Salesforce Connect and Hybrid Data Pipeline provide a direct path for integrating external data with a Salesforce org. Whereas previous integrations required copying data between Salesforce and external sources, Salesforce Connect allows you to read and write to external data sources in real time. In this way, Salesforce Connect enables you to avoid the costs and challenges posed by having redundant data sets that fall out of sync, such as reconciling duplicate data sets that live in separate locations. However, to leverage Salesforce Connect, you must be able to expose your external data as OData endpoints. Thus, for organizations that wish to adopt Salesforce Connect, implementation becomes a central concern.

Hybrid Data Pipeline is a light-weight yet powerful solution that enables you to fully leverage Salesforce Connect by exposing external data as OData endpoints. Hybrid Data Pipeline eliminates the costs associated with copying and storing data in Salesforce by exposing external data in real time. In addition, it removes the costs involved in building and maintaining an OData or Apex adapter, allowing administrators and developers to more easily build integrations for client applications and end users. In addition, Hybrid Data Pipeline reduces Salesforce Connect licensing fees with a Data Source Group feature that allows you to expose multiple data sources as a single OData endpoint.

Hybrid Data Pipeline is a comprehensive solution. Hybrid Data Pipeline supports OData connectivity to a wide range of relational and non-relational database management systems. This support includes the ability to access data behind a firewall as well as data hosted in the cloud. In addition, Hybrid Data Pipeline is a secure solution that addresses data compliance concerns. Data at rest is protected with AES-256 encryption, and data in transit is protected with the TLS cryptographic protocol. LDAP, OAuth 2.0, and SAML are supported, among other authentication methods. Other security features include FIPS support, throttling, and IP address whitelists.

There are three basic steps to exposing external data with Salesforce Connect and Hybrid Data Pipeline.

For assistance with deployment and configuration, please see Additional resources.