Generative AI (GenAI) and agentic AI are no longer experimental frontiers but are now central to enterprise data strategy. In 2025, AI is not just enhancing business processes, it is reshaping how organizations perceive, govern and derive value from data. However, the truth remains unchanged: AI is only as powerful as the data it learns from. As Matt Aslett discussed in his recent analyst perspective, The Unreasonable Effectiveness of Data Management, this makes high-quality, AI-ready data the most critical asset in the digital economy. Enterprises are grappling with complex, fragmented data ecosystems. Legacy architecture, siloed applications and inconsistent governance models continue to hamper agility. The demand for real-time insights, seamless integration and trusted data is no longer aspirational, it’s essential. At the same time, privacy, regulatory compliance requirements and security concerns are forcing a strategic rethink of traditional data management approaches. Analytics and data software providers such as Pentaho, an independent business unit of Hitachi, are evolving from technology vendors to value-driving partners, in building scalable, governed and intelligent data ecosystems.
Pentaho was originally founded in 2004 and following its acquisition by Hitachi in 2015
was integrated into Hitachi Vantara in 2017. Thanks to the Pentaho product suite, Hitachi 
Vantara was recognized in ISG’s 2024 Buyers Guides as a Provider of Assurance for DataOps, Data Orchestration and Data Pipelines as well as a Provider of Merit for Data Governance and Data Integration. Now operating as an independent business unit, Pentaho continues to focus on business analytics, data integration and data catalog bolstered by the acquisitions of Waterline Data (2020) and Io-Tahoe (2021). By integrating traditional capabilities with GenAI and agentic AI, the Pentaho platform is evolving to meet the demands of an AI-first world as the company aims to simplify data challenges and enable customers to unlock new possibilities with their data. The key components of Pentaho platform include:
- Pentaho Data Catalog: Organizes and manages metadata across all data assets, offering automated discovery, classification and optimization.
- Pentaho Data Optimizer: Optimizes data storage, processing and retrieval, minimizing storage costs by removing unused data.
- Pentaho Data Analytics: Provides no-code tools for interactive analytics and visualizations to accelerate insights and data-driven decisions.
- Pentaho Data Quality: Ensures data accuracy, completeness and consistency across pipelines through automated cleansing, validation and profiling tools.
- Pentaho Data Integration: Provides a no-code ETL and data orchestration tool to streamline data migration and integration.
Pentaho’s renewed independence is accompanied by a pivot toward platform-centric, cloud-native architecture, modernized UI/UX, enhanced data marketplace and AI model integration, building on the foundations of its
data catalog and engineered for agility, governance and AI-native workflows. Rising data volumes and rapid AI adoption are pushing enterprises to demand greater efficiency, accuracy, governance and real-time insights from their data. ISG’s Market Lens 2025 Data and AI Study highlighted the raised expectation for data, with participants on average expecting value from data and AI initiatives to grow by 15% over the next two years. The Pentaho platform addresses these needs by integrating agentic AI to automate tasks like cleansing, validation, anomaly detection and compliance, thereby reducing manual effort and boosting data trust. By embedding intelligence into pipelines, governance and analytics, Pentaho also empowers key data roles such as data engineers, data stewards, governance analysts, DBAs, business users etc. and delivers AI-ready, compliant and scalable solutions.
Enterprises assessing data management software providers for cloud-native architecture, AI readiness, scalability and cost efficiency should consider Pentaho in their evaluations. With its lightweight architecture and flexible deployment models, Pentaho can operate standalone or integrate seamlessly across any infrastructure. This versatility, combined with a strengthened GTM, optimized operating model and renewed organizational focus, makes it a strong choice for an enterprise’s modern data needs.
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