Pitfall 1: Over-Engineering the Solution
Just because you can build a hyper-scalable, fault-tolerant integration platform doesn't mean you should. I've seen teams spend months building integration frameworks for scenarios that could be handled with simple scheduled batch jobs.
The Fix: Start with the simplest solution that meets your requirements. You can always add complexity later, but it's much harder to remove it.
Pitfall 2: Ignoring Data Quality Issues
No integration solution, premium or DIY, can fix bad source data. I've seen teams spend enormous amounts of time and money building sophisticated error handling and data cleansing logic instead of addressing root cause data quality issues.
The Fix: Clean up your data before you integrate it. It's always cheaper to fix data quality issues at the source than to handle them in integration logic.
Pitfall 3: Underestimating Operational Overhead
DIY solutions require ongoing maintenance. Updates, bug fixes, performance tuning, monitoring—it all takes time and expertise. Teams often underestimate these costs when comparing DIY vs. premium solutions.
The Fix: Build operational costs into your ROI calculations from day one. Plan for 20-30% of initial development cost annually for maintenance and updates.