On November 10th we set out to make history and do something we had never done before. We chose to launch Informatica 9, our biggest ever release, virtually to reach the widest possible audience.

So, did it work?

The answer is an unequivocal “YES!”, but we did learn some good lessons along the way. I wanted to share with you my perspective of the day.

PRIOR TO EVENT
The launch really started six months ago with the initial planning. We kicked off an online marketing campaign and started building registrations. Some facts:

• We had the largest number of registrations for any event Informatica had ever run.
• We had registrations from 87 countries making it the most global launch we have ever run.
• 36 partners supported the launch by providing quotes for our event which is the most we have ever had.
• Three early adopter customers agreed to take part in videos and 10 customers provided supporting quotes, again our most ever.

LAUNCH DAY
Launch day arrived. We issued four press releases before the stock market opened and soon after started seeing coverage. Twitter came first as people spotted the releases crossing the wires. Then online articles started appearing.  Here are nine of my favorites that have appeared so far:

1. CIO.COM – Informatica Updates Data Integration Platform
2. CTOEDGE.Com – Informatica Transforms Middleware Role
3. eBizQ.Com – Informatica Extends Service Orientation to the Data World
4. ITBusinessEdge.com – Informatica 9: What’s new and what analyst are saying
5. IDG News – Informatica Updates Data Integration Platform
6. B-eye-Network – Informatica 9 is a Comprehensive, Open Economical Platform
7. Channelweb.com – New Informatica Software Targets Cloud Computing, Data Center Integration
8. ITBusinessEdge – The Rise of Intelligent Middleware
9. Information Management Online – Informatica 9 Released

We have also seen industry analyst coverage appearing. I particularly like the comments from IDC, Ventana Research and the 451 Group:

• “Combining data quality and data integration into a single platform and the delivery of multi-modal data provisioning, all with a single-user interface ensures that customers will be able to reduce risk and minimize costs, ultimately improving their business agility. That’s the message of Informatica 9, and it is setting the course that the industry must follow.” Carl Olofson, research vice president at IDC
• “The advancement of Informatica 9 is a big deal for the industry and organizations who want to step up their efforts in utilizing data across the enterprise.” Mark Smith, Ventana Research
• “SOA-based data services and the improvements in data quality and collaboration allow Informatica 9 to enable the so-called data-driven enterprise. This also increases the vendor’s footprint beyond its traditional preserve in IT departments to business personnel, which is a strategy it has had in place for a while and is a key factor behind some of the seven buys it has inked for data quality, including Similarity Systems and AddressDoctor” the451 Group

THE LIVE EVENT
Our live conference started at 8:45am PT. We observed our web servers being hit with the largest load ever recorded in Informatica history. The peak was orders of magnitude above normal daily levels.  At 9.00am the conference started and over 3,000 people in the USA watched the event live.  In addition we had many people online from Europe even though it was late in the day there.  Asia-Pacific arranged to launch Informatica 9 the following morning at 10:00am local time and so Informatica 9 rolled out across Australia, Singapore, Korea, China and India.  India was another really big online conference with over 1,000 attendees watching and listening.

Our live chat sessions were frantic as questions poured in and we managed to answer over 200 questions that ranged from business level to deeply technical. We didn’t know how many we would get, but one take-away for me is that a lot of people had a lot of questions on Informatica 9! You can find the transcripts on our replay site.

For all of those who were able to join, I know that a number of people were not and for this, I apologize.  I would like to offer you an opportunity to pose your questions by emailing me at infa9@informatica.com.

AFTER THE EVENT
When the event ended, all the materials were packaged up for on-demand replay. We have seen a large number of people returning to view the sessions again.  You can find all the materials available at www.informatica.com/9.

So, what’s next?

I am delighted with how Informatica 9 has come into the world.  We built a phenomenal audience, and had the industry watching and talking about us.  We have raised the buzz and delivered our largest ever release to the world. We delivered a compelling event that was watched around the world in a way that we have never done before.

Time will tell what our customers think of Informatica 9.  The first indication from our early adopters is very promising.  We believe that SOA-based data services are revolutionary, that data quality issues should be a thing of the past, and that the business can now collaborate far more effectively with their IT colleagues.  Remember – Informatica is no longer an ETL company, Informatica is a company that can help you deliver relevant, trustworthy and reliable data to your business and help you become a data driven enterprise.

If you watched the event, please let us know what you thought of the conference and our new Informatica 9 capabilities.  If you did not, please take a few minutes to come online and watch at your leisure. Please also come and join us on our 50 city world tour that kicks off this month in Europe and will take Informatica 9 on the road across the America’s, Europe and our Asia-Pacific region.  The journey of Informatica 9 has just started.