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Integrations - Local vs Cloud Solutions
Integrations - Local vs Cloud Solutions
Micah A. Parker avatar
Written by Micah A. Parker
Updated over 9 months ago

Article Link: http://help.truecommerce.com/en/articles/8908978-integrations-local-vs-cloud-solutions

TrueCommerce has a wide range of Integrations available across both local and cloud based platforms helping to provide solutions for many of your business process needs. With the various platform options it can often become confusing to keep track of what is being referred to when you see such terms.

Both terms refer to a type of Integration that interacts with Transaction Manager, and the easiest way to understand the difference is that while one refers to your company self-managed (local) your software, the other refers to software that is hosted (cloud) by an external source.

Local vs Cloud

So what are some of the major differences between a Local-based Integration and a Cloud-Based Integration?

Local

For Local Integrations you'll have most everything hosted on a machine within your network - these configurations often mean you or your IT Department have direct access to things like your Business System, files, and folders.

  • Business System is often ran through an Application on your machine

  • TrueCommerce Integration Service is installed to pass data

  • Files are stored in a specific folder accessible on your network

Cloud

With a Cloud Integration you'll have most things stored remotely and are accessed typically using your Web-Browser

  • Business System is accessed by an URL on your Web Browser

  • TrueCommerce passes data using HTTP (web-calls)

  • Files are not accessible directly

Local Integrations

Local Integrations, often referred to as On-Premise integrations, is where your company has installed the software internally within your system's Network. You as a company have direct access to your files, applications, and databases.

TrueCommerce has two primary methods for integrating with a locally based integration - Framework and Flat File, where one has a direct connection to your database or system, while another produces files with the needed information ready to be consumed by your system.

Local Framework

  • Direct Connection

  • Requires the Integration Service

  • Data is sent directly to/from your Business System and Transaction Manager

Local Flat File

  • Indirect Connection

  • Flat Files (XML, CSV, TXT) are sent to a directory on your network

  • Those files are then consumed/read by your Business System outside of the TrueCommerce chain

Integration Service

With local-based integrations, you are often need at least one machine hooked up with the TrueCommerce Integration Service so that data can be transferred to and from your system.

Cloud Integrations

Cloud Integrations are what we often consider "Web Apps" - these are hosted services from an external company that you typically access by entering a URL into your Web Browser such as Chrome or Edge.

Alternatively your system may be hosted locally, but you receive files through a cloud service such as an File Transfer Protocol (FTP) server such as one that Transaction Manager hosts.

Cloud Framework

  • Web-Based Connection

  • Transaction Manager and the hosted Business System communicate through Web-APIs

  • Data is hosted externally

Cloud Flat File

  • Indirect Connection

  • Flat Files (XML, CSV, TXT) are hosted on a secure FTP from TrueCommerce

  • Files must be downloaded to your local network/business system to access data

rev 2/5/2024

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