Need Advice on Integrating Anaplan with External Data Sources

prisha500

Hi everyone,

I'm working on Anaplan integration with external data sources and could use some advice. Any tips or tools to recommend?

Thanks in adavnce!

AlejandroGomez

hi @prisha500

first you need to know when approaching data integration is:

1. what is your data source (a SQL data base, another platform, is it on premises, is it cloud…)
2. how are you connecting that source to Anaplan (Anaplan connect, cloudworks, do you have an IPaaS, do you have resources with the knowledge to build an API…)

I would recommend you to complete the Anaplan Level 3 training, or at least to spend some time in the community to understand more about what options you have available:

1. Microlesson on data integration options (from L3): https://anaplanenablement.s3.amazonaws.com/Academy/Platform/SA/SA_01/L03/WEB/story.html

2. Brochure covering the different Integration options and customers who use them: https://www.anaplan.com/content/dam/anaplan/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/extensibility_solutionBrief.pdf

3. This post is focused on Anaplan Connect specifically, but is one of the most useful and detailed (if you want to use Anaplan Connect to connect to External data bases)

https://community.anaplan.com/discussion/110824/start-here-anaplan-connect-2-0-and-jdbc-connectivity

ChrisStauffer

This is also a helpful tool

https://community.anaplan.com/t5/Best-Practices/Data-Integration-Decision-App/ta-p/133155

mhatlasi

Hi @prisha500 ,

There are multiple steps within one data integration pipeline.

In my opinion, there are 2 main pathways to deploying a data integration solution for Anaplan.

Path A) Purchase a tool from the market (ETL/ELT). Informatica and Snaplogic are two main tools that come to mind. They've both partnered with Anaplan to build their Anaplan connectors. They will handle all the data integration steps for you. This path will have a higher cost than alternative, but the fastest time to deployment, and least maintenance hassle.

Path B) Piece-meal together a series of smaller and lower-cost tools for each step of the pipeline. Here is an example of how we did it:

1. Import and export out/in to Anaplan: All of our exports, and some of our bigger imports, happen through a Cloudworks connection to S3. Since our Anaplan instance is also native to S3, its the fastest way to export and import large data dumps. Note: There is almost no ability to include transformation in this step. It works best with exporting data dumps, and importing pre-transformed and pre-cleaned data. Cloudworks currently only connects to AWS/Azure/Google.
2. Data transformation: You have a lot of options and alternatives here for the tools you pick. You can look at Airflow/DBT as an example. We use these tools to run API commands to our cloud database. Our cloud database has pre-existing connectors for S3. So we use the API to command our database to pick the file Anaplan exports from S3, load it to a staging table, and transform and load it again to final tables. In case of Anaplan imports, we use the same tool to run queries from our cloud database, and generate a csv file, save it in S3, where Anaplan Cloudworks has been pre-configured to pick it up and run the import process.
3. Data source/destination: This could be anything. In our case, we have a cloud database with existing S3 connectors. You'll have to see what your circumstances are. If your data source/destination is within a private corporate network not accessible by internet, then you'll be limited to using Anaplan Connect as the main piece of your integration pipeline.

Based on your specific circumstances you might have to rethink how you'd want to implement a data integration solution, but the above can give you an example of how other Anaplan teams do it.

rishabh

Hi @prisha500 , I typically use this quirky& lightweight integration tool called Wormhole. Read more about it here: https://www.polestarllp.com/anaplan-integration-utility

rohan02

Hello prisha I think you should check this : Splunk Training