a data integration platform service for free and secure data usage. HULFT The reason why customers have been using for 30 years is that it can send data safely and without fail to the designated party, regardless of the line or data size. Together with HULFT, the features of DataSpider Servista, which allows users to freely create various programs as ETL and contribute to data linkage, have been sublimated into a platform, which is exactly what HULFT Square is.
However, rather than just inheriting the best aspects of the product, the platform incorporates the requirements of the global market, including workspace and privilege management, and GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) compliance. The concept is not only for the IT department, but also for the business department to use the platform freely and securely.

In the sense that HULFT Square is a solution that connects various things on the cloud, it seems to fall into the realm of solutions such as API gateways and iPaaS.

We ourselves call HULFT Square an iPaaS, and one of the things we place particular importance on is the ability to start small. iPaaS can be broadly divided into two types: solutions that can handle large-scale systems, and solutions that allow you to easily create and integrate flows. The former solutions can certainly do a lot, but as in the past, they require you to solidify requirements, secure a budget, and then implement them with the help of consulting. This inevitably requires a lot of cost and time. They are not easy to implement through repeated trial and error. We believe that an environment that allows you to start small is important, so that you can utilize them in areas that are currently in demand, such as agile and digital transformation.

What do you think is the difference between this and solutions that are easy to use?

Power Automate and Workato are often talked about as easy-to-use iPaaS solutions, but the biggest difference is that we have HULFT, which boasts high connectivity with on-premises systems. Even when integrating SaaS, data integration with on-premises systems is inevitable, to a greater or lesser extent, such as obtaining employee master data stored on-premises. HULFT Square provides an interface that allows you to easily connect to on-premises systems using a web browser, and we believe that the ability to easily and securely data integration is one of our major advantages.

What was the meaning behind the name HULFT Square?

Along with our desire to enable our customers to safely and securely data integration in a cloud environment, we also want to create relationships where customers can spontaneously connect with each other using HULFT, which is used by many customers. In that sense, we named it Square as a place where many people can gather. We hope that this will be used as a place where customers can share know-how and best practices, including how other customers are data integration, and that we will create a forum where they can quickly solve their own challenges.

HULFT Square 's position in enabling the creation of cloud-native environments

What kind of customers is this solution targeted at?

Rather than focusing on specific industries or business types, we are focusing on targeting customers who have needs for SaaS integration. Recently, many SaaS services have been launched in the HR field, such as attendance management and personnel management, so we plan to provide many use cases for business operations rather than specific industries. Customers who are strongly promoting DX themselves have concerns about how to connect multiple SaaS services, so we believe that by presenting use cases, they will be able to make effective use of our services.

How will HULFT Square be positioned as a solution, including how it differs from HULFT and DataSpider Servista?

From an architectural perspective, HULFT Square differs significantly from HULFT and DataSpider Servista, which are designed to run on-premise servers or on cloud services such as AWS. DataSpider DataSpider Cloud DataSpider Servista as a managed service, but the cloud-native approach of easily expanding the environment, including contracts, can be challenging. HULFT Square offers a DX-native environment in a sense, allowing you to easily scale ETL and other execution environments via a web browser. Furthermore, HULFT Square offers an overwhelming range of self-service options, allowing customers to freely expand their environments. Naturally, the managed service of HULFT Square offers significant benefits for IT departments facing declining staff numbers, including the significant reduction in the burden of server maintenance and security issues.

Will HULFT and DataSpider Servista be separated from HULFT Square in the future?

HULFT is used on-premises by over 10,000 customers in Japan alone, and this will not disappear. Of course, we are considering solutions that meet the need to run HULFT in a cloud-native environment. As for DataSpider Servista, the amount of data that can be handled, the required speed, and the scope of control differ significantly between on-premises and cloud, so we do not expect to migrate everything to the cloud. However, there are solutions that are iPaaS but provide agents that run on-premises, so we recognize that agents that run on-premises will eventually become necessary. In that sense, we believe that we will start with loose collaboration between the two.
Furthermore, we are considering incorporating HULFT DataCatalog, which is useful for data analysis by automatically collecting and cataloging metadata from data managed in a distributed manner within a company, into HULFT Square at some point in the future.

HULFT Square is introduced on the website as a service platform that connects information safely, securely, and flexibly. Could you please tell us about some of its distinctive features?

