ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Knowledge Graphs are Critical to Data Intelligence and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 22 May 2025

I recently described how business data catalogs are evolving into data intelligence catalogs. These catalogs combine technical and business metadata and data governance capabilities with knowledge graph functionality to deliver a holistic, business-level view of data production and consumption. The concept of the knowledge graph has been part of the data sector for decades, but adoption has... Read More

Topics: Governance, Generative AI, Data Intelligence, AI & Technologies

Domo Addresses Data Products and Agentic AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 20 May 2025

Domo is best known as a business intelligence (BI) and analytics software provider, thanks to its functionality for visualization, reporting, data science and embedded analytics. Additionally, as I recently explained, the company’s platform addresses a broad range of capabilities that includes data governance and security, data integration and application development, as well as the automation... Read More

Topics: Analytics, AI, Generative AI, Technologies

The Symbiotic Relationship Between Data Governance and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 14 May 2025

Data governance has always been a critical part of the data and analytics landscape. However, for many years, it was seen as a preventive function to limit access to data and ensure compliance with security and data privacy requirements. To fulfill today’s data-driven agendas, many enterprises need an evolved perspective on data governance. The development of new applications driven by artificial... Read More

Topics: Governance, Machine Learning, Operations, AI, Data Intelligence

Informatica Embraces AI for Data Intelligence and Operations

Posted by Matt Aslett on 08 May 2025

It has been a little over a decade since the term data operations entered the analytics and data lexicon. It describes the application of agile development, DevOps and lean manufacturing by data engineering professionals in support of data production. DataOps was initially seen as antithetical to traditional data management approaches, which typically included batch-based and manual tools and... Read More

Topics: Governance, Machine Learning, Operations, AI, Generative AI, Data Intelligence

ThoughtSpot Delivers Democratized AI-Based Analytics

Posted by Matt Aslett on 06 May 2025

Natural language interfaces for business intelligence products existed long before the emergence of generative artificial intelligence. Large language models have allowed BI providers to accelerate the delivery of functionality to convert natural language questions into analytic queries and generate summarizations and recommendations from data and charts. Features that enable natural language... Read More

Topics: Analytics, AI, Generative AI

Headless BI and Data Democratization Enables AI and Data-Driven Enterprises

Posted by Matt Aslett on 30 April 2025

In an earlier Analyst Perspective, I discussed data democratization’s role in creating a data-driven enterprise agenda. Building a foundation of self-service data discovery, data-driven organizations provide more workers with the ability to analyze and use data. I’ve also examined how generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) could revolutionize business intelligence software by using natural... Read More

Topics: Analytics, AI, Data Intelligence

Progress Enables Knowledge Graphs for Semantic AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 24 April 2025

As enterprises embrace the potential opportunities presented by artificial intelligence (AI), they are quickly finding that good data management is a prerequisite. As was explained in ISG’s State of Generative AI Market Report, AI requires data that is clean, well-organized and compliant with regulatory standards. There are multiple challenges to delivering AI-ready data, including combining... Read More

Topics: Machine Learning, Analytics, IT, AI, Data Platforms, ADM, DevOps

Alteryx Refines AI Platform for Analytics

Posted by Matt Aslett on 13 March 2025

Increased enterprise focus on artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) has served to sharpen the focus on the need for trusted data and reliable analytics and data operations. The ISG State of Generative AI Market Report highlighted that elevated expectations and demands associated with AI are a forcing function for enterprises to take long-overdue steps to improve data and... Read More

Topics: Analytics, AI, data operations, Analytics and Data

Actian Enables Data Discovery and Data Intelligence

Posted by Matt Aslett on 11 March 2025

Data catalogs provide an inventory of data assets that surface metadata from data platforms, analytics tools and applications that can be used to facilitate data discovery and data usage across an enterprise. As I recently explained, however, there are actually multiple types of data catalogs that offer functionality to address specific use cases and user roles, including data inventory, data... Read More

Topics: Governance, Operations

Domo Enables Data Integration, Analytics and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 05 March 2025

As enterprises seek to expand and accelerate the adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) many are finding that longstanding analytics and data challenges are a barrier to success. As was explained in ISG’s State of Generative AI Market Report, AI requires data that is clean, well-organized and compliant with regulatory standards. The need for good data management is by no means new, but the... Read More

