Stewart Rutledge2025-04-28

M3 Integrations in the Cloud

While working on an integration project recently, I started thinking about testing—and what it really means when we say something has been “tested.”

In the M3 world, testing often means putting a person in front of a solution, running through the process manually, and verifying that it works. That’s important and necessary.

But at Beredo, we often work a little differently. Instead of relying entirely on tools like ION or MEC/IEC, we sometimes build integrations using code-first platforms like Azure Functions or AWS Lambda.

These environments offer powerful building blocks—like queues, storage, and logging—that let us create highly flexible, scalable integration platforms.

One of the biggest advantages of this approach is how it changes testing.

Because we’re working in a code-driven environment, we can write unit tests: automated, repeatable tests that validate small pieces of logic without needing to run the full process manually every time.

Take a real example:

A customer needed a complex calculation to determine the quantity on a manufacturing order. Instead of building the logic and testing it manually through every possible scenario, we wrote unit tests that automatically validated the calculation.

It saves time. It catches subtle issues before they cause problems in production. And it makes it much easier to maintain integrations as requirements evolve.

Getting started with this approach does require a shift in thinking—and a little upfront investment in design—but once it’s part of the process, it becomes second nature. You build faster. You build safer. You sleep better.

So next time you’re designing a business-critical M3 integration, it’s worth considering an alternative: using M3 REST APIs alongside platforms like Azure or AWS, instead of relying solely on traditional tools like ION or MEC.

You get more flexibility, better testing, and a much stronger foundation for growth.

If you want to know more about this kind of integration development, feel free to reach out at hello@beredo.net.