What is the difference between REST, GraphQL, and gRPC?

REST uses standard HTTP methods and is the default for most web APIs — easy to consume from any client, widely understood, but can suffer from over-fetching or under-fetching data. GraphQL lets clients specify exactly the fields they need in a single query, reducing payload size and round trips — ideal for products with multiple client types (mobile, web, partner APIs) with different data needs. gRPC uses Protocol Buffers for binary serialisation and HTTP/2 for transport — significantly faster and more efficient for service-to-service communication, especially in microservices. Naraway chooses the protocol based on your API consumers, performance requirements, and team familiarity.

How do you handle Salesforce integration with a custom product?

Salesforce integration typically involves: OAuth 2.0 connected app setup, REST or SOAP API client in your backend, data mapping between Salesforce objects (Leads, Contacts, Opportunities, Accounts) and your own data model, webhook listeners for Salesforce change events (via Outbound Messages or Platform Events), and bidirectional sync with conflict resolution logic. Naraway also implements a sync monitoring layer that alerts on sync lag, API rate limit consumption, and data mapping failures — because Salesforce integrations break silently when field mappings drift over time.

What is an integration middleware layer and do we need one?

An integration middleware layer sits between your product and external systems — it handles auth token management, request transformation (mapping your data model to the external system's schema), retry logic, error handling, rate limiting, and observability. You need dedicated middleware when: you integrate with 3+ external systems, when integration logic would pollute your core business code, or when you need to swap an external platform without rewriting your product. For simpler setups (1-2 integrations), direct API client libraries in your application service layer are sufficient — adding middleware for 2 integrations is premature abstraction.

How do you secure API keys and OAuth tokens for enterprise integrations?

Naraway stores all third-party API credentials in a secrets management system (HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, or GCP Secret Manager) — never in environment variables in application code or hardcoded. OAuth access tokens are stored encrypted in the database with refresh token rotation. Per-tenant credentials (for multi-tenant SaaS integrations) are isolated at the data layer with encryption keys per tenant. All credential access is logged to the audit trail. Credential rotation is automated where the external platform supports it.

Global Integration Engineering — 200+ Enterprise Platforms

Connect Your Product to
Every Platform Your
Customers Already Run.

Enterprise deals are won when your product integrates natively with the buyer's existing stack — Salesforce, SAP, HubSpot, Workday, Stripe, or their custom ERP. Naraway builds production-grade API integrations with authentication management, retry logic, monitoring, and rate-limit handling built in from the start.

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72%Of enterprise buyers say native integration with existing tools is a top-3 purchase criterion

200+Enterprise platforms Naraway has built integrations for across CRM, ERP, payments, HR, and messaging

99.5%Webhook delivery success rate target with retry queues and dead-letter handling

OAuth2All integrations secured with OAuth 2.0, credentials in vault — no plaintext API keys

Integration Ecosystem

The Enterprise Platform Ecosystem Naraway Connects To

Your enterprise customers use a mix of platforms — CRM, ERP, finance, HR, communication, and analytics tools. Naraway builds and maintains the API connections between your product and all of them.

Your ProductNaraway Integration Middleware

CRM Platforms

Salesforce

HubSpot

Zoho CRM

Microsoft Dynamics

Pipedrive

Payments and Finance

Stripe

Razorpay

PayPal

SAP Finance

Xero / QuickBooks

ERP Systems

SAP S/4HANA

Oracle ERP

Microsoft D365

Odoo

NetSuite

Communication

Twilio SMS / Voice

Slack

SendGrid / SES

WhatsApp Business

MS Teams

HR and Identity

Workday

BambooHR

Okta SSO

Azure AD

Google Workspace

Protocol Design

REST, GraphQL, or gRPC — Choosing the Right API Protocol

The API protocol is chosen based on who consumes the API, the performance requirements, and the data shape complexity. Naraway designs the protocol per integration — not a single approach for everything.

REST

REST over HTTP/S

The universal standard. Works with every client, every language, every tooling ecosystem. Best for public-facing APIs and integrations with external systems.

TransportHTTP/1.1 or HTTP/2

Data formatJSON (typically)

Tooling supportUniversal — every language, every framework

VersioningURL-based (v1/, v2/) or header-based

PerformanceGood — can suffer from over/under-fetching

Best forPublic APIs, external integrations, CRUD operations

GraphQL

GraphQL Query Language

Clients request exactly the fields they need — no over-fetching. One endpoint, one query language. Ideal when multiple client types have different data needs.

TransportHTTP/S (POST)

Data formatJSON with typed schema

Tooling supportGood — Apollo, Hasura, Relay

VersioningSchema evolution — no versioning needed

PerformanceExcellent for complex queries — watch N+1

Best forMulti-client products (web + mobile + partner), dashboards

gRPC

gRPC + Protocol Buffers

Binary serialisation, HTTP/2 multiplexing, strongly typed contracts via .proto files. 5-10x faster than REST for high-volume service-to-service communication.

TransportHTTP/2 (binary)

Data formatProtocol Buffers (binary)

Tooling supportServer/client code generated from .proto

VersioningStrict — breaking changes caught at compile time

PerformanceExcellent — fastest for high-frequency internal calls

Best forInternal microservices, high-throughput data pipelines

Architecture

The Integration Middleware Layer — What It Does and Why You Need It

When your product integrates with 3+ external systems, the integration logic needs to live in a dedicated middleware layer — not scattered across your application services. Naraway builds this layer with monitoring, retry infrastructure, and a vendor swap path built in.

