The text delves into the distinctions and functionalities of Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS) and embedded iPaaS, both of which are cloud-based integration solutions, with iPaaS focusing on internal system integrations and embedded iPaaS enabling customer-facing integrations within products. It highlights how iPaaS solutions, such as Workato, facilitate workflow automation and connect internal systems, while embedded iPaaS solutions allow companies to offer integrations that clients can implement themselves or have done on their behalf, typically used for tasks like automated user provisioning. Despite their usefulness, embedded iPaaS solutions often require technical expertise and can be challenging to scale due to limitations in management tooling and maintenance support. The text also introduces Merge's Unified API, which addresses these obstacles by providing a scalable solution for customer-facing integrations across various software categories, offering maintenance support, and providing observability tooling to ensure reliability and performance.