Data Management and Operations Buyers Guide - Provider Submission Information Page - ISG Research

About Buyers Guide

Product Briefing Period: Closed

What you’ll receive if you participate

A submission package with evaluation RFI documents (spanning two for products and one for customer experience).
Guidance on acceptable response formats (full text and/or public links). If an item doesn’t apply, note it. And we recommend using your GPT on your products to provide detailed information.
Option to re-use last year’s materials: returning participants can request prior submissions to update rather than start from scratch.
Opportunity to present and demo to our analysts, highlight differentiation and clarify RFI items.
Links to two short videos: a quick overview of the approach/process and a deeper dive into the methodology and market value, along with one specific to the study.

If you don’t participate
We’ll still assess eligible products using publicly available information, but the results may not fully reflect your strengths.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Engineering in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $10 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data engineering market.

Data engineering encompasses data pipelines, data orchestration. It is the holistic practice of developing and managing pipelines designed to collect data as it is generated by multiple applications and systems, unify and combine it as required, and deliver it to multiple applications and systems to support operational, analytic and AI use-cases.

To be included in the Data Engineering Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data engineering platform or address at least two of data pipelines, data orchestration and data integration.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Governance in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $60 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data governance market.

Data governance software enables organizations to ensure their data is cataloged, trusted and protected, improving business processes to accelerate analytics initiatives while supporting compliance with data privacy and security policies as well as regulatory requirements.

To be included in the Data Governance Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data governance platform and address metadata management, data lineage and data stewardship as well as AI for data governance.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Integration in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $100 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data integration market.

Data integration is a set of processes and technologies that enable enterprises to extract, combine, transform and process data from multiple internal and external data platforms and applications to maximize the value of analytic and operational use. Without data integration, business data would be trapped in the applications and systems in which it was generated.

To be included in the Data Integration Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data integration platform and address data integration pipeline connectivity, data integration pipeline development, data integration pipeline testing and data integration pipeline management as well as the use of AI to automate and enhance data integration pipelines.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Integrity in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $60 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data integrity market.

Data integrity provides enterprises with the confidence that data being used for operational, analytic and AI use-cases can be trusted to be accurate, complete, consistent and fit for purpose. Data integrity is achieved through a combination of capabilities delivered through a combination of data governance, data quality and master data management.

To be included in the Data Integrity Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data integrity platform or address at least two of data governance, data quality and master data management.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Intelligence in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $60 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data intelligence market.

Data intelligence provides a holistic view of data production and consumption, enabling data administrators to understand and manage the use of data in BI and AI initiatives and accelerate strategic data-democratization initiatives to provide data analysts and business users with governed self-service access to data across an enterprise. Data intelligence platforms provide a combination of data inventory, data discovery and metadata management functionality, as well as data governance, data quality and data lineage to ensure that business users and data analysts can find and access the data they need, while providing analytics and data leaders with key metrics on data production and consumption, including the value generated by data-projects.

To be included in the Data Intelligence Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data intelligence platform or provide a combination of data governance and data quality and address data culture, data metrics, analyticops, data inventory, data discovery, metadata management, data lineage, and data quality connectivity, profiling, rules and insights, as well as AI for data intelligence.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Intelligence in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $10 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data intelligence market.

Data intelligence provides a holistic view of data production and consumption, enabling data administrators to understand and manage the use of data in BI and AI initiatives and accelerate strategic data-democratization initiatives to provide data analysts and business users with governed self-service access to data across an enterprise.

Data as a product is the process of applying product thinking to data initiatives to ensure that the outcome—the data product—is designed to be shared and reused for multiple use-cases across the business. Data product platforms provide an environment for the development, publication and consumption of data products.

To be included in the Data Intelligence and Data Products Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data intelligence or data products platform or provide a combination of both data intelligence and data products.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Management in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $60 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data management market.

Data management is the administration of data throughout its lifecycle, from generation to consumption. Data management software combines data governance, data quality, master data management, data integration and data intelligence to ensure that the enterprise is collecting, storing and processing data in accordance with strategic goals and regulatory requirements.

