ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Securing AI Moves to the Center of Enterprise Risk

Posted by Jeff Orr on 12 May 2026

A distinct security category is emerging around protecting artificial intelligence (AI) itself, driven by the shift from pilot projects to embedded operational use. As AI becomes part of everyday workflows, the risk surface expands beyond traditional controls. Enterprises now need visibility into how employees prompt and rely on AI systems, how autonomous agents execute tasks and where sensitive... Read More

Topics: Data Governance, Cybersecurity, Generative AI, IT & Technologies, AI and Machine Learning, Data Controls, Visibility, Behavior Monitoring, Policy Enforcement, Control Plane

2024 Market Agenda for Analytics and Data: Automating Intelligence

Posted by Matt Aslett on 26 January 2024

Ventana Research recently announced its 2024 Market Agenda for Analytics and Data, continuing the guidance we have offered for two decades to help enterprises derive optimal value and improve business outcomes. Enterprises of all sizes in all industries and geographies strive to improve efficiency, productivity and customer experiences through analytics and data. Doing so relies on the ability to... Read More

Topics: embedded analytics, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Governance, Data Management, natural language processing, data operations, Process Mining, Streaming Analytics, Streaming Data Events, analytic data platforms, Analytics and Data

Boomi Promotes Business-Focused Integration Modernization

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 November 2023

I recently articulated some of the reasons why IT teams can fail to deliver on the business requirements for data and analytics projects. This is an age-old and multifaceted problem that is not easily solved. Organizations have a role to play in alleviating the issue by ensuring that their business processes and project planning support a collaborative approach in which business and IT... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Management, Data, Digital Technology, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Databricks Utilizes Unity Catalog to Support Generative AI Development

Posted by Matt Aslett on 17 October 2023

I previously described how Databricks had positioned its Lakehouse Platform as the basis for data engineering, data science and data warehousing. The lakehouse design pattern provides a flexible environment for storing and processing data from multiple enterprise applications and workloads for multiple use cases. I assert that by 2025, 8 in 10 current data lake adopters will invest in data... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Governance, Data Management, Data, Digital Technology, analytic data platforms, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Cloudera Facilitates Versatility with Enterprise Data and AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 03 October 2023

The data platforms market may appear to have little or nothing to do with haute couture, but it is one of the data sectors most strongly influenced by the fickle finger of fashion. In recent years, various architectural approaches to data storage and processing have enjoyed a phase in the limelight, including data warehouse, data mart, data hub, data lake, cloud data warehouse, object storage,... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Management, Data, Digital Technology, data operations, Streaming Data Events, analytic data platforms, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Microsoft Fabric Stitches Together Data and Analytics

Posted by Matt Aslett on 20 September 2023

I have written before about the rising popularity of the data fabric approach for managing and governing data spread across distributed environments comprised of multiple data centers, systems and applications. I assert that by 2025, more than 6 in 10 organizations will adopt data fabric technologies to facilitate the management and processing of data across multiple data platforms and cloud... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Management, Data, Digital Technology, analytic data platforms, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Confluent’s Streaming Analytics Expands Stream Processing Use Cases

Posted by Matt Aslett on 05 September 2023

I recently wrote about the various technologies used by organizations to process and analyze data in real time. I explained that while the terms streaming data and events and streaming analytics are often used interchangeably, they are separate disciplines that make use of common underlying concepts and technologies such as events, event brokers and event-driven architecture. Confluent’s... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data, Digital Technology, Streaming Analytics, Streaming Data Events

Evaluating the Impact of Generative AI Benefits on GRC Practices

Posted by Jeff Orr on 31 August 2023

Governance, risk management and compliance are essential tactics for a successful organization. Effective GRC practices help organizations achieve business objectives, mitigate risks and ensure compliance with laws and regulations. As a chief information officer or IT leader, it is important to evaluate new technologies and determine their impact on the business, including whether they fit within... Read More

Topics: Data Governance, AI and Machine Learning

IBM’s Watsonx Provides a Foundation for Generative AI

Posted by Matt Aslett on 09 August 2023

It is a mark of the rapid, current pace of development in artificial intelligence (AI) that machine learning (ML) models, until recently considered state of the art, are now routinely being referred to by developers and vendors as “traditional.” Generative AI, and large language models (LLMs) in particular, have taken the AI world by storm in the past year, automating and accelerating the... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data, Digital Technology, natural language processing, analytic data platforms, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Large Language Models and Generative AI: Beware Misplaced Trust

Posted by Matt Aslett on 06 June 2023

The data and analytics sector rightly places great importance on data quality: Almost two-thirds (64%) of participants in Ventana Research’s Analytics and Data Benchmark Research cite reviewing data for quality and consistency issues as the most time-consuming task in analyzing data. Data and analytics vendors would not recommend that customers use tools known to have data quality problems. It is... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Data Governance, Data Management, Data, Digital Technology, natural language processing, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning

