Executive Summary

Key Takeaways

Data management and operations have evolved from established data governance and integration practices into a more agile, automated discipline supporting data production and consumption at scale. Enterprises increasingly need trusted, high-quality, responsive data environments to support BI, generative AI and agentic AI. DataOps, automation, observability, orchestration and governed self-service are helping organizations improve data reliability while accelerating AI initiatives.

Software Provider Summary
The ISG Buyers Guide™ for Data Management and Operations evaluates 11 software providers offering products that support a combination of data management and Data Ops. The research ranked the top three overall as Databricks, Pentaho and IBM. Databricks, IBM, Pentaho and SAP were rated Exemplary, with Salesforce and Qlik rated Innovative. AWS and Google Cloud were rated as providers of Assurance, and Microsoft, Snowflake and Tencent Cloud were rated providers of Merit. Salesforce, IBM and SAP were identified as Leaders for Data Management, while Databricks, Pentaho and DataOps.live were identified as Leaders for DataOps.

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 IBM were the Product Experience Leaders. Performance reflects differentiated requirements spanning data intelligence, data governance, data quality, master data management, data engineering, data observability and reusable data products, alongside resilient enterprise platform capabilities.

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 management and operations platforms based on the ability to deliver trusted, reliable data while supporting agile data production and AI initiatives. Assessment should prioritize data governance and quality, integration, pipeline orchestration, observability, reusable data products and governed self-service access. Organizations should also evaluate automation and DataOps capabilities that improve collaboration, reduce repetitive work and errors, and accelerate reliable data delivery for BI, generative AI and agentic AI.

 

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 provider’s website, the buying process and the customer journey.ISG_BG_Data_Management_&_Operations_Overall_2026

Overall Scoring of Software Providers Across Categories

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