Informatica has made a series of announcements recently that address some of the important concerns of large enterprise users.
Among them, specifically:
• Unifying Cloud data, service, and process integration via model-driven design
• Enabling access to integrations developed on Informatica Cloud as REST APIs
• Fostering collaboration and reusability sharing via a repository
• Deploying capability to automate Salesforce CRM processes and ensure that best practices are followed
• Releasing enhancements for data security and quality in the Cloud, especially for the financial and health verticals.
Other announced enhancements include:
• Empowering users to create interrupts and modifications to data flows
• Extending Salesforce outbound messages with custom integration templates
• Increasing support for mobile devices
The former enhancements help create a disciplined and well-managed integration platform, while the latter potentially open Pandora’s Box with more tactically-flavored capabilities. Overall, however, Informatica gives the strong impression of a company taking firm aim at large enterprise markets through a disciplined, platform-driven approach to integration.
Cloud integration has matured significantly over the past five years. Solution providers have generally focused on segments based on size: small-to-midsize, e.g., Scribe, midmarket and up, e.g., Dell Boomi and Mulesoft, and large and very large enterprises, e.g., IBM/CastIron and Informatica. Informatica’s recent announcements position it very well in the large enterprise markets because of a coherent platform and a clear roadmap for enhancing its support of hybrid Cloud solutions.
In the past, when it came to sharing information, you had to choose either data integration or process integration. We believe that a significant advantage in the Boundary-free Enterprise will go to vendors offering a unified approach in one comprehensive platform. Informatica recognizes that today’s Cloud integration challenges span data, service and process tiers, across virtually any protocol or boundary.