Topics: Machine Learning, Analytics, Data, Artificial intelligence, natural language processing

DataOps: Software for Operations and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 27 February 2025

Late 2024 saw the publication of the 2024 ISG Buyers Guides for DataOps, providing an assessment of 49 software providers offering products used by data engineers, data scientists, and data and AI professionals to facilitate the use of data for analytics and AI needs. The DataOps Buyers Guide research includes five reports which are focused on overall DataOps, Data Observability, Data... Read More

Topics: Analytics, data operations, Analytics and Data

Agentic AI Reliability Requirements for Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 25 February 2025

It is now more than two years since the launch of ChatGPT introduced the world to generative AI (GenAI) and large language models (LLMs). GenAI-based assistants and co-pilots are now widely adopted, with individuals and enterprises adopting GenAI models to automate the generation of text, digital images, audio, video and code, amongst other things. More than four-fifths (81%) of participants in... Read More

Topics: Analytics, AI, Analytics and Data

Redpanda Lowers the Complexity and Cost of Streaming and Event Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 04 February 2025

I recently wrote about the need for enterprises to harness events to process and act upon data at the speed of business. The core technologies that enable enterprises to process and analyze data in real time have been in existence for many years and are widely adopted. However, streaming and events technologies are also commonly seen as a niche requirement, separate from an enterprise’s primary... Read More

Topics: Streaming Data Events, Analytics and Data

Data Catalogs Serve Multiple Roles and Use Cases

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 January 2025

Metadata management has played a role in data governance and analytics for many years. It wasn’t until the emergence of the data catalog as a product category just over a decade ago that enterprises had a platform for metadata-driven data management that could span multiple departments and use cases across an entire enterprise. ISG defines a data catalog as an inventory of data assets that... Read More

Topics: Analytics and Data

MongoDB Enhances Developer Data Platform

Posted by Matt Aslett on 21 January 2025

Despite all the interest in artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI), ISG’s Buyers Guide for Data Platforms serves as a reminder of the ongoing importance of product experience functionality to address adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability. While new and emerging capabilities might catch the eye, features that address data platform security, performance and... Read More

Topics: AI, Analytics and Data

Cloudera Enables Hybrid Cloud Data and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 15 January 2025

Too often, enterprises find that data is distributed across multiple silos on-premises and in the cloud. More than two-thirds of participants in ISG’s Market Lens Cloud Study are using a hybrid architecture involving both on-premises and cloud infrastructure for analytics and artificial intelligence deployments. Unifying data to achieve operational and analytic objectives requires complex data... Read More

Topics: AI, Analytics and Data

Bigeye Enable Monitoring, Quality and Lineage of Data

Posted by Matt Aslett on 20 November 2024

I previously explained that data observability software has become a critical component of data-driven decision-making. Data observability addresses one of the most significant impediments to generating value from data by providing an environment for monitoring the quality and reliability of data on a continual basis. Maintaining quality and trust is a perennial data management challenge, the... Read More

Topics: AI, data operations, Analytics and Data

Capital One Offers Cost Controls for Cloud Data Warehouses

Posted by Matt Aslett on 07 November 2024

The adoption of cloud environments for analytic workloads has been a key feature of the data platforms sector in recent years. For two-thirds (66%) of participants in ISG’s Data Lake Dynamic Insights Research, the primary data platform used for analytics is cloud based. Many enterprises adopted cloud-based analytic data platforms with a view to improving operational efficiencies by reducing the... Read More

Topics: data operations, Analytics and Data

The Increasing Importance of Open Table Formats

Posted by Matt Aslett on 31 October 2024

I previously wrote about the importance of open table formats to the evolution of data lakes into data lakehouses. The concept of the data lake was initially proposed as a single environment where data could be combined from multiple sources to be stored and processed to enable analysis by multiple users for multiple purposes. The first iteration of data lakes, based on Apache Hadoop and then... Read More

Topics: Streaming Data Events, Analytics and Data

Denodo Provides a Logical Approach to Data Management

Posted by Matt Aslett on 24 October 2024

Although the terms data fabric and data mesh are often used interchangeably, I previously explained that they are distinct but complementary. Data fabric refers to technology products that can be used to integrate, manage and govern data across distributed environments, supporting the cultural and organizational data ownership and access goals of data mesh. Data fabric and data mesh are also both... Read More

Topics: Analytics and Data