Posts Tagged 'data integration'

3 Trends that are Changing the World of Data

upside_tdwiIn my last post, I wrote about the new data integration requirements. In this post I wanted to share a few points made recently in a TDWI institute interview with SnapLogic founder and CEO Gaurav Dhillon when he was asked:

What are some of the most interesting trends you’re seeing in the BI, analytics, and data warehousing space?

There are three trends that I believe are fundamentally changing the world of data.

The first is the shift to the cloud. Rapid provisioning, ease of use, and cost are just a few of the drivers as data gravity continues to shift.

(Data gravity means that when a large data set is sitting in a large Hadoop or Splunk instance in an on-premises system, it doesn’t make sense to load all that data into the cloud to run analytics functions. Instead, one would ship the function to the data and return results. Being able to do this seamlessly can greatly simplify integration pipelines.)

Also driving this trend is the fact that cloud data warehousing and analytics have moved from rogue departmental use cases to enterprise deployments.

The second trend is the data lake and how to complement, extend — and in some cases replace — the traditional data warehouse with a reference architecture that is built to handle all new and future sources and enable more proactive and predictive analytics.

The third trend is the Internet of Things (IoT). It’s already happening today in some industries with data velocity, variety, and, of course, volume. What’s more important, though, is the kinds of analytics and insights that will become possible because of IoT sensors, wearables, and devices — once organizations figure out how to separate signal from noise through the right data management techniques.

He was also asked about the drivers for modern integration platforms, whether you call it iPaaS or HIP or something else:

  1. The end of the ETL and ESB cycle
  2. The need for speed
  3. Hybrid infrastructure

Be sure to check out the entire interview and share your feedback.

Big Data Integration Best Practices

Last week I hosted a SnapLogic webinar that featured a great overview of how to approach the increasing requirements for big data integration by Mark Smith, CEO & Chief Research Officer, Ventana Research. As opposed to simply trying to re-purposing your old ETL tools or hiring developers to write custom code, Mark shared 5 best practices for attaining excellence in big data integration:

  1. Evaluate efficiency of processes
  2. Examine new approaches
  3. Evaluate technology needs
  4. Investigate dedicated technology
  5. Gain benefits that outweigh costs

I’ve embedded the slides below and you can watch the webinar here.

The Death of Traditional Integration

Recently I hosted a SnapLogic webinar featuring the company’s co-founder and CEO, Gaurav Dhillon, and industry analyst, author and practitioner David Linthicum called: The Death of Traditional Data Integration. The webinar was very well attended and the discussion was quite lively. I’ve posted sections of the transcript on the SnapLogic blog, you can also listen to the podcast on the company’s iTunes channel, and the slides are now on Slideshare. I’ve embedded the YouTube video below. Enjoy!

Unfinished Business: Gaurav Dhillon Introduces @SnapLogic Integration Cloud

Gaurav Dhillon co-founded Informatica in 1992 and ran the company until 2004. In 2006 he co-founded SnapLogic, a data integration start-up in San Mateo, California. In 2010 he took over as the company’s Chairman and CEO and re-focused the company on tackling the emerging cloud data and application integration challenge in the enterprise.

Today SnapLogic introduced the SnapLogic Integration Cloud, with a focus on three key areas:

You can read more about the Winter 2014 release of the multi-tenant integration platform as a service (iPaaS) here. Here’s a video of Gaurav introducing the company out summarizing the importance of the right approach to cloud data and application integration in the API economy. He’s also presenting on that topic on a GigaOM webinar with David Linthicum later this week.

Presentation: Cloud Integration for the Hybrid IT Enterprise

I recently delivered a presentation for an online conference called Cloud-Con, which focused on Cloud Integration and Web API Management. My session introduced Informatica’s new virtual data machine called Vibe, reviewed the primary cloud integration and data management challenges and introduced Informatica Cloud. I also touched upon the concepts of Lean Integration outlined ways to consider establishing an integration competency center (ICC). Here is the presentation with the embedded video.

