Informatica and IBM Lead Gartner's Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools

Despite challenging economic conditions in 2009, activity in the data integration tools market remained strong, writes Gartner Analyst Ted Friedman in the 2009 Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools report. Gartner estimates that the market is at about $1.34 billion and forecasts a five-year compound annual growth rate of approximately 9.4 percent. Friedman notes that the 2009 Quadrant is visibly different than 2008's, but that's not completely due to vendor growth and activity. Gartner altered some of its criteria for inclusion in the Magic Quadrant. It, for instance, raised the bar in terms of customer experience. Also, Friedman says, a vendor's ability to deliver data in multiple formats is growing more important.  

Perhaps most interesting about the 2009 Quadrant is the inclusion of Talend, an open-source data integration vendor. "We are definitely seeing substantial growth and traction with open-source tools in this particular market today," Friedman says. Talend is, by no means, the only open-source provider of data integration; however, it is the first to reach the threshold - in terms of the number of paying users, for instance - to be included in the assessment. 

Another big change was the movement of software giant Oracle from the Challenger's square into the Leader's Quadrant this year. Although barely making its way past the border line, (Friedman calls Oracle a "weak leader") the vendor has made significant steps to improve its data integration capabilities and messaging. "Oracle is placing much more emphasis on this market," Friedman says. "That's exhibited in the form of acquisitions they've done, for instance with the acquisition of Golden Gate Software in Quarter 3 this year." Friedman adds that Oracle has also reorganized a bit. The data integration tooling and MDM solutions now live within a specific focused single team, he says, which is driving those capabilities and messages. In the past, the data integration tools were spread across the Oracle landscape -- some in the database product set, others in Fusion Middleware, and some within applications. "Oracle has taken steps to ... tell a more cohesive and complete story in terms of data integration," Friedman says.

Although SAP reclaimed its Leader status this year, Friedman makes note of its slight slippage in placement. "SAP Business Objects, while still a leader in the space, experienced a moderately substantial decline in the ability to execute," Friedman says. He explains that in talking to Business Objects users, some dissatisfaction surfaced. Although not completely unhappy, customers reported challenges in the areas of service and support with Business Objects. Friedman does note, however, that this year Gartner raised the bar in terms of customer experience criteria. Customer experience involves such attributes as customer and technological support, professional services, price justification, and overall, how customers feel toward the product.

The break-down of the 2009 Magic Quadrant for Data Integration Tools is as follows:

Leaders

• IBM
• Informatica 
• Oracle 
• SAP Business Objects

Challenger

• Microsoft

Visionaries

>

• iWay Software
• Pervasive Software
• SAS/DataFlux
• Sybase
• Talend

Niche Players

• ETI
• Open Text
• Pitney Bowes Business Insight
• Syncsort

On the 2009 Quadrant, Gartner placed Leaders IBM and Informatica particularly close, giving Informatica a slight edge in terms of ability to execute. "Informatica still continues to enjoy the strongest brand awareness and recognition in the marketplace," Friedman says. "That's the name on people's minds when they think data integration." Informatica's eco-system of skills is also praise-worthy, according to the analyst -- and it's slightly less confusing than that of IBM. Informatica has an organically grown product with a single, clean architecture. IBM's toolset, while probably the best in terms of breadth, is manifested in a number of areas and slightly more complex for users, Friedman says. 

"The vendors that exhibit the ability to support a range of styles of data delivery continue to fare better and better as time goes on," Friedman says. This is one reason why vendors such as Informatica, IBM, Oracle, SAP, SAS, and iWay placed better than others in the Quadrant. The demand for multiple types of delivery -- in addition to ETL processing -- has been bubbling for the past four to five years, Friedman says. Now, however, the flexibility is more a must-have rather than a nice-to-have, as evidence on the Magic Quadrant.

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