An integration platform as a service (iPaaS) is cloud software on which a company draws, runs and monitors the connections between its applications. Each connection copies data from one application to another when something changes. The platform comes with hundreds of ready-made connectors. A connector is a piece of software that already knows how to read from and write to one popular application, such as a CRM, an ERP or an online store.
Why is it needed? Every application has its own API, the fixed format in which another program can ask it for data or send it an instruction. Without a platform, a developer writes code for each pair of applications. A company with 200 applications could need hundreds of such programs, and each one can break when an application changes. The platform keeps all the connections in one place, where they are built in the same way and watched from one screen.
Here is a typical case. A tea brand in Guwahati sells packets of Assam tea on its own website. It connects the online store to its ERP and its warehouse system on an iPaaS. The connection is drawn as four boxes. The first box is the trigger: a new order arrives in the store. The second is a mapping: the store's field "customer_email" goes into the ERP's field "Email", and the store's product code TEA-250 becomes the ERP's item number 40017. The third is an action: create a sales order in the ERP. The fourth is another action: send the order to the warehouse for packing. On a festival sale day, the connection runs 3,000 times. For two minutes, the ERP is down. The platform tries those orders again a few minutes later, and alerts the IT team only about the one order that still fails.
Who builds the connections? Often a business analyst in the IT team, not a programmer. Most steps are set up on screen, and code is needed only for unusual rules. When a software company builds the same kind of connections into its own product, for its customers, it is called embedded iPaaS.
An iPaaS connects applications. Data teams use ETL and ELT tools instead to copy whole databases into a data warehouse. Large files that must reach a bank or a partner at a fixed time go through managed file transfer.
The newest platforms are adding AI. The connection is described in words, and an AI agent decides which systems to call. This is agentic integration. The platforms also give AI agents ready-made connections, so that an agent can read and update the company's systems. Most platforms are sold as SaaS, priced by the number of connections or the number of tasks they run.