Informatica Data Quality

Gartner released the 2008 Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools on Wednesday, June 4th (Gartner, Inc. "Magic Quadrant for Data Quality Tools" by Ted Friedman, Andreas Bitterer June 4, 2008). In reading through the report, I was excited to see that Informatica was positioned in the Leaders Quadrant. If you haven't read the full report, I recommend heading to Informatica.com and requesting a complimentary copy, as it provides significant insight into many of the vendors in the space.

The interesting thing to me about the publication of the report is that it happened to be published at the same time as Informatica World which began on June 3rd. At Informatica World, we further demonstrated our ability to execute with the announcement of Informatica 8.6 as well as the release of the next iteration of Velocity, which is Informatica Professional Services' implementation framework for the development of data integration and data quality solutions based on Informatica products. In addition, the 8.6 release of Informatica Data Quality will be the first integration of the identity resolution capabilities that were acquired through the Identity Systems acquisition. If you were not able to attend Informatica World, I recommend checking out the blog site from the conference, as it includes insights on the conference and the announcements noted above.

What does this all mean? As I have discussed in past blogs, a successful enterprise data quality initiative requires commitment and collaboration between both the business and IT. By further enabling both sides of an organization (through both product and methodology enhancements), Informatica is ensuring that both the tactical and enterprise requirements to enact a successful data quality initiative are in place. In addition, from a maturity model perspective, the Velocity update has ensured that all levels of the maturity model are addressed (see my previous post for further details), including the role Data Quality plays in ICC and Data Governance initiatives. Through these product and services initiatives, Informatica’s commitment to business focused data quality continues to be evident.

In future posts I will discuss the typical business drivers I hear from clients on a daily basis and how the capabilities within 8.6 are designed to meet these needs. Although the enhancements are meant to further enable the needs of the business to identify and resolve data quality issues, it still requires a sound strategy and an execution plan to be in place to ensure both the short and long term data quality needs are being addressed. Thus, future posts will highlight both the product and methodology aspects required to ensure an organization can successfully execute their enterprise data quality strategy.

Until next time…
Note: The Gartner Magic Quadrant is copyrighted June 4, 2008 by Gartner, Inc., and is reused with permission. The Magic Quadrant is a graphical representation of a marketplace at and for a specific time period. It depicts Gartner's analysis of how certain vendors measure against criteria for that marketplace, as defined by Gartner. Gartner does not endorse any vendor, product or service depicted in the Magic Quadrant, and does not advise technology users to select only those vendors placed in the "Leaders" quadrant. The Magic Quadrant is intended solely as a research tool, and is not meant to be a specific guide to action. Gartner disclaims all warranties, express or implied, with respect to this research, including any warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose.