Executive Summary

Key Takeaways

Data intelligence and data products are evolving from traditional cataloging and project-based data delivery toward governed, reusable assets designed for self-service consumption. Enterprises increasingly need to understand how data is produced, consumed and governed while applying product thinking to improve discoverability, trust and reuse. Knowledge graphs, data contracts, observability, domain ownership and agent-driven automation are strengthening data democratization and the delivery of data as a product.

Software Provider Summary
The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Intelligence and Data Products evaluates 16 software providers offering products that support data intelligence, including data discovery and data governance, as well as data product development, consumption and management. The research ranked the top three overall as Databricks, Pentaho and Actian. Alation, Databricks, IBM and Pentaho were rated Exemplary, with Actian, Microsoft, Qlik and Salesforce rated Innovative. AWS, Collibra, Google Cloud and SAP were rated as providers of Assurance, and Ataccama, Atlan, Quest and Snowflake were rated providers of Merit. Actian, Salesforce and AWS were identified as Leaders for Data Intelligence, while Databricks, Alteryx and Domo were identified as Leaders for Data Products.

Product Experience Insights
Product Experience, representing 80% of the evaluation, focuses on Capability (50%) and Platform (30%), including adaptability, manageability, reliability and usability. Databricks, Pentaho and Actian were the Product Experience Leaders. Performance reflects differentiated requirements spanning data inventory and lineage, metadata management, data quality insights, data product development and consumption, and AI for data intelligence and data products.

Customer Experience Value
Customer Experience, representing 20% of the evaluation, focuses on validation and TCO/ROI. AWS, IBM and Google Cloud were the Customer Experience Leaders and best communicate commitment and dedication to customer needs. Providers with lower performance may lack sufficient information demonstrating customer success, customer commitment or TCO/ROI value.

Strategic Recommendations
Enterprises should evaluate data intelligence and data product platforms based on the ability to support governed self-service access and reusable data assets. Assessment should prioritize data discovery and lineage, metadata management, data quality, data product lifecycle management, data contracts and observability. Organizations should also evaluate knowledge graph and AI capabilities, including agent-driven automation, while ensuring clear ownership, interoperability and transparency across data producers and consumers.

 

The Findings

The software providers and products evaluated in this research offer product and customer experiences, but not every feature is equally valuable to every enterprise or is needed to support the relevant business processes and use cases. Moreover, having too many product capabilities may be a negative factor for an enterprise if it introduces unnecessary complexity. Nonetheless, you may decide that a more comprehensive set of capabilities is important and meets your enterprise’s requirements.

An effective customer relationship with a software provider is vital to the success of any investment. The overall customer experience and the full lifecycle of engagement play a key role in ensuring satisfaction and long-term success. Providers with dedicated customer leadership, such as chief customer officers, tend to invest more deeply in these relationships and prioritize customer outcomes in line with TCO and ROI expectations. It is equally important that this commitment to customer success is evident throughout the ISG_BG_Data_Intel_Data_Products_Overall_2026provider’s website, the buying process and the customer journey.

Overall Scoring of Software Providers Across Categories

The research finds Databricks atop the list, followed by Pentaho and Actian. Providers that place in the top three of a category earn the designation of Leader. Actian, Databricks and Pentaho have done so in three categories; AWS in two; and Google Cloud, IBM, Microsoft and Quest in one category.

About the authors

Matt Aslett

Matt Aslett

Matt leads the expertise in Digital Technology covering applications and technology that improve the readiness and resilience of business and IT operations. His focus areas of expertise and market coverage include: analytics and data, artificial intelligence and machine learning, blockchain, cloud computing, collaborative and conversational computing, extended reality, Internet of Things mobile computing and robotic automation. Matt’s specialization is in operational and analytical use of data and how businesses can modernize their approaches to business to accelerate the value realization of technology investments in support of hybrid and multi-cloud architecture. Matt has been an industry analyst for more than a decade and has pioneered the coverage of emerging data platforms including NoSQL and NewSQL databases, data lakes and cloud-based data processing. He is a graduate of Bournemouth University.
David Menninger

David Menninger

David is responsible for the overall research direction of data, information and analytics technologies at Ventana Research covering major areas including Analytics, Big Data, Business Intelligence and Information Management along with the additional specific research categories including Information Applications, IT Performance Management, Location Intelligence, Operational Intelligence and IoT, and Data Science. David is also responsible for examining the role of cloud computing, collaboration and mobile technologies as they affect these areas. David brings to Ventana Research over twenty-five years of experience, through which he has marketed and brought to market some of the leading edge technologies for helping organizations analyze data to support a range of action-taking and decision-making processes. Prior to joining Ventana Research, David was the Head of Business Development & Strategy at Pivotal a division of EMC, VP of Marketing and Product Management at Vertica Systems, VP of Marketing and Product Management at Oracle, Applix, InforSense and IRI Software. David earned his MS in Business from Bentley University and a BS in Economics from University of Pennsylvania.