Connector architecture: bringing your data in safely
How Howzer connects to email, chat, and ticketing systems without exposing your network.
By Howzer Team, Engineering
The ingest challenge
Customer messages live in email inboxes, chat platforms, and ticketing systems. Getting them into Howzer's pipeline requires connectors that are reliable, secure, and respectful of network boundaries. We can't ask enterprise customers to open firewall ports or send data to external endpoints.
- Customer data sent to vendor cloud
- Outbound firewall rules required
- Vendor controls encryption keys
- Data residency depends on vendor
- Connectors run inside your tenant
- Zero internet egress by default
- Customer-managed encryption keys
- Data never leaves your network
How connectors work
Each connector is a lightweight service that runs inside your Kubernetes cluster alongside the Howzer pipeline. It authenticates with your source system using credentials you control (e.g., OAuth tokens, service principals) and pulls messages on a configurable schedule or via webhook.
Supported sources
- Shared email inboxes (IMAP, Microsoft Graph API).
- Ticketing systems (REST API polling, webhook-based).
- Chat platforms (webhook ingestion).
- Custom sources via a documented connector interface.
Network security
Connectors communicate only within your virtual network. If a source system requires outbound access (e.g., a SaaS ticketing tool), traffic is routed through an explicit allow-list. No Howzer component phones home or sends telemetry externally.