Insider Dives Into Data Integration

The market for data integration products has emerged, as users struggle with the challenges of managing information from growing numbers of applications.

In a nutshell, data integration tools are used to consolidate and exchange data among large-scale business applications.

Customers face considerable challenges in choosing between homegrown and commercial solutions, according to "Data Integration Tools: A Market Update," the latest Byte and Switch Insider, a CMP paid subscription research service affiliated with this publication. The report examines the pros and cons of each approach and delves into tools from the likes of Oracle, IBM, and Microsoft.

Right now, there's a shift away from from in-house solutions, according to Michael Schiff, Byte and Switch Insider contributing analyst and author of the report. "Historically, the fiercest competition facing data integration vendors was the programming staff of the prospects they were targeting," he says, adding that this is starting to change.

Both the data integration market and the tools themselves have matured, and many companies that previously developed in-house solutions are now looking for commercial offerings, Schiff says.The data integration sector has also undergone a lot of consolidation. Business Objects, for example, which bought data integration vendor Acta Technology in 2002, has since bought Medience and Firstlogic. (See Iron Mountain Uses Business Objects.) Informatica bought data cleansing specialist Similarity Systems last year, which in turn had bought data profiling vendor Evoke Software. (See Informatica Sets Record .)

Big-name technology players have also got in on this act, with IBM spending over $1 billion to grab Ascential software in 2005 and Oracle buying Sunopsis for an undisclosed fee last fall. (See Oracle Buys Sunopsis, IBM Bags Ascential for a Billion, and IBM Touts Info Integration Software.)

Other vendors profiled in the report include Ab Initio Software, Evolutionary Technologies, iWay Software, Microsoft, Group 1 Software, and SAS.

Another trend pushing the market forward is that vendors of data extraction, transformation, and loading (ETL) software have now started to upgrade their offerings with enterprise application integration (EAI) features. (See Perficient Acquires ZettaWorks.)

Looking to the future, XML is likely to emerge as an important part of the data integration market, as vendors look to expand the ability of their products to handle both structured and unstructured data. (See New XML Simplifies Mgmt and Microsoft Extends Interop.)Get more details and/or purchase the report here.

James Rogers, Senior Editor Byte and Switch