Imagine a titan: an automotive giant with a sprawling worldwide network of suppliers, distributors, warehouses, and regulatory authorities it needs to collaborate with. Picture 10,000+ partners connected to this giant, forming an intricate partner ecosystem that continuously exchanges 1,000,000+ messages per day about orders, pricing, inventory levels, logistics updates, and more.
Given the 24/7/365 nature of the B2B integration business today, enterprises can’t afford to have problems with EDI and APIs.
They need a solution that simply works.
But how can companies evolve to stay competitive while at the same time ensuring that their solutions continue to work no matter what, even as they process a higher and higher number of messages and partners?
That’s what we keep top of mind as we continue to invest in and evolve the Axway B2B Integration solution.
Here is why a multi-clustered or containerized architecture through our newest offering, Axway B2Bi Enterprise Edition, may just be the ideal fit for enterprises facing rising demands for scalability, reliability, and operational efficiency.
The 2025 imperative for operational efficiency
Enterprises need tools that deliver high availability, consistent performance, and meet strict SLAs. As partner ecosystems grow, businesses face bigger challenges like handling more message traffic, managing diverse integration methods, and meeting higher expectations for scalability and reliability.
Keeping these systems running smoothly requires solutions that ensure secure, uninterrupted operations while staying cost-effective.
That’s why partnering with vendors who excel at keeping operations resilient and maintenance simple is key to staying ahead.
Five warning signs you may be at risk for operational efficiency
If you’ve recently found yourself in any of the following situations, it may be a sign that your current EDI vendor won’t be able to help you scale your business as you grow.
Scalability performance issues. What happened last time your data flows saw a surge in volume? Is your EDI vendor capable of supporting more than nominal messaging latencies? Enterprises today need to be able scale as needed to meet changing workloads and improve throughput.
Not coping with business growth. Consider the example of Cencora, a leading global pharmaceutical solutions organization. When the organization acquired Alliance Healthcare in 2021, its global distribution network greatly expanded.
In the past, many of Cencora’s business units relied on their own individual EDI systems and processes. However, this approach increased the overall cost and complexity of delivering EDI capabilities to the business, and made it difficult to ensure consistently high levels of availability.
By centralizing EDI capabilities for the entire business to a dedicated team running Axway B2Bi, Cencora was able to boost operational efficiency while helping to ensure always-on service availability.
Reliability issues and lack of support. Some organizations have moved to Axway because they were dissatisfied with their previous EDI solutions that were slow and struggled to handle higher volumes. Support was oftentimes outsourced or deprioritized to the point of non-existence.
When a significant share of your organization’s revenue is handled via EDI, B2B integration is truly a mission-critical capability for your business – as engineering and technology innovator Bosch can attest.
Soaring costs for managing multiple environments. Some EDI providers may be able to quote lower initial pricing, but that proposal doesn’t always project the full cost. The more scattered and disconnected systems you have to maintain, the higher the costs.
Can you ascertain what the true operational costs will be to achieve the desired result? Switching to a centralized VAN hub, for example, might be significantly more cost-effective, in addition to being more efficient.
Partial shutdown during maintenance. For a growing number of modern enterprises, downtime means lost business. It’s no longer an option.
That’s one reason global logistics giant DB Schenker looked to Axway for help in phasing their existing B2B integration instance from on-premises to a multi-cluster cloud environment.
“Because we operate in so many global regions, it was a tough challenge to find downtime windows for planned maintenance on our B2B Integration environment that worked for all our stakeholders,” explains Begzudin Omerovic, Head of Integration System Architecture and Innovation at DB Schenker.
They’ve already been able to eliminate some 40 hours of maintenance downtime per year.
Now, they are working to enable even more elastic scalability by moving to a containerized environment.
Meet higher expectations with Axway B2Bi Enterprise Edition
Supporting on-prem, cloud, or hybrid ecosystems, Axway’s B2B Integration platform ensures you’re equipped to meet evolving demands with maximum operational efficiency.
Unlike other vendors, many of whom treat their B2B integration capabilities as legacy (lack of investment, outsourced R&D or support), Axway excels in all integration patterns — EDI, API, File Transfer, VAN, protocols, and security — backed by over 20 years of B2B/EDI expertise.
See also: 6 signs your EDI provider might be overselling their capabilities
Our B2Bi Enterprise Edition offering is uniquely suited to the modern operational efficiency imperative. It is a premium package of B2Bi software options that includes modern architectural options like multi-clustering and containerization to deliver the highest value possible with our software and put you on a strong path to platform modernization.
My colleague Liz Grout dives deeper into what makes Axway B2Bi Enterprise Edition unique here, but to give you a brief overview, it delivers greater capability and business value in two ways:
Deploy B2Bi in containers
Containers are the latest virtualization technology where you can package up an application’s code and all its dependencies so it can run reliably in any environment. They offer significant enterprise-level benefits such as eliminating downtime, rapid deployment, enhanced scalability, and stronger security.
At Axway, we saw this technology as a key lever for a foundational transformation of our product’s architecture.
What does this mean for users? Get an instance of B2Bi up and running more quickly, efficiently, and consistently than would otherwise occur with a classic installation.
Leverage multi-cluster deployments and active/active operations
If choosing to stay the course with traditional installations, enterprises can also optimize Axway’s best-of class B2Bi software with options such as active/active clustering and multi-clustering. These provide near-zero maintenance downtime, reliable operations, and business continuity.
Plus, you’re ready to evolve to containers when the time is right for your corporate strategy.
Learn more: Unlock Zero Downtime for B2B Integrations with Enterprise Containers
Beyond integration: Axway is your partner in digital evolution
In today’s rapidly evolving digital landscape, B2B integration isn’t just about connecting systems—it’s about creating a foundation for future growth.
Axway’s B2B Integration platform seamlessly unifies traditional and modern integration flows, empowering you to manage even the most complex partner networks with ease. Our reversible architecture ensures adaptability, allowing you to pivot as business needs evolve without risking vendor lock-in.
What’s more, Axway was recently named a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Business-to-Business Middleware 2024 Vendor Assessment.¹
Discover companies succeeding with a modern B2B integration infrastructure.
Axway’s B2B integration platform delivers the scalability, reliability, and operational efficiency that modern enterprises demand, while our continued investment in innovation ensures you’re always ready for what’s next.
And if you want to leverage the power of multi-clustering and containers to enable zero-downtime maintenance and maximize operational efficiency, talk to us about B2Bi Enterprise Edition.
Discover how Axway B2Bi Enterprise Edition puts you on the path to platform modernization.
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