To be included in the Data Management Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data management platform or address at least three of data intelligence, data governance, data quality, master data management, and data integration.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Management and Operations in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $7.5 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The provider must offer products actively marketed as addressing the needs of both the data management and data operations markets.

Data management is the administration of data throughout its lifecycle, from generation to consumption. Data management software combines data governance, data quality, master data management, data integration and data intelligence to ensure that the enterprise is collecting, storing and processing data in accordance with strategic goals and regulatory requirements.

Data Operations (DataOps) focuses on the application of agile development, DevOps and lean manufacturing by data engineering professionals in support of data production. DataOps encompasses the development, testing, deployment and orchestration of data integration and processing pipelines, along with improved data quality and validity via data monitoring and observability, enabling the development and consumption of data products.

To be included in the Data Management and Data Operations Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data management and data operations platform or address at least three of data intelligence, data governance, data quality, master data management, and data integration, and at least two of data pipelines, data orchestration, data observability and data products.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Observability in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $7.5 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data observability market.

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. Maintaining data quality and trust is a perennial data management challenge, often preventing enterprises from operating at the speed of business.

To be included in the Data Observability Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data orchestration platform and address DataOps collaboration, acceleration, automation and ecosystem integration, as well as the detection, prevention and resolution of data reliability issues, and the use of AI to automate and enhance data observability.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Orchestration in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $10 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data orchestration market.

Data orchestration enables the flow of data across the organization via capabilities for pipeline monitoring, pipeline management and workflow management. Given the increasing complexity of evolving data sources and requirements, it’s essential to automate and coordinate the creation, scheduling and monitoring of data pipelines.

To be included in the Data Orchestration Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data orchestration platform and address DataOps collaboration, acceleration, automation and ecosystem integration, as well as pipeline orchestration, pipeline management, workflow orchestration and orchestration monitoring and the use of AI to automate and enhance data orchestration.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Operations in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $7.5 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data operations market.

Data Operations (DataOps) focuses on the application of agile development, DevOps and lean manufacturing by data engineering professionals in support of data production. DataOps encompasses the development, testing, deployment and orchestration of data integration and processing pipelines, along with improved data quality and validity via data monitoring and observability, enabling the development and consumption of data products.

To be included in the Data Operations Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data operations platform and address DataOps collaboration, acceleration, automation and ecosystem integration, and at least two of data pipelines, data orchestration, data observability and data products.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Pipelines in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $10 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data pipelines market.

The development, testing and deployment of data pipelines enables enterprises to extract data from the operational applications and data platforms designed to run the business and load, integrate and transform it into the analytic data platforms and tools used to analyze the business. Data pipelines are a fundamental accelerator of data-driven strategies, and today’s analytics environments require agile data pipelines that can traverse multiple data-processing locations and evolve with business needs.

To be included in the Data Pipelines Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data pipelines platform and address DataOps collaboration, acceleration, automation and ecosystem integration, as well as pipeline connectivity, pipeline development, pipeline testing, pipeline deployment and the use of AI to automate and enhance data pipelines.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Products in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $10 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data products market.

Data as a product is the process of applying product thinking to data initiatives to ensure that the outcome—the data product—is designed to be shared and reused for multiple use-cases across the business. Data product platforms provide an environment for the development, publication and consumption of data products.

To be included in the Data Products Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data products platform and address DataOps collaboration, acceleration, automation and ecosystem integration, as well as data product development, data product classification, data product consumption, data product management and the use of AI to automate and enhance data products.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Quality in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $60 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data quality market.

Data quality refers to the processes, methods and tools used to measure the suitability of a dataset for a specific purpose. The precise measure of suitability will depend on the individual use case, but important characteristics include accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness and validity. The data quality product category is comprised of the tools used to evaluate data in relation to these characteristics.

