Choosing the Right Adapter: Technical and Business Implications

When building integrations in SAP Integration Suite, you'll often face a choice: use a dedicated application adapter (like Salesforce, AWS, or Anaplan) or go with the generic HTTP adapter. While the HTTP adapter offers flexibility, application-specific adapters deliver significant advantages that can save you time, reduce errors, and improve your integration's reliability.
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Technical Benefits That Make A Real Difference

Built-in Authentication Handling

Application-specific adapters come with pre-configured authentication mechanisms tailored to each platform. Whether it's AWS Signature authentication, Salesforce OAuth 2.0, or Anaplan certificate-based auth, the adapter handles the heavy lifting. You won't need to manually construct authentication headers, manage token refresh cycles, or implement request signing. These are tasks that are not only time-consuming but also error-prone when done manually with HTTP adapters.

Simplified Configuration Screens

Out-of-the-Box API Operation Support

Application adapters expose ready-made actions for common business operations. Need to update and insert a Salesforce record, upload a file to Anaplan, or publish a message to AWS SNS? These actions are built in.  

Compare this to the HTTP adapter approach, where you must manually code the exact HTTP method, construct the endpoint URL, and format the payload for every single operation.

Automatic Handling of Platform-Specific requirements

Every API has its specific requirements. Salesforce requires session renewal after expiry. AWS services need request signing with specific timestamp and hashing algorithms. HubSpot has particular pagination and response handling requirements.

Application-specific adapters handle these nuances automatically, preventing the subtle bugs that can emerge when you're implementing these details manually.

Built-in Error Handling & Response Mapping

These adapters understand each application's native error formats and provide structured error outputs that integrate smoothly with your error handling logic. With HTTP adapters, you receive raw HTTP status codes and response bodies, requiring custom scripts to parse and interpret errors meaningfully.

Performance & Maintainability Benefits

Application adapters are optimized for their target systems, reducing the overhead of request construction and response parsing. When vendors update their APIs, adapter updates often incorporate these changes automatically. This eliminates the need to recode HTTP calls and test new API versions manually.

Compliance & Supportability

SAP officially supports these adapters. If an integration breaks due to a vendor API change, SAP provides fixes as part of their standard support. When using HTTP adapters for custom implementations, SAP support may classify issues as custom code problems, leaving troubleshooting responsibilities with your team.
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Business Benefits: Where Technical Advantages Create Real Value
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Faster time to market: Pre-built authentication and ready-made operations significantly reduce development time, letting teams focus on business logic rather than technical implementation.

Reduced Development Costs - Less custom coding means fewer development hours and the ability to deploy smaller teams without sacrificing quality.

Lower Risk of Integration Failures - Built-in error handling and automatic API management reduce integration failures and emergency fixes.

Improved Maintainability - SAP-backed adapters with automatic updates decrease maintenance burden and provide predictable support costs.

Better Scalability - Each new integration with the same platform benefits from existing adapter capabilities, creating consistency across your integration landscape.

Enhanced Security - Purpose-built authentication and SAP security updates provide better protection than custom implementations while reducing compliance risks.

While HTTP adapters certainly have their place for unique or unsupported systems, application-specific adapters offer compelling advantages for mainstream platforms. They transform complex integration challenges into straightforward configuration tasks, letting your team focus on business value rather than technical implementation details.

The choice becomes clear: when application-specific adapters are available for your target systems, they're almost always the better path forward. ‍

Next Steps for Your Integration Strategy
Immediate Actions
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1. Audit Current Integrations  
   • Identify existing HTTP adapter implementations that could benefit from application adapters
   • Calculate current maintenance overhead and support costs
   • Document integration reliability issues ‍‍
2. ‍Evaluate Available Adapters  
   • Review SAP's current application adapter catalogue
   • Match your target systems with available pre-built adapters
   • Assess compatibility with your current SAP Integration Suite version ‍
3. ‍Plan Migration Strategy  
   • Prioritize high-maintenance HTTP integrations for conversion
   • Schedule migration during maintenance windows
   • Create testing protocols for converted integrations

Long-Term Planning

• Standardize on Application Adapters for all supported platforms ‍
• Establish Configuration Templates for common integration patterns ‍
• Create Team Training Programs on application adapter best practices ‍
• Monitor the SAP Roadmap for new adapter releases

Implementing the right adapter strategy requires expertise in both SAP Integration Suite architecture and target system APIs. Ready to optimize your SAP integrations? Our team at Rojo Integrations specializes in SAP Integration Suite implementations using application-specific adapters. We help enterprises reduce integration costs, improve reliability, and accelerate time-to-value.

Contact us today to discuss your integration challenges and learn how application adapters can transform your integration landscape.