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December 1, 2009
why does the market need yet another generation of data integration tools?
Last week I was asked the question why the market needs yet another generation of data integration tools when so many G2000 companies already have standardized on a 'best-of-class' data integration solution from the likes of Informatica or IBM. This is a fair question but reminds me of a parallel when companies in the '90s began bringing Unix servers in house after they had already standardized on IBM mainframes or similar 'computing monsters.' It's true that IBM mainframes are still around and won't go away anytime soon - but server-centric computing has become the norm rather than the exception in today's IT environment.
So why did server-centric computing succeed and replace the big monolithic mainframe? For the most part because of better price/performance although other reasons like newer, and more open OS standards like Unix and Linux played an important role as well.
A similar argument can be made for next-generation data integration products like expressor, which deliver significantly better price/performance than the likes of Informatica. At one 4th or 5th of the price of Informatica you get even better processing performance than PowerCenter. A claim we have proven at several accounts now where we beat Informatica on data processing performance and our ability to handle emerging data formats such as complex, hierarchical XML documents much easier and faster than they do.
Without doubt there will be a shift in our market over the coming years. The current status quo of selling high-priced data integration software will come to an end and will remain only acceptable for very special, high-end, mission-critical applications, where companies will continue to play it safe and go with mature technology.
IT buyers are beginning to recognize that they don't have to buy these expensive products any longer for many or most of their data integration projects. And when that mindset kicks in across board, the market will rapidly move away from the mainframe mentality of buying, development and deployment of data integration technology. They will come to realize that smaller, more modern, easier to use, and affordable data integration technology is the way to go for most of their projects.
Welcome to the 'server-centric' world of ETL and data integration. It's around the corner! And welcome to expressor.
Michael Waclawiczek, VP marketing
Posted by expressor software at December 1, 2009 9:15 AM
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