The Challenges We Identified and Why We Made Databridge

Enterprises operating with privately hosted databases often face a common set of obstacles when trying to connect them with cloud applications:

1. Inbound exposure risk: Traditional approaches require opening inbound network access to the internet, exposing internal infrastructure to external networks.
   
2. Data residency conflicts: Syncing or replicating privately hosted data to a third-party cloud frequently conflicts with data residency and compliance regulations.
   
3. Data duplication and cost: Migrating data to the cloud to enable access leads to duplication across environments, synchronization overhead, and additional storage costs.
   
4. Integration complexity: Custom middleware or VPN setups are complex to configure, maintain, and scale over time.
   
5. Access control risks: Any lapse in access control can result in unauthorized exposure of sensitive business data.
   

Databridge is built specifically to solve these challenges, to streamline these common issues for any of our customers that need to be able to access their private data.  Records on the private network server can be updated through the integration, but there are no inbound connections established by the Creator app, keeping your network safe and secure.

What is Databridge?

Databridge lets your applications securely access data from services and databases hosted within your private network, through an outbound-only connection model.

At the heart of Databridge is a lightweight application installed on a machine inside your private network. It opens an outbound connection to Zoho Creator and listens for requests, without needing to open any additional connections in your security layer. When a Creator application requests information from an internal system, Databridge securely routes the request through your network and returns the response to Creator.

Why This Matters?

1. Extend existing systems without replacing them: Connect your existing ERP or legacy systems to Creator and build on top of them without touching or modifying the core systems.
   
2. Compliance-friendly: It's designed to align with strict data residency, security, and regulatory requirements that enterprises must adhere to.
   
3. Access internal data on demand: Privately hosted enterprise data is available only on an on-demand basis.
   
4. Reduce integration overhead: Avoid managing complex middleware or custom gateway infrastructure for internal system access
   

How Do You Get Started?

1. Navigate to Operations and select Databridge.
   
   
2. Download and install Databridge on the machine that has access to your internal services or databases.
   
   
3. Add a connection and enable it to get started. Once configured, your Creator apps can securely access internal systems through Databridge.
   
   

For detailed information, refer to our help documentation, found here - Zoho Creator - Understanding Databridge

What Can You Connect?

Currently, Databridge will support the following connectors:

1. Oracle
   
2. MySQL
   
3. PostgreSQL
   
4. Microsoft SQL Server
   
5. ActianZen
   
6. SAP HANA
   
7. SAP OP

Our team is working on introducing new connectors, to other popular services, so stay tuned for additional connections being released in the future.

Creator Databridge is available for all paid plans, on Creator v6

Availability: All DCs except CN

If you have any questions or issues that you need our assistance with, as always, please don't hesitate to reach out to us at your assigned Enterprise Support email address.