Centazio in Practice: the series
Centazio in Practice is a hands-on series about building data integrations with Centazio. We develop Centazio at PicNet as an open-source data integration, workflow and master data platform for .NET. It’s published under the MIT licence, and the source is on GitHub at github.com/PicNet/Centazio. PicNet is a Sydney software company that has been running since 2001. Our team wrote the series from the work of building and running Centazio.
Who it’s for
We wrote the series for developers and technical leads who would rather write and test integration code than configure a drag-and-drop tool. If your team already works in C# and wants integration logic in the same repositories, code reviews and build pipelines as the rest of its software, you’re the reader we have in mind. IT managers deciding whether a code-first approach suits their team should also find enough here to make that call. You’ll see what the work involves before anyone commits to it.
What it covers
The series starts with a first integration built from start to finish. Later posts cover how to test integration code and what to do when things fail, such as an unavailable source system or a run that stops halfway. There’s a post on deploying and operating integrations once they’re live. The last topic is when Centazio is the wrong choice. Some problems are better solved with an off-the-shelf connector or a different tool, and we would rather you find that out from us than halfway through a project.
Where Centazio stands today
Centazio is in beta. The NuGet packages are prerelease, so expect APIs to change between versions, and pin your package versions accordingly. Centazio also runs in production today at CYCA and at Guide Dogs NSW/ACT. Both of those facts matter if you’re thinking about using it. It already does real work for real organisations, but you’re taking on a product that is still changing. You should weigh that before building on it.
How the posts are written
Each post works through code that runs and covers what the approach costs in development and ongoing maintenance. We also say where things get awkward or where Centazio falls short. When something is a limitation of the current beta, we say so and don’t paper over it. When a simpler approach would do the job, we’ll point to that instead.
You don’t need to have used Centazio before. A working knowledge of C# and .NET is enough to follow along, and each post states what it assumes. The posts are listed at the end of this page, and the list grows as each one is published.
PicNet also builds production AI systems for Australian organisations. If you’re planning one, talk to us about what a first project could look like.