Use Case: Sync Versus Async Integrations

An application integration can be synchronous or asynchronous. Learn when to use each type.

Use case: Synchronous integration

Synchronous integrations are ideal when someone is waiting for a response, or the process is subject to a business service level agreement (SLA). For example:

• Data arrives at point A and must reach point B within 1 minute.

• A call center employee must get a customer's information from Salesforce.

• A customer places an online order and expects to receive an order number in their browser window.

• An employee must update their address in the human resources software.

A synchronous integration must finish running in a matter of minutes.

Use case: Asynchronous integration

Asynchronous integrations are ideal from a performance perspective. They use resources intelligently, allowing an automation solution to run as soon as it is able to, based on the current conditions. All fire-and-forget use cases should use asynchronous integrations. For example:

• A sales person closed a deal and needs to generate an invoice for the new customer.

An asynchronous integration has a number of hours in which to run.