Improve Trust in Data with Master Data Management

Posted by Matt Aslett on 18 May 2023

Master data management may not attract the same level of excitement as fashionable topics such as DataOps or Data Platforms, but it remains one of the most significant aspects of an organization’s strategic approach to data management. Having trust in data is critical to the ability of an organization to make data-driven business decisions. Along with data quality, MDM enables organizations to... Read More

Topics: Data Governance, Data Management, Data, data operations

DataOps: Understanding the Definition and Differentiation

Posted by Matt Aslett on 04 April 2023

Data Operations (DataOps) has been part of the lexicon of the data market for almost a decade, with the term used to describe products, practices and processes designed to support agile and continuous delivery of data analytics. DataOps takes inspiration from DevOps, which describes a set of tools, practices and philosophy used to support the continuous delivery of software applications in the... Read More

Topics: Data Governance, Data Management, Data, data operations

Alation’s Data Governance Accelerates Data Intelligence

Posted by Matt Aslett on 29 March 2023

As data continues to grow and evolve, organizations seek better tools and technologies to employ data faster and more efficiently. Finding and managing data remains a perennial challenge for most organizations, and is exacerbated by increasing volumes of data and an expanding array of data formats. At the same time, organizations must comply with a growing list of national and regional rules and... Read More

Topics: Data Governance, Data Management, Data, data operations

AWS Enables Data Democratization with Amazon DataZone

Posted by Matt Aslett on 21 March 2023

I have previously written about the importance of data democratization as a key element of a data-driven agenda. Removing barriers that prevent or delay users from gaining access to data enables it to be treated as a product that is generated and consumed, either internally by employees or externally by partners and customers. This is particularly important for organizations adopting the data... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Management, Data, Digital Technology, data operations, Analytics and Data

Hitachi Vantara DataOps Improves Analytics and Decision-Making

Posted by David Menninger on 21 March 2023

Now more than ever, effective data management is crucial to enable decision-makers to better assess information and take calculated actions. It is also important to keep up with the latest trends and technologies to derive higher value from data and analytics and maintain a competitive edge in the market. However, every organization faces challenges with data management and analytics. And as... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Data Governance, Data Management, Data, data operations, analytic data platforms

Promethium Provides Data Fabric and Self-Service for Speed to Insights

Posted by Matt Aslett on 22 February 2023

The market for data and analytics products is constantly evolving, with the emergence of new approaches to data persistence, data processing and analytics. This enables organizations to constantly adapt data analytics architecture in response to emerging functional capabilities and business requirements. It can, however, also be a challenge. Investments in data platforms cannot be constantly... Read More

Topics: Data Governance, Data Management, Data, data operations

Tamr Directs Data Integrity

Posted by Matt Aslett on 08 February 2023

Organizations across various industries collect multiple types of data from disparate systems to answer key business questions and deliver personalized experiences for customers. The expanding volume of data increases complexity, and data management becomes a challenge if the process is manual and rules-based. There can be numerous siloed, incomplete and outdated data sources that result in... Read More

Topics: Data Governance, Data Management, Data, data operations, analytic data platforms

2023 Market Agenda for Data: Accelerating Data Agility

Posted by Matt Aslett on 18 January 2023

Ventana Research recently announced its 2023 Market Agenda for Data, continuing the guidance we have offered for two decades to help organizations derive optimal value and improve business outcomes. Organizations that make a higher proportion of business decisions based on data stand to gain competitive advantage, responding faster to worker and customer demands for more innovative, data-rich... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Data Management, Data, Digital Technology, data operations, Streaming Data Events, analytic data platforms, Analytics and Data

Master Metrics with Kyligence Zen

Posted by David Menninger on 23 December 2022

Analytics processes are all about how organizations use data to create metrics that help manage and improve operations. Yet, the discipline applied to analytics processes seems to be lacking compared to data processes. I’ve pointed out that the weak link in data governance is often analytics. Organizations can also do a better job tying AnalyticOps to DataOps and do more to define and manage... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Governance, Data, Digital Technology, Analytics and Data

Cloud Computing Realities Part 4 — Security and Governance

Posted by David Menninger on 21 December 2022

In previous perspectives in this series, I’ve discussed some of the realities of cloud computing including costs, hybrid and multi-cloud configurations and business continuity. This perspective examines the realities of security and regulatory concerns associated with cloud computing. These issues are often cited by our research participants as reasons they are not embracing the cloud. To be... Read More

Topics: Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Governance, Digital Technology, Analytics and Data, AI and Machine Learning