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Today Ventana Research released its 2023 Buyers Guide for Data Pipelines, a quantified, research-based report evaluating technology providers and products. The Buyers Guide assesses 18 vendors’ products using our Value Index methodology to evaluate software in seven key categories that are weighted to reflect buyers’ needs based on our expertise and research. The Buyers Guide for Data Pipelines assesses how well vendors’ offerings will address organizations' requirements for data pipeline software.

The data pipeline concept is nothing new, but it is becoming increasingly important as organizations adapt data management processes to be more data-driven. Data pipelines have traditionally involved batch extract, transform, and load processes, but data-driven processes require more agile, continuous data processing as part of a DataOps approach to data management, with an increased focus on extract, load, and transform (ELT) processes, as well as change data capture and automation and orchestration. 

Data-driven organizations are increasingly thinking of the steps involved in extracting, integrating, aggregating, preparing, transforming, and loading data as a continual process that is orchestrated to facilitate data-driven analytics. By 2026, three-quarters of organizations will adopt data engineering processes that span data integration, transformation, and preparation, producing repeatable data pipelines that create more agile information architectures 

"The development, testing, and deployment of data pipelines is essential to generating intelligence from data," said Matt Aslett, VP and Research Director at Ventana Research. "Healthy data pipelines are necessary to ensure data is integrated and processed in the sequence required to generate business intelligence (BI). The need for more agile data pipelines is driven by the need for real-time data processing. More frequent data analysis requires data to be integrated, cleansed, enriched, transformed, and processed for analysis in a continuous and agile process.”

The Buyers Guide for Data Pipelines evaluates the following vendors that offer products that address key elements of data pipelines as we define it: Alteryx, AWS, Astronomer, BMC, Databricks, DataKitchen, dbt Labs, Google, Hitachi Vantara, IBM, Infoworks.io, Matillion, Microsoft, Prefect, Rivery, SAP, StreamSets and Y42.

The research finds IBM atop the list, followed by Microsoft and Alteryx. Companies that place in the top three of a category earn the designation of Leader. IBM and Microsoft have done so in four of the seven categories; Alteryx and Databricks in three; Google in two and AWS, DataKitchen, dbt Labs, Hitachi Vantara, and SAP in one category.

The research places vendors into one of four overall categories: Exemplary, Innovative, Assurance, or Merit. This representation classifies vendors’ weighted performance overall in Product Experience and Customer Experience. The vendors were awarded the following categories:

• Exemplary - Alteryx, AWS, Databricks, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and SAP.
• Innovative - DataKitchen and dbt Labs.
• Assurance - BMC and Matillion.
• Merit - Astronomer, Hitachi Vantara, Infoworks.io, Prefect, Rivery, StreamSets, and Y42.

This Ventana Research Buyers Guide for Data Pipelines is the distillation of over a year of market and product research efforts. It is an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings will address organizations' requirements for data pipeline software. The index is structured to support a request for information (RFI) that could be used in the RFP process by incorporating all criteria needed to evaluate, select, utilize, and maintain relationships with technology vendors. An effective product and customer experience with a technology vendor can ensure the best long-term relationship and value achieved from a resource and financial investment.

The structure of the research reflects our understanding that the effective evaluation of vendors and products involves far more than just examining product features, potential revenue, or customers generated from a vendor’s marketing and sales efforts. We believe it is important to take a comprehensive research-based approach since making the wrong choice of a data pipeline technology can raise the total cost of ownership, lower the return on investment, and hamper an organization’s ability to reach its potential performance. In addition, this approach can reduce the project’s development and deployment time and eliminate the risk of relying on a short list of vendors that do not represent the best fit for your organization.

"Data pipelines have provided the glue between operational and analytical systems for decades," said David Menninger, SVP and Research Director at Ventana Research. "During that time, the technology has changed considerably. Our research shows that the key requirements for today’s data pipelines include repeatability, reusability, and flexibility. This research will help organizations identify those vendors that best meet their data processing needs."

The Buyers Guide for Data Pipelines is neither sponsored nor influenced by technology vendors and is conducted solely in pursuit of Ventana Research's mission to provide value to business and IT through the Consulting, Advisory, Research, and Education (CARE) portfolio of services. Ventana Research's goal is to help guide organizations to optimal efficiency in their use of technology investments for business and IT. Please click here to learn more and read the Buyers Guide for Data Pipelines.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the most authoritative and respected market research and advisory services firm. We provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream and disruptive technologies through a unique set of research-based offerings including benchmark research and technology evaluation assessments, education workshops, and our research and advisory services, Ventana On-Demand. Our unparalleled understanding of the role of technology in optimizing business processes and performance and our best practices guidance are rooted in our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information, and technology across business and IT functions in every industry. This benchmark research plus our market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver education and expertise to our clients to increase the value they derive from technology investments while reducing time, cost, and risk.

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