ISG Software Research Analyst Perspectives

Kalido Directs Data Governance

Posted by ISG Research on 30 November 2011

Kalido recently introduced version 9 of its Information Engine product. The company has been around for 10 years but has had difficulty establishing its identity in the information management market. Kalido was perhaps ahead of its time, partly a vendor of data integration, partly master data management and partly data governance. As an example of the positioning challenge, its core product,... Read More

Topics: Data Quality, Data Warehousing, Master Data Management, Data Governance, Data Integration, Governance, Risk & Compliance (GRC), Information Applications, Information Management, Kalido

Informatica Parses the World of Hadoop

Posted by ISG Research on 02 November 2011

Informatica recently introduced HParser, an expansion of its capabilities for working with Hadoop data sources. Beginning with Version 9.1, introduced earlier this year, Informatica’s flagship product has been able to access data stored in HDFS as either a source or a target for information management processes. However, it could not manipulate or transform the data within the Hadoop environment.... Read More

Topics: Big Data, MapReduce, Sales Performance, Social Media, Supply Chain Performance, Operational Performance, Business Analytics, Business Performance, Customer & Contact Center, Data Integration, Financial Performance, Information Management, Workforce Performance, Strata+Hadoop

Informatica Joins Big Data Market with New Release

Posted by ISG Research on 08 June 2011

Informatica has announced version 9.1 for Big Data. I wrote previously about Informatica 9.1,the latest iteration of the company’s data integration platform, following its industry analyst summit. At that event in February, the company officials alluded to future plans regarding Hadoop and other big-data sources yet to be finalized. This announcement reveals those plans. Informatica will support... Read More

Topics: Big Data, MapReduce, Social Media, Supply Chain Performance, Operational Performance, Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Business Mobility, Business Performance, Customer & Contact Center, Data Integration, Informatica, Strata+Hadoop

The Information Management Technology Revolution in 2011

Posted by ISG Research on 05 April 2011

The information management (IM) technology market is undergoing a revolution similar to the one in the business intelligence (BI) market. We define information management as the acquisition, organization, control and use of information to create and enhance business value. It is a necessary ingredient of successful BI implementations, and while some vendors such as IBM, Information Builders,... Read More

Topics: Data Quality, Social Media, IT Performance, Analytics, Business Analytics, Business Collaboration, Business Intelligence, Business Technology, CIO, Complex Event Processing, Data Governance, Data Integration, Information Management, Information Technology, Operational Intelligence

SAP Enterprise Information Management 4.0: A Technology Secret

Posted by ISG Research on 13 March 2011

SAP has launched its Enterprise Information Management (EIM) 4.0 release as part of its “Run Better Tour.” It includes a broad range of information management components spanning data integration, data quality, data profiling, metadata management and more. The launch was done in conjunction with SAP Business Intelligence (BI) 4.0, which got much bigger billing at the event –to the point where one... Read More

Topics: Data Quality, SAP, Social Media, IT Performance, Analytics, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, Business Technology, CIO, Complex Event Processing, Data Governance, Data Integration, Information Management, Information Technology, Operational Intelligence

Informatica Stays with Its Strengths in Data Integration

Posted by ISG Research on 27 February 2011

At Informatica’s recent industry analyst summit, Chris Boorman, the company’s chief marketing officer, opened the event by describing Informatica as expanding beyond its core offering in data integration in a broader sense. He compared this growth to Amazon expanding from being an online bookseller to offering computing resources via Amazon Web Services. I see it almost the opposite way.... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Customer & Contact Center, Data Integration, Informatica, Information Management, Workforce Performance

Informatica Focuses Integration on Lines of Business

Posted by Mark Smith on 08 February 2011

At this year’s Informatica industry analyst conference (Twitter: #INFAAnalyst) to update the research and industry analyst community on its data integration and information infrastructure products. Looking back on my analysis of the company’s 2010 analyst summit, I see Informatica has made significant progress in gaining adoption of its products and influencing the new business technology... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Customer & Contact Center, Data Integration, Information Management, Workforce Performance

Clouds are Raining Corporate Data

Posted by ISG Research on 04 January 2011

Cloud computing is having an increasingly large influence over the IT landscape. It’s likely that, whether you realize it or not, corporate data exists has and or is migrating outside the walls of your organization. Recent research by Ventana Research shows that in areas such as customer services, sales, workforce or human capital management, software as a service (SaaS) or cloud-based... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Customer & Contact Center, Data Integration, Information Management, Workforce Performance

Are Your Electronic Secrets Safe?

