5 data integration platforms to tackle information overload

Combining the data gathered from different sources to get a unified view is called data integration. Data integration can help companies better understand the different factors that affect their growth. For example, integrating the data from your sales and product cycles can help you understand how the production has affected sales and vice versa.

Data from different resources tend to be in different formats. Integration requires compatibility. This is where data integration platforms come into play. These platforms make the data from various sources compatible and eventually integrate them together. Let’s take a closer look at five interesting data integration platforms that are changing the way businesses make decisions.

Understanding APIs

A migration of formats is required to achieve compatibility. This is why extract, transform, and load (ETL) integrations are used. Besides converting formats, ETL helps in migrating data from one database to another. But ETL integrations are rigid and expensive for the highly dynamic ecosystem of mobile apps. This is why the top enterprises are replacing ETLs with application programming interface-based integrations.

API models minimize the friction between the collection and consumption of data. These models simplify the infrastructure, improve speed and hence save time and money. Open APIs are like the magic glue that allows software applications to talk to each other. This helps developers reach into the data on platforms like Amazon, Google, and Facebook. Here is a list of the top 5 API-based data integration platforms.

1. MuleSoft

data integration
The California-based integration platform provider was called MuleSource when it was founded in 2006. The company later changed its name to MuleSoft in 2008 and was recently acquired by Salesforce. Originally, the company provided middleware and messaging before launching its Anypoint platform. Anypoint is an integration-platform-as-a-service (iPaaS).

Anypoint Integration Platform

Anypoint platform comes with a bunch of components including a design center, an exchange center, and a management center. Anypoint design center provides a platform for developers to quickly design and build APIs. Anypoint exchange center is a library for API providers where they can share assets and templates. Anypoint management center is a web interface where the analysis, management, and monitoring of APIs and integrations are centralized.

Mule runtime engine

In addition to the Anypoint platform, MuleSoft also offers a runtime solution for connecting on-premises enterprise applications to the cloud. The solution mainly focuses on eliminating the necessity for custom point to point integration code. MuleSoft calls this solution the Mule runtime engine.

Salesforce acquired MuleSoft in May for $6.5 billion. Salesforce’s entire product portfolio has brought excellent Q2 results and the acquisition of MuleSoft has contributed to a huge strategic boost. Salesforce’s CEO Keith Block noted that the inclusion of MuleSoft ‘s results has grown the revenue by 54 percent for Q2.

2. Informatica

data integration
California-based Informatica offers a range of data integration products that include the Informatica Platform, Data Services, Intelligent Cloud Services, Intelligent Streaming, Intelligent Data Lake and Data Preparation, Cloud Integration Hub, Big Data Integration Hub, and Big Data Management. The Informatica platform comes with features like PowerExchange, PowerCenter, Data Replication, Ultra Messaging, B2B Data Transformation, Advanced Data Transformation, Data Integration Hub, and B2B Data Exchange.

Updated Master Data Management (MDM)

Informatica’s MDM now allows enterprises to transform customer experience with hybrid data management. With updated UX, enhanced security and improved analytics, the platform delivers enhanced business collaborations and data insights. Overall, MDM enables the business to easily manage data with a comprehensive view of contextual information.

Informatica Intelligent cloud services

The Informatica iPaaS delivers an intelligent microservices-based solution with new capabilities for multicloud environments. The solution provides an integrated experience with Apigee with 22 new high-performance connectors. It also comes with new marketplace solutions for various ecosystems including AWS, Google Cloud, Microsoft Azure, Adobe, and Snowflake.

According to Gartner, Informatica’s customer base for this product set alone is estimated to be over 7,000 organizations.

3. Talend

Founded in 2005, Talend offers solutions for Big Data management and integration. The organization now generates $148.5 million in revenue with over 1500 enterprise customers. For the last three years, Gartner has acknowledged Talend as a leader in the data integration space in its Magic Quadrant report.