One of its features is that it can be used safely and securely, as it complies with GDPR, the EU legislation on personal information protection and handling, and CPRA (California Consumer Privacy Act), the privacy rights law defined in the state of California, from the perspective of data flow, information management methods, and whether they are being operated correctly.In addition to applying customized policies, it also comes with pre-prepared group policies optimized for each user, and its ability to encrypt data and manage strict permissions also makes it safe and secure to use.
We also provide workspaces that can be used freely in closed areas in accordance with policies, and the environment in which users can freely interact without affecting others can also be said to be a function that contributes to safety and security. Not only can policies enable the creation of a system that emphasizes stability, but workspaces are also important in achieving a bimodal approach that emphasizes agile deployment, so we hope that users will use workspaces to create systems that can be freely interacted with and explored.

This is Saison Information Systems' first SaaS offering. Were there any difficulties encountered in developing HULFT Square?

With the aim of expanding globally from the start, the system has been developed jointly in the US and Japan with HULFT, Inc. in Silicon Valley from the R&D stage. Furthermore, in the US, where job changes are common and engineers tend to move around, it is easy to find people with experience in SaaS development. A major benefit was being able to quickly incorporate knowledge of global iPaaS development, such as microservices and continuous delivery.
However, I realized that goals and a vision are more important to the development team when the requirements have not yet been decided. To be honest, I struggled to put the vision into words, but I gained a sense that as long as we can clearly communicate what HULFT Square aims to be and the value we want to provide to users, we can create a good service even without a detailed design, which was a great benefit. There are still many areas that need improvement, but I think it is good progress that the development team is able to discuss and create something based on customer feedback. For me, it was a culture shock and led to a change in my way of thinking, but I would like to continue trial and error as we move forward with development globally.

HULFT Square 's vision of the future

What has been the reaction of early users?

First of all, we'd like to express our sincere gratitude to the companies that have been using the service since the PoC stage. Currently, several customers are using the service, and while we have received feedback on issues and feature requests, the system has been well-received, with users able to start using it immediately and for its ease of use. However, while the system is based on DataSpider Servista, which is designed for IT departments, and allows users to tailor their operations to their needs, we believe that in order to ensure ease of use, it is necessary to create an environment that includes training. Therefore, we plan to offer external training on HULFT Square from the release stage. We will provide a detailed support system and a comprehensive training environment so that users can quickly experience the benefits of SaaS, which can be started immediately, and the ability to freely handle data.

It seems that many people are interested in the iPaaS provided by HULFT Square.

I've heard a lot of different stories, and I can see that there's a lot of interest in iPaaS. No matter who I ask, there's hardly any company that isn't considering it. Of course, there are various uses, from large-scale environments to simple integration with Salesforce, but I'm hearing from them with anticipation, "So you're finally releasing an iPaaS."
To be honest, we have heard from some people that they considered existing iPaaS and were not successful, so we would like to continue to thoroughly explain the advantages and disadvantages of our service, effectively convey its unique appeal, and further refine it so that people will think, "This is one of HULFT Series, and it's easy to use."

HULFT Square is expected to become a platform where users can gather together, but is it possible that users will be able to share their settings with each other?

We would like to eventually provide something like a marketplace. Since methods of connecting and processing data, which we call scripts, are unique to each industry, having an environment where customers can share them will be a great benefit. If users can empathize with the scripts they create by publishing them, it will also motivate them to create new scripts. Of course, we would also like to provide templates for various integrations and create an environment that many customers can use.

HULFT Square has just been launched, but how do you plan to expand HULFT Square going forward? Please tell us about your future plans.

We would like to see HULFT Square used as a central link between SaaS services, so increasing the number of compatible connections is one of the themes we will continue to work on. We would like to release support as quickly as possible and monitor customer reactions so that customers can take advantage of the benefits of SaaS, which can be started immediately.
Additionally, customers who have been working on PoC for about a year in advance have requested the creation of an environment in which developed products can be immediately deployed to production, in order to ensure safe operation. We call this deployment, and we would like to prepare something like a staging environment for safe release from the development environment, so that it can be easily deployed to production with just a click on the screen. We also want to strengthen the monitoring system that is unique to SaaS, as well as expand notification functions.

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