Every mid-year, Informatica hosts its annual customer conference, Informatica World, and this year it’s being held in Orlando, May 1-3. As I’m busy preparing for an engaging week of sessions and interaction with customers, partners and analysts, I can’t help but reflect on the growth and relevance of our industry on the event’s 10th anniversary. I hosted the first user group event in Chicago, 1997, a lunch and learn for an enthusiastic group of 10 “data-mart developers” doing small projects within their respective companies. Now the event attracts 1200+ attendees from around the globe all anxious to share and learn about their mutual successes, new solutions and innovations emerging from the Informatica labs.

This year’s theme is “Integration Everywhere”, an apropos description of the role integration is playing in helping our organizations reach their revenue, cost savings and compliance goals. In the agenda, I’ve found a broad spectrum of presentations on Data Warehousing, Data Services, SOA, Data Migration, Master Data Management, Integration Competency Centers and the technology, methodologies and processes therein from customers, partners and industry experts.
For the first time, an entire track is dedicated to Enterprise Data Management with presentations by the leading companies in financial services, consumer packaged goods, pharmaceuticals, telecommunications and leading analyst firms. One session I’m particularly interested in attending is a case study on “Shared Data and the Data Governance Imperative”. Many customers are using this type of well-governed, shared service approach to transform the integration competency center (ICC) from a cost-center to a business-driving function.

In a future entry, I look forward to recapping highlights from Orlando and welcome other comments on your experiences in the future.