Putting Information Potential To Work

Great video outlining the importance of data integration. Are you putting potential to work?

Salesforce Customers are Asking for Big Data Management #DF12

Two things stuck out for me at Dreamforce 2012:

  1. What an amazing ecosystem Salesforce has built. The Cloud expo was packed with high-quality booths and there were over 3000 people at the partner keynote! Congratulations to the partner success team and kudos on the newly designed Appexchange.
  2. How important cloud integration / enterprise connectivity has become to Salesforce customers, partners and prospects. These two slides from that same partner keynote say it all:

When it comes to the back-office, Big Data Management apps top the list of Salesforce customer requirements. Oh, and by the way, all new cloud applications must connect across the business.

Today two post-Dreamforce 2012 articles caught my attention that address the need for cloud integration head on. In his post – Plumbing the Salesforce Clouds is Your Business, Mark Smith from Ventana Research notes:

“The challenges your organization faces with data are getting larger, and the financial benefits of data in the cloud, such as reduced TCO and reduced implementation fees, are substantive. Too much time and too many resources are wasted in manual approaches where data is transitioned inconsistently and incorrectly. Automation helps organizations rationalize their overall information management efforts.”

Joshua Greenbaum at Enterprise Applications Consulting has this to say his his article, Salesforce.com, Enterprise Platforms, and the End of the End of Software:

“And the tools are there, or on the way. Hence the refrigerator pitch, though it was interestingly devoid of details on just how easy it will be to build an integration framework that could tie together a Pandora-like pure cloud environment or a more common hybrid cloud/on-premise environment. But heck, that’s really hard. It took SAP years to get NetWeaver out of slideware mode and into simple and easy to implement mode, despite all their efforts. So I don’t expect Saleforce.com to settle this issue in just one Dreamforce. It will take a while, no doubt.”

I’ll write about the Informatica Cloud integration and MDM session later this week on the Perspective blog. In the meantime, I’ve embedded the slides below so you can see for yourself how three enterprise organizations have taken advantage of data integration, data quality and master data management technology to drive overall Salesforce adoption and success. It’s Big Cloud Data Management in action!

Cloud Integration vs. SaaS Integration vs. Salesforce Integration

I did a quick comparison on Google Insights on a few keywords I track and thought I’d share the results. A few observations:

  • “Salesforce Integration” was first out of the gate in May 2006. This is roughly when AppExchange was first launched.
  • “SaaS Integration” entered into the vernacular in 2008. About the same time the term “on-demand” died I suspect. SaaS integration hasn’t done so well as a term, however. I put in SaaS application integration and it only made matters worse. This was a bit of a surprise I must admit.
  • “Cloud Integration” made a dent in October 2008 and has been on a steady climb ever since.

 

Google Trends has similar results. But when you go to Dice.com it’s a bit of a different story. There are:

But back to the keywords. I put in the terms “Data Integration” and “Application Integration to compare and they’re an order of magnitude greater than all three, albeit with a much longer history. Of note, however, is that the trend line for both of these more mature terms was on the decline for a few years but now seems to have leveled off somewhat.

Informatica Cloud Integration Customer Success

Not too long ago I posted an interview on the Informatica Perspectives blog with Bryan Plaster, who runs the company’s customer success team for cloud integration. The results of the program are reflected in the number of positive reviews Informatica Cloud has received on the Salesforce AppExchange as well as the continued cloud data integration growth that is reflected on the trust site – Trust.InformaticaCloud.com.

Here is a YouTube Playlist of some of the customer videos on the Informatica Cloud YouTube Channel. You can also check out more videos on the Informatica Cloud video channel, which includes many customer anecdotes from different presentations as well as online training.

Informatica Cloud logo

Related articles

Salesforce Integration in Manufacturing: Getting Sales and Operations on the Same Page

I hosted a webinar this week with a CRM developer, Salesforce.com-focused systems integrator and cloud integration expert who provided a demonstration of Informatica Cloud. The focus of the discussion was the importance of data integration to CRM adoption and success in manufacturing. Here is the recording and the slides.


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