Technology research firm Gartner has released this year’s magic quadrant of data integration vendors. The new 2015 quadrant positions the leading vendors in the data integration market according to their knowledge of the market and quality of execution. Here we take a look at the main changes to vendors’ positions in the quadrant in comparison to 2014.
The latest quadrant is shown below (image via Gartner).
‘Completeness of vision’ refers to a vendor’s understanding of market trends and customer needs, followed by the appropriateness of the strategies implemented to address this area. This covers everything from geographical locations to pricing models. ‘Ability to execute’ is a measurement which assesses a vendor’s implementation, including marketing effectiveness, financial resources and customer service.
Apart from the entry of Denodo, a vendor new to the quadrant, shifts in position between 2014 and 2015 have been very small. The main changes are:
- Microsoft’s ability to execute has risen slightly but its completeness of vision has fallen a little, shifting the company further away from the Leaders quadrant. The widespread use of Microsoft’s technologies and its technical capabilities are positives, but there are difficulties with integration of Microsoft’s offerings across its wide portfolio of products.
- Oracle has improved its completeness of vision, moving the company slightly towards SAP in the Leaders quadrant. It benefits from its huge brand awareness, diverse technologies and wide applicability.
- Also in the Leaders quadrant, IBM’s ability to execute has slipped very slightly, although there is an improvement in completeness of vision. Customers reported difficulty with integrating products across IBM’s portfolio, while others had issues with version upgrades. The company has still to catch up with Informatica’s dominant position in the quadrant.
- In the Visionaries quadrant, Talend’s completeness of vision has improved a little. The company is edging very close to the Leaders group. Talend benefits from its early adoption of Big Data and Hadoop, lower cost model, solid functionality and flexible tools.
- Adeptia remains in the Niche Players quadrant, but its ability to execute has improved year-on-year. The company is cited for its well-integrated toolset, cloud capabilities and practical, value-for-money pricing packages.
Denodo is a Californian company that has entered the quadrant this year. Its platform connects to a wide and flexible range of databases and interfaces, and the company has made the increasingly popular area of data visualisation an important part of its offering. Denodo also benefits from a strong network of partners, including IBM and SAP, who use Denodo’s functionality as part of their product offering.
Further reading
The full report is available from the Gartner website. For information on how to choose a data integration vendor, take a look at our blog post on seven important factors to consider. Or visit our blog post on exactly what it takes to enter each of Gartner’s four quadrants.