Salesforce CRM

SAP ERP

Stripe Billing

Twilio / SendGrid

Workday HR

↔

Integration Middleware

Auth tokens, data mapping, retry logic, rate limits, monitoring

↔

Your Core Product

Your Data Model

Internal Event Bus

Analytics Pipeline

Customer Portal

Auth Token Management

OAuth tokens stored in vault, auto-refreshed before expiry. No manual credential rotation.

Schema Mapping

Data shape transforms between your model and the external system's model — configurable, testable, audited.

Retry and Dead-Letter

Failed requests retried with exponential backoff. After max retries, routed to dead-letter queue for inspection.

Rate Limit Management

Per-API rate limit tracking, request queuing, bulk endpoint usage, and headroom alerting before limits are hit.

Integration Health Dashboard

Per-integration success rate, latency, error type breakdown, sync lag metrics — alerting on SLO breach.

Vendor Swap Path

Middleware layer means swapping Stripe for Adyen or Salesforce for HubSpot requires changing one adapter, not rewriting your product.

Webhook Infrastructure

Production Webhook Infrastructure — Receive and Deliver at Enterprise Reliability

Webhooks are the real-time nervous system of enterprise integrations. A Stripe payment event, a Salesforce deal close, a Workday employee change — all must arrive reliably, be processed exactly once, and trigger your business logic within seconds.

Receive

Webhook endpoint accepts events and returns 200 immediately

Never do processing in the webhook handler. Accept the event, write to queue, return 200 within 3 seconds. Validate HMAC signature to reject forged events.

Deduplicate

Idempotency check prevents processing the same event twice

External systems retry webhooks on timeout or failure. Every event has an event_id stored in a processed-events table. Duplicate events are detected and discarded before processing.

Queue

Events queued for async processing with priority lanes

BullMQ or SQS queue separates real-time events (payment confirmed) from batch events (nightly sync). Workers process events at safe concurrency without overwhelming downstream services.

Process

Business logic applied and downstream systems updated

Event type determines handler. All processing is logged with event_id, timestamp, handler, outcome, and duration. Failed handlers retry with exponential backoff.

Dead-Letter

Unprocessable events routed to DLQ with full context for investigation

After max retries, events go to a dead-letter queue. Ops team is alerted. Events can be inspected, corrected, and replayed without data loss. DLQ monitored as a first-class SLO.

Integration monitoring dashboard screenshot — real-time webhook delivery rate, latency heatmap, error type breakdown per integration Replace with: Screenshot of Datadog or Grafana integration health dashboard

How It Works

From Integration Requirement to Production-Monitored Connection

Integration Scoping

Data flows mapped, API docs reviewed, auth model confirmed, rate limits documented, failure modes identified

Sandbox Testing

Integration built and tested in sandbox environment. Schema mapping validated against real test data sets.

Auth and Security

OAuth app registered, credentials moved to vault, per-tenant credential isolation implemented

Production Deploy

Integration deployed with retry infrastructure, webhook endpoint hardened, monitoring dashboards live

SLO and Alerting

Success rate, sync lag, and error rate SLOs defined. Automated alerts configured before customers notice failures

Frequently Asked

Enterprise API Integrations — Technical Questions

REST uses standard HTTP methods and is the default for most web APIs — easy to consume from any client, widely understood. GraphQL lets clients specify exactly the fields they need, reducing payload size — ideal for products with multiple client types. gRPC uses Protocol Buffers for binary serialisation and HTTP/2 — significantly faster for service-to-service communication. Naraway chooses the protocol based on your API consumers, performance requirements, and team familiarity.

Salesforce integration typically involves: OAuth 2.0 connected app setup, REST or SOAP API client in your backend, data mapping between Salesforce objects and your own data model, webhook listeners for Salesforce change events via Platform Events, and bidirectional sync with conflict resolution logic. Naraway also implements a sync monitoring layer that alerts on sync lag, API rate limit consumption, and data mapping failures — because Salesforce integrations break silently when field mappings drift over time.

Rate limit handling is built into every integration Naraway delivers: exponential backoff with jitter on 429 responses, per-endpoint rate limit tracking, a request queue with priority lanes for time-sensitive vs batch operations, and monitoring dashboards showing rate limit headroom per integration. For high-volume integrations, Naraway implements bulk API endpoints where available (Salesforce Bulk API 2.0, HubSpot Batch APIs) to stay within limits without throttling.

An integration middleware layer sits between your product and external systems — handling auth token management, request transformation, retry logic, error handling, rate limiting, and observability. You need dedicated middleware when you integrate with 3+ external systems, or when you need to swap an external platform without rewriting your product. For simpler setups (1-2 integrations), direct API client libraries in your application service layer are sufficient.

Naraway stores all third-party API credentials in a secrets management system (HashiCorp Vault, AWS Secrets Manager, or GCP Secret Manager) — never in environment variables in application code. OAuth access tokens are stored encrypted with refresh token rotation. Per-tenant credentials are isolated at the data layer with encryption keys per tenant. All credential access is logged to the audit trail.

Connect Your Product toEvery Platform YourCustomers Already Run.