The Boomi platform is a collection of individual components working together to make every integration scenario a success. These components, while interrelated, also serve their own purpose and shine in different situations. In this article, we will focus on two key features of the Boomi architecture—Atoms and Molecules. Through a simple analogy, we will examine their main functionalities and weigh their pros and cons.?
1. Boomi Atom: your personal integration vehicle
Most people own at least one vehicle (a car, a bicycle, a motorcycle, or something else entirely) that allows them to hit the road whenever they require. A personal vehicle is a compact and reliable way to get from one point to another. Owning your own ride makes it easier to run errands, stop for groceries, and transport your shopping and other belongings comfortably.
Similarly, a Boomi Atom is a lightweight, single tenant, and single node runtime engine. Just as your personal car or bike belongs only to you, a single Boomi Atom instance is assigned to a specific customer or account. It is also deployed on one server or computing instance at any given time (single node). In the case of an Atom, this is a Java virtual machine (JVM) running on a single server.?
Advantages:
Before you decide to harness the power of Boomi Atom to enhance your integration capabilities, it’s important to understand what benefits it can bring to your organisation:
- Flexible deployment: just as your personal vehicle can be customised based on your individual needs and desires, a Boomi Atom can be deployed in the local or corporate network (on-premises) or through the internet (in the cloud).?
- Lightweight and agile: a personal vehicle is generally small, but it still saves the day with its speediness and dependability. Similarly, Boomi Atoms handle integration processes with ease partly due to their simple configuration and installation requirements. They are especially great for implementing small-scale integrations.?
- Self-contained: just like a personal vehicle doesn’t count on other vehicles to reach its destination, a Boomi Atom has all the components it needs to complete your integration processes from end to end like connectors, data mappings, transformation logic, decision and error handling, and so on. The independent nature of the Boomi Atom also contributes to data privacy and consistency.?
- Coordinates with the rest of the Boomi platform: despite its self-sufficiency, you can also choose to connect Boomi Atom with other components in the Boomi environment such as Boomi Master Data Hub (MDH) and Boomi Flow. This will facilitate the inclusion of capabilities such as centralised data management and workflow automation, diversifying your approach to integration. Think of these collaborations as being similar to fitting a new system such as a GPS to your personal vehicle to enhance your driving experience.??
- Cost-effective: most personal vehicles are designed to be economical. Similarly, Atoms are less expensive than other deployment options, particularly when considering licensing and infrastructural costs.???
2. Boomi Molecule: a convoy of integration power
The purpose of a convoy (such as those used in military operations) is to provide mutual support and security to the vehicles within the group. By travelling together, the convoy can thwart potential threats, share resources and supplies, coordinate movements, and provide assistance in case of emergencies.?
Just as a convoy comprises multiple vehicles working in synchrony, a Boomi Molecule is a cluster of interconnected Boomi Atoms collaborating harmoniously to tackle complex integration challenges. Boomi Molecules are single-tenant and multiple-node runtime engines that are well-equipped to handle continuous processing tasks that involve enormous loads.?
Advantages:
- Performance: by assigning workloads between multiple Atoms, a Molecule improves performance, especially for high-volume situations. This mimics a convoy’s ability to transport large groups of people and goods from one point to another.?
- Resilience: in a convoy, if one of the vehicles experiences a failure, the other vehicles can still operate towards their goals. Likewise, since Molecules are made up of smaller units (Atoms), it’s easy to recover even when one of them is experiencing downtime.?
- Scalable architecture: Atoms can be added or subtracted depending on the inflow of data to be processed. This flexibility resembles a convoy’s ability to reconfigure and adapt to the changes in the mission’s objectives.?
- Resource sharing: the vehicles in a convoy fairly distribute resources between themselves (like fuel and food for the passengers). Similarly, Molecules effectively allocate resources like CPU time, memory, and bandwidth between their Atoms to improve the efficiency of integration tasks.?
- Uniformity: a convoy functions as a unified force despite being made up of individual vehicles. Similarly, a Molecule ensures seamless coordination between Atoms to streamline advanced integration scenarios.???????
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3. Boomi Atoms vs Boomi Molecule
When are Atoms useful?
Atoms are the most rudimentary of runtime engines available on Boomi’s platform. They can be especially useful when:
- Speed is a top priority for your integrations. They are also a great choice for small to medium-scale integrations that do not depend on large data volumes and intricate workflows.?
- You want to avoid the hassles of maintenance after implementation.
- When data isolation and security are integral to your needs, the single tenant, single node structure of Atoms comes in handy.?
- Forked executions are not supported by Atoms. However, non-forked processes result in better speed. If your goal is to conserve resources and prevent resource contention, then non-forked executions provided by Atoms may suit you best.???
When are Molecules useful?
Molecules are more complex to manage and configure than atoms. They can also be slower than a single Atom due to additional overhead. However, Molecules are particularly useful due to:
- Their high availability and fault tolerance. This is a result of their multi-node nature.
- Their ability to split work between multiple nodes allows for load balancing and high-volume data integrations.?
- Forked executions can be optionally configured through Molecules. Forked executions mean that processes are allocated between multiple Java virtual machines (JVMs). This once again increases fault tolerance and leads to better utilisation of available resources (for example, using more of the memory offered by the machine, thus reducing wasted resource potential).?
Document some of your favourite analogies to illustrate the many moving parts of Boomi in the comments below! We hope you enjoyed reading this article and picked up some tidbits of knowledge along the way. But wait, there's more! Read about the advantages of Boomi’s platform in another one of our articles here: https://www.chakray.com/7-reasons-benefits-why-should-choose-boomi/?