Data integration and management

A year after its launch, Talend became the first commercial data integration vendor after launching Talend Open Studio. Talend Open Studio comes with an Eclipse-based environment, a long list of connectors, ELT, and ETL support. Talend Data Management Platform is another interesting commercial solution offered by the company. It comes with rich development tools, monitoring console, an administration center, paid support, and a lot of other features.

Uploader for Azure

Talend recently released software that enables bulk data uploads to Azure SQL Data Warehouse. The objective is to support real-time analytics and streamline data integration. The solution is more of a cross-loader than an uploader as it moves data around once it is in the Azure cloud. This is useful to apply the data-handling rules whether the data is in the cloud or a data center.

Talend is strengthening its team and has appointed Adam Meister, a former managing director at Goldman Sachs, as its CFO this September.

4. Apigee

data integration
Silicon Valley-based Apigee Corp was called Sonoa Systems when it was founded in 2004. Sonoa was rebranded in 2010 when the API management platform became the keystone of the business. In addition to API management, the company also provides a predictive analysis software. The company has been strengthening itself by acquiring companies like Usergrid (mobile API company) and InsightsOne (predictive analytics company).

Apigee Edge is the flagship API management product of Apigee. It includes Developer Services, and Analytics Services along with API Services and enables application data integration, dynamic routing, and orchestration. Apigee’s customer base includes big market players like Netflix and Walgreens. Unlike e-commerce and social media, health care has been a closed ecosystem and slow in adapting to open API standards. But Apigee has made significant strides in the health care industry in association with Walgreens. Walgreens uses Apigee’s API to enable customers to order prescription refills. It also allows the doctor’s office to electronically approve prescriptions to Walgreens. All this is done in a closed loop and the process is completed in no time.

In 2015, Apigee joined the tech giants like IBM and SmartBear to become the founding member of the OpenAPI initiative. The membership was sponsored by Linux. In the same year, the company raised $87 million through IPO. In November 2016, the company was acquired by Google for $625 million. Now in 2018, Apigee Corp. is listed among the key players in the Global Telecom API Market report along with Alcatel-Lucent and AT&T. Forrester estimates the company to become a $3 billion business by 2020.

5. Tibco

The California-based company has been providing analytics and event management solutions for 21 years and is now generating revenue of approximately $1 billion per year. In 1997, (the year Tibco was founded) the company became Microsoft’s partner in push technology. The company’s IPO was made in 1999 and in the first trade, the stock doubled. In 2001 the company was listed among USA Today’s list of 50 companies that survived the dot-com bubble. Tibco has been providing a range of business solutions and has made its customer base hit 10,000. Tibco Spotfire data analytics and integration platform is one of the biggest reasons for the growth of Tibco and here a few updates:

A(X) Experience

Data integration platforms
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Tibco believes in handling data with a human approach rather than just increasing digitization. Tibco Spotfire platform is now updated with a new approach that is being branded as the A(X) Experience. A(X) is an AI-driven analytics experience that combines the following:

  • Agile data exploration
  • Natural language processing
  • Model-based authoring
  • Native support for real-time data streaming
  • Machine learning recommendation.

And much more.

Tibco’s A(X) with its newly expanded connected intelligence cloud, augments the organization’s intelligence by humanizing digital analysis.

Spotfire X

This September, Tibco announced its new Spotfire X platform in the Tibco Now conference in Las Vegas. Spotfire X is the latest iteration of the company’s data analytics platform. It aims to provide a more streamlined user experience by incorporating more AI capabilities. The upgraded platform will be released this fall.

Data-driven decisions need data integration platforms

Gone are the days where tasks were pigeonholed to a specific department. Data science isn’t just for data scientists. Decision making in all the areas of businesses is becoming data-driven. Businesses are making data accessible to all the departments and the modern data integration platforms make it possible for any employee of an organization to become a citizen data scientist. The world is drowning in data, charts, and graphs, so every company needs a faster insight into this torrent of information — and the data integration platforms are serving the world with what it needs. This is the main reason why the future of the data integration looks promising.

Featured image: Shutterstock

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