Posted by ISG Research on 10 December 2010

Near the top of one of the best columns I’ve read on l’affaire Wikileaks is this assertion: “Clearly, there is no longer such a thing as a safe electronic archive, whatever computing's snake-oil salesmen claim. No organisation can treat digitised communication as confidential. An electronic secret is a contradiction in terms.” Characterizations aside, there’s an issue here that companies are... Read More

Topics: Data Integration, Information Management, Uncategorized

Talend Pushes Boundaries of Open Source Software Model

Posted by ISG Research on 09 December 2010

Talend, a vendor of open source data integration tools, recently announced its acquisition of Sopera, an open source application integration company whose products are based on a service-oriented architecture (SOA). It simultaneously announced an additional $34 million of funding. As I pondered what the announcements mean, I couldn’t help but think of the bigger picture. Is this entrepreneurial... Read More

Topics: SOA, Talend, Business Intelligence, CIO, Data Integration

Forecast: Cloudy

Posted by ISG Research on 02 December 2010

If you’ve walked past a playing TV recently, there’s a good chance you’ve noticed that Microsoft thinks it can profit from “The Cloud.” The folks in Redmond would have you store your pictures there so the family can access them, use it to collaborate over the weekend in a small business – you name it, Cloud Power can do it. The cloud is much discussed in the business arena these days as well, but... Read More

Topics: ERP, Cloud Computing, Data Integration, Uncategorized, CRM

Marching to Different Drummers

Posted by ISG Research on 02 December 2010

A colleague recently asked of an online professional group of which we’re members, “Is your personal computer faster than the one the boss gave you?” While answers are still trickling in, it looks pretty clear that the answer is, “Yes, of course.” Now, we do tend a bit toward the geeky, so there’s a bit of built-in bias. But it also stands to reason that business- and corporate-issued technology... Read More

Topics: Data Integration, Information Management, IT Analytics

The Cutting Edge

Posted by ISG Research on 02 December 2010

Someone slashed the top on my convertible a few days ago in a futile effort to find something of value. He or she got nothing; the perpetrator also managed to cost me at least the $500 deductible and, far worse, throw me into the maw of the monster that is the auto insurance bureaucracy. What will come out the other end still remains to be seen; I’ll keep you posted. But what this unexpected... Read More

Topics: Data Integration, Information Management

IBM Makes InfoSphere Information Server a Force in IT

Posted by ISG Research on 28 November 2010

In the weeks leading up to and as part of its Information On Demand Conference that my colleague assessed, IBM introduced version 8.5 of InfoSphere Information Server and several related product updates. As my colleague suggested earlier, IBM has an ambitious agenda to provide comprehensive information management capabilities through a combination of product development and acquisitions. The... Read More

Topics: Enterprise Data Strategy, IT Performance, Business Analytics, Business Intelligence, CIO, Data Integration, IBM, Information Management, Information Technology

iWay Software Connects Salesforce Chatter to the Enterprise

Posted by Mark Smith on 28 November 2010

It is not easy for businesses to make their operations more efficient, partly because their information systems do not provide notifications of events as they are happening. Most enterprise technology uses batch processing and is designed to move data from one database to another; otherwise it requires people to go and find the data they need. To be more responsive, new technologies capture and... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, Salesforce.com, Business Collaboration, Business Intelligence, Data Integration, Information Management

Informatica Cloud Asserts Its Strength

Posted by ISG Research on 28 November 2010

Recently I wrote a blog outlining a relatively new offering, Informatica Cloud. I questioned how many companies understood the need for data management and whether they would turn to a cloud-based solution to meet their needs. It seems that my doubts have been addressed with the rapid adoption of it in 2010. At salesforce.com’s recent Cloudforce event in London, I learned that Informatica Cloud... Read More

Topics: Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Integration, Informatica, Information Management

Informatica Simplifies Cloud Integration with New Data Plugs

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010

Businesses continually need to improve their abilities to utilize data generated by their activities and interactions. Retrieving, cleaning and sharing data are ongoing processes, and along with data within the enterprise, applications in cloud computing are becoming critical sources. Vital data about customers and even employees among many other types is distributed across the cloud and must be... Read More

Topics: Cloud Computing, Data Integration, Informatica, Information Management

iWay Software Deepens Information Management Expands to Cloud Computing

Posted by Mark Smith on 27 November 2010

At the Information Builders 2010 conference I spent some time to learn about the latest in its business intelligence (BI) technology and also performance management, which my colleague has analyzed recently (See: “IBI’s Eye Popping New Performance Management Software”). But I focused more on information management, which is becoming a strategic component of the company’s portfolio. Its iWay... Read More

Topics: IT Performance, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Data Integration, Information Builders, Information Management

iWay Software Connects Salesforce Chatter to the Enterprise

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

It is not easy for businesses to make their operations more efficient, partly because their information systems do not provide notifications of events as they are happening. Most enterprise technology uses batch processing and is designed to move data from one database to another; otherwise it requires people to go and find the data they need. To be more responsive, new technologies capture and... Read More

Topics: Sales Performance, Salesforce.com, Business Collaboration, Business Intelligence, Customer & Contact Center, Data Integration, Information Management

Informatica Cloud Asserts Its Strength

Posted by Mark Smith on 26 November 2010

Recently I wrote a blog outlining a relatively new offering, Informatica Cloud. I questioned how many companies understood the need for data management and whether they would turn to a cloud-based solution to meet their needs. It seems that my doubts have been addressed with the rapid adoption of it in 2010. At salesforce.com’s recent Cloudforce event in London, I learned that Informatica Cloud... Read More

Topics: Business Intelligence, Cloud Computing, Data Integration, Informatica, Information Management