Informatica, which already counts its Cloud processing upwards of a billion cloud integration transactions a day, has upgraded the stuff. It reckons its new Cloud Spring 2012 release will deliver the industry's most comprehensive cloud integration platform-as-a-service (iPaaS).

The biggest addition is a new Cloud Developer Edition that consists of a cloud connector toolkit and dynamic cloud integration templates for rapid connectivity to applications. Developers can embed end-user customizable integration logic and connectivity into cloud applications and platforms.

System integrators and ISVs should be able to build, customize and deliver native connectivity to any cloud or on-premise business and social applications that have published Web Services APIs.

Developers can access a Java-based API to create high-performance connectors that run as sources or targets in the Informatica Cloud. They can also sell their connectors on the Informatica Marketplace. The company says connectors now available there include LinkedIn, Microsoft Dynamics GP, Salesforce Chatter, Twitter, Yammer and Zuora.

The Developer Edition introduces cloud integration templates so application developers and ISVs can design and run custom data workflows between applications.

Application developers can leverage these templates to embed advanced Informatica Cloud data integration functionality into their own cloud solutions so they can pre-define customizable integration templates for specific industries and processes and use a RESTful API to dynamically configure process-centric templates.

There are also tools for creating new cloud integration templates and publishing them on the Informatica Marketplace.

The Spring release is supposed to have hybrid enterprise-class features like easy migration of cloud integration objects between development and production instances or between Informatica Cloud instances to support object reuse, sandbox development and rapid implementation.

There's SUSE Linux support for the Informatica Cloud Secure Agent and support for version 24 of the Salesforce Web Services API.

Gartner expects iPaaS adoption to grow "significantly" during the next five years. The researcher says it can provide a "foundation for hybrid cloud computing, engaging old and new applications and data, on-premises and in the cloud."

The Developer Edition is currently available through an early access program. When last we heard this stuff wasn't priced yet according to VP of cloud marketing Darren Cunningham.