Informatica is no more an ETL vendor, but position itself as the data integration company. The new platform is using a common foundation stack used to host and run all their products (it is what they claim, I did not validate this point yet).
So their B2B engine (previously ITEMField tool), their ETL engine and all their data quality and metadata Mgt tools are now integrated at the platform level. The "power of the platform".
They are also working on having a common and integrated GUI for all their tools. Should be available later this year.
Finally, and that was the more surprising part for me, is the "Informatica in the cloud" offer. The ideas behind this offer are twofold:
- propose to companies off the shelf and in the cloud integration platform for some of the most used SaaS applications on the market (Salesforce, etc.).
- propose to companies off the shelf and in the cloud integration services based on the "power of the platform".
It is very rare to see integration vendor offering on premise and SaaS approach, instead of trying to sell licenses only (and maintenance).
Informatica is very near to their client needs. But, as usual, you need to test and see what's the best approach for your company.
Why should a software vendor limit itself to "on premises" when he can also sell "on cloud" (as long as it can offer this service and it has the skills & ressources for such a platform) ?
ReplyDeleteWith cloud system, it gets subscriptions from its customers as revenues and also hosts their data. So customers will be more reluctant to leave the supplier. Data ownership and import/export issues are key issues for cloud system. Before going on cloud, you have to check this...
Nicolas
ReplyDeleteYou should not confuse SaaS and Cloud. It is clear that the main issue with SaaS application is the data. Having an integration vendor offering integration in the cloud and pre-connected to SaaS platform is a good opportunity for companies.
You can then get you SaaS application and put in place immediately Sync with your IT systems without having to build the integration code in your company. This could be very interesting for Small and Medium Company and even some big companies for non core business.
And remember, in general SaaS and Cloud are OPEX, and not CAPËX. That's what most IT department are looking for.
Oups, indeed, I confused.
ReplyDeleteI did not think about the OPEX/CAPEX aspects