Informatica expands enterprise data catalog capabilities
Informatica brought new features to its enterprise data catalog, including Data Asset Analytics, a tool to help organizations understand the value of their data.
Informatica expanded its Intelligent Data Platform with new capabilities, thanks in part to the acquisition of data governance vendor Compact Solutions.
Compact Solutions, based in Oakbrook Terrace, Ill., has a portfolio of metadata management capabilities that Informatica will now use to enhance the Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog.
Informatica revealed the acquisition July 2, two days after the enterprise cloud data management vendor launched the summer update of its Intelligent Data Platform, which includes new data privacy analytics, data governance and enterprise data catalog features.
Informatica, which is privately held, did not disclose the price of the acquisition.
The Compact Solutions acquisition will give Informatica the ability to manage more types of metadata, said Mark Beyer, a Gartner analyst. Having more metadata types could serve as an on-ramp for potential new customers, as well as an integration pathway to continue coexisting with competitive products to Informatica's, Beyer added.
"One of the primary focal points for the expanding metadata management market is the capability to assure continuous acquisition of metadata from external assets," Beyer said.
Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog can use different scanners to identify metadata types.
Beyer noted that Gartner clients have expressed that data integration should be automated much more based on metadata analytics. Similarly, Gartner has found that organizations are seeking to combine multiple data integration platforms into a more consolidated approach, he said.
"Gartner clients generally indicate they believe they will need a low-cost solution for more traditional data integration needs, and more powerful platform for the more complex integration demands," Beyer said.
Informatica's growing Enterprise Data Catalog
Compact Solutions was an Informatica partner before the acquisition. So some of Compact Solutions' tools are already deployed with joint customers, noted Jitesh Ghai, senior vice president and general manager of data management at Informatica.
One of the primary focal points for the expanding metadata management market is the capability to assure continuous acquisition of metadata from external assets.
Mark BeyerAnalyst, Gartner
Informatica plans to release more updates of Compact Solutions' advanced metadata scanners in the next month to three months, Ghai said.
The Compact Solutions purchase complements Informatica's existing data governance and data cataloging portfolio.
"Compact Solutions' engineering team has deep expertise in extracting metadata from some of the most complex systems including enterprise data warehouses, mainframes, third-party ETL tools and more," Ghai said.
Data Asset Analytics brings data value to enterprise data catalog
As part of Informatica's summer update, released on June 30, Informatica introduced a Data Asset Analytics (DAA) capability that helps measure data use in an organization.
Informatica is adding DAA to the Informatica Enterprise Data Catalog. An enterprise data catalog has a number of different use cases, including helping organizations gain better understanding of data assets.
The DAA feature provides insight to organizations on how they are using their data. Determining data value is a calculation that involves having an inventory of all data assets, measuring the amount of collaboration on a given data asset and how widely the data asset is used, Ghai said.
"Data Asset Analytics really is about enabling data executives to articulate the contribution and value of data to the business," Ghai said.
Data privacy gets a dashboard
Another element that is part of the Informatica summer update is a new privacy analytics dashboard feature in the Data Privacy Management (DPM) component of Informatica's platform.
DPM provides governance and controls over data to help comply with enterprise and regulatory policies. The new privacy analytics dashboard shows a risk profile of an organization's sensitive information, including statistics on how much private information the organization is holding.
With privacy regulation such as GDPR and CCPA, organizations need to proactively ensure their privacy checks are in place, Ghai said.
"We are able to scan, discover, classify and categorize data and surface all of that up into a dashboard to help privacy teams prioritize what they will work on next, to preserve compliance or work toward demonstration of compliance," Ghai said.
