Among the reasons why many organizations are still hesitant to adopt Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) is the concern that it will be difficult to integrate their existing data sources into their new, on-demand software services.

While this may be a real challenge for some large enterprises that must contend with a plethora of custom applications, it is becoming less of a issue for other companies with relatively common applications and database structures, as a result of rapidly evolving SaaS solutions.

The latest innovation in the integration arena was unveiled by Informatica last week when the company announced its new On Demand Data Replicator, the first multi-tenant, cross-enterprise data integration on-demand service.

The On Demand Data Replicator enables organizations to quickly and easily replicate SaaS-related data to their on-premise transactional and master databases. The service is initially aimed at organizations relying on Salesforce.com and third-parties tied into Salesforce.com’s AppExchange. However, Informatica promises to make it available to a broader range of SaaS solutions.

The new offering is part of Informatica’s three-pronged strategy to deliver integration solutions to large-scale enterprises, small- and mid-size businesses (SMBs), and service providers. The company plans to continue to deliver its PowerCenter products for complex environments. But, Informatica sees an attractive new market opportunity in the SaaS movement to provide a wide array of ‘connectors’, starting with the initial On-Demand Data Replicator, to address relatively routine data integration tasks in an automated and self-provisioned fashion. The new offerings will also integrate with Infomatica’s PowerCenter products.

In order to ensure that its new On-Demand offering appeals to the growing population of SaaS users, Informatica has adopted a standard per user/per month pricing model.

While Informatica’s offering is the first truly turn-key integration solution in the SaaS market, the company isn’t the first to promote the idea of Integration-as-a-Service (IaaS). Pervasive Software and Bluewolf Group have also been advocates of this idea. Pervasive has been leveraging its long history of delivering data integration software solutions to address the new round of integration issues associated with SaaS. Bluewolf Group is the leading, independent, professional services firm specializing in SaaS deployments and has built a structured methodology for handling integration issues.

Informatica’s new On-Demand Data Replicator solution brings a new level of speed and simplicity to the SaaS integration process. It should also help to eliminate an important concern of the past among many organizations regarding the viability of SaaS.