To be included in the Data Quality Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a data quality platform and address data quality connectivity, profiling, rules and insights, as well as AI for data quality.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Quality and Data Observability in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $7.5 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the data quality and data observability market.

Data quality refers to the processes, methods and tools used to measure the suitability of a dataset for a specific purpose. The precise measure of suitability will depend on the individual use case, but important characteristics include accuracy, completeness, consistency, timeliness and validity. The data quality product category is comprised of the tools used to evaluate data in relation to these characteristics.

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. Maintaining data quality and trust is a perennial data management challenge, often preventing enterprises from operating at the speed of business.

To be included in the Data Quality and Data Observability, the product(s) must be marketed as a data quality and observability platform or address both data quality and data observability.

For inclusion in the ISG Buyers Guide™ for Master Data Management in 2026, a software provider must be in good standing financially and ethically, have at least $60 million in annual or projected revenue verified using independent sources, sell products and provide support on at least two continents, and have at least 50 customers. The principal source of the relevant business unit’s revenue must be software-related, and there must have been at least one major software release in the last 12 months. The product(s) must be actively marketed as addressing the needs of the master data management market.

“Master data” is the term used for an organization’s foundational reference data. It provides an agreed list of entities that can be shared throughout the organization. Master Data Management is the practice of managing the organization’s master data. It encompasses processes such as data validation, matching and merging duplicate records and enriching data with related information, as well as data modeling, which documents the relationships between data elements. This results in the generation of a data catalog or enterprise glossary that can be shared across the organization as well as with partners and suppliers.

To be included in the Data Quality Buyers Guide, the product(s) must be marketed as a master data management platform and address master data management connectivity, data modeling, data stewardship, master data management rules and AI for master data management.

Completed surveys for this Buyers Guide are due on June 24, 2026. The scoring period is scheduled to last through July 2026, during which time we may schedule a briefing to clarify any questions we have. The publication is currently scheduled for August 2026.

Please upload the submission package and all supporting documents in our FileCloud portal. For all questions regarding FileCloud, please contact the Project Manager Pavan at pavan.siddarth@isg-one.com.

We strongly encourage full participation in the Buyers Guide, but if this is not possible, we suggest you provide whatever documentation you have on your product — release notes, any publicly available information and anything else that will help provide an accurate picture of the product for the analyst. We also suggest you schedule a briefing with the analyst during the scoring period. Please contact Project Manager Pavan Siddarth for further information about limited participation.

No, there is no cost to participate and thus we encourage all providers to participate. The final report and materials are avialable for licensing.

Prior to initiating any new Buyers Guide, our leadership team develops criteria that include the nature of the product, product marketing, overall revenue and countries of operation. If you actively market, sell and develop a product that meets or exceeds our inclusion criteria (as reflected on your website), we will evaluate it, even if you don’t participate.

All products that meet the criteria are included in the Buyers Guide. In our view, this policy is essential for ensuring our evaluation is unbiased and that it accurately represents the state of the marketplace and the needs of business executives pursuing RFPs.

Providers that do not meet the revenue threshold may be considered for the emerging providers reports.

No, briefings are optional, but they are certainly helpful and we will gladly schedule a briefing with any provider that requests one.

We ask that you imagine the briefing as a final pitch for a $1 million deal. Please plan for an hour and understand that schedules often prevent extending these sessions. We suggest you structure the briefing as follows, allotting about 15 minutes per segment: Company overview, product overview and demo, discussion of product as relates to the Buyers Guide evaluation categories and Q&A.

More information about the ISG Research Buyers Guide is on our website here. To purchase a buyers guide, please contact sales@isg-research.net.

We will share the courtesy copy of the Buyers Guide Report 72 hours prior to publication.

Buyers Guides are ISG’s standard for evaluating software providers and products; the Provider Lens studies focus on service providers.

To reduce effort. Shared categories are submitted once per year; the Capability survey is tailored for each guide.

Findings inform ISG advisory and technology sourcing, including ISG Tango.