On November 10th Informatica will be launching Informatica 9.  We are all extremely excited about this release because, quite simply, it is the biggest and most significant release in the history of Informatica.  I say this with respect, but with a strong conviction and total belief.

So why do I say this, and what are we doing?

From Infrastructure to Applications to Data
When one looks at the modern world of Information Technology, it is clear that we are going through a profound change.  Infrastructure has become commoditized, applications are becoming commoditized and data is increasingly recognized as the most critical asset of any enterprise.  Cloud computing is seen as a way of delivering easy-to-use applications to business users, and as a compelling economic value to IT departments.  Yet still we see again and again that data quality issues plague business users.  We hear CIOs state that the business must own its data, but business users have no way of managing that data except through the existing applications that they use in their day-to-day lives. These applications have become complex and time-consuming to maintain and often present the user with a slightly different perspective from other applications that they use – applications that have been built for different teams, or came into the enterprise through a merger or acquisition.  Indeed, which customer definition should you trust – the one in your Oracle Financials application, or the one in your Peoplesoft, Siebel, SAP, Salesforce.com or home-grown application?

No wonder IT has become complex and no wonder so much budget is spent on keeping the lights on (KTLO)! It is time to untangle the IT knot!

We believe that the business user should own their data, but should be able to work in close collaboration with IT in ensuring that the data is correct.  The business looks at data from a business perspective, when IT is literally looking at the bits and bytes of the data attributes. Traditional technology has never overcome the issue of how to define your data requirements and hasn’t facilitated easy-to-use ways for business users to create such definitions.  We believe that business users should be empowered to manage their data through easy-to-use internet browsers, to share URLs with their colleagues and to collaborate with IT.  Imagine, for a second, a world in which the IT developers can see the technical aspects of data, in perfect collaboration and unity with the business who view the business aspects of the data.  Same data – profoundly different views!  Imagine a world in which the business and IT are collaborating together – imagine a world with Informatica 9.

It continues to amaze me as to why business allows data quality issues to persist and cost billions of dollars every year. Take a look at www.doyoutrustyourdata.com where you can find a growing list of stories that show just how bad data quality issues can become across enterprises. If the business can finally take ownership for its data and work in collaboration with IT, we believe that data quality issues could become a thing of the past.  This requires a new way of working with data, and a new way of enforcing quality across business applications – whether in traditional IT systems or in the internet cloud.  Imagine a world where data quality is pervasive across the enterprise,  where data quality issues do not exist and where all applications simply have “correct” data.  Imagine knowing, rather than hoping, that your data is correct – imagine a world with Informatica 9.

I find it intriguing that SOA has promised so much, and yet delivers so little for the data. I believe that fundamentally this is because SOA has no data layer!  If we could fix this problem and provide a data layer for SOA then we can transform the world. With SOA-based data services, we could virtualize our data and deliver the right data to the right place at the right time.  Imagine a world where we can rapidly accelerate the value from a merger by being able to view customer details immediately from disparate systems running heterogeneous databases and applications – imagine a world with Informatica 9.

Over the coming weeks you will hear a lot more about these themes.  Please keep an eye on our Perspectives blog site and watch out for our advertisements across different media outlets.  I’d like to invite each and every one of you to attend our launch.  If there is just one thing that you take away from this blog, then please register by clicking here for our online launch where we will look at these issues and demonstrate to you the next phase of data integration.

A global online event
We have decided to run our launch as an online event.  In this way I believe that everyone has an opportunity to participate in the launch and hear first-hand from our executives about the next phase in data integration. To register for the event please click on this link, or go to www.informatica.com where you will find registration details. We will be broadcasting a live event with our CEO, Sohaib Abbasi, together with more detailed technology presentations and demonstrations.  You will even be able to chat live with our product experts and hear from Informatica customers who have been looking at Informatica 9.  We will also be broadcasting this across various social media environments including Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn.  In fact, please join in – we’d welcome any commentary as the next month unfolds and our launch rolls across the world.

Informatica is focused on helping you gain a competitive advantage in today’s global information economy by helping you to access, discover and trust your information – whether in traditional IT systems or in the internet cloud.  Please join us on November 10th to hear about how the next phase of data integration embraces business and IT collaboration, enabling pervasive data quality and delivering SOA-based data services.

I’m sure you will find it a worthwhile hour of your time.