Informatica Expands Microsoft, Google Cloud Partnerships For Data Management

‘We call ourselves the Switzerland of data. We partner very closely with the large cloud platforms like AWS or Azure or Google Cloud, and also the Snowflakes, Databricks, and Oracles of the world,’ says Informatica CEO Amit Walia.

Informatica, a provider of intelligent data management technology, is expanding its already deep relationships with cloud providers Microsoft and Google as part of a move to make it easier for enterprises who have been migrating to the cloud to take advantage of new ways to make intelligent use of their data.

Informatica Tuesday unveiled Master Data Management-as-a-service on Microsoft Azure to take advantage of the scalability offered by Azure.

The Redwood City, Calif.-based company also unveiled the Informatica Data Loader for Google BigQuery, which gives enterprises a way to load data into the Google Cloud at no charge to prepare it for analytics using the Google BigQuery cloud data warehouse.

[Related: Informatica Eyes $1 Billion Subscription ARR In 2022]

The new technologies were unveiled during Informatica World, which is being held this week in Las Vegas.

Informatica offers a cloud-native platform called Intelligent Data Management Cloud which provides cloud-native data management services, said CEO Amit Walia. The Intelligent Data Management Cloud is running in a scale of 32 trillion transactions a month, doubling every year, and is currently serving 5,000-plus customers, Walia told CRN.

Informatica already has a strong partnership with top cloud platforms, he said.

“We call ourselves the Switzerland of data,” he said. “We partner very closely with the large cloud platforms like AWS or Azure or Google Cloud, and also the Snowflakes, Databricks, and Oracles of the world.”

Walia, together with Scott Guthrie, executive vice president of Azure, used Informatica World to talk about a couple of developments between the two, including a SaaS version of Master Data Management running on Azure.

“We have a huge product called Master Data Management, which basically creates a 360-degree view of any customers, suppliers, product,” Walia said. “Large enterprises depend on it to run their business. And we will be announcing cloud-native Master Data Management running natively on Microsoft Azure. Microsoft has a big partnership with us already, but this allows both Microsoft and us to extend our cloud capabilities together to help our customers scale rapidly with their digital transformation initiatives to the cloud.”

The two also unveiled a deeper end-to-end integration of Informatica’s data governance capabilities with Microsoft’s Power BI product line, Walia said. “Very important for customers to govern their data, and through Power BI they can visualize and see all of that governance in action,” he said.

Informatica is also expanding its Google partnership with the introduction of Informatica Data Loader for Google BigQuery, which lets customers ingest data from 40-plus sources to their Google BigQuery cloud data warehouse at no extra charge.

A lot of customers have people who need easy access to Google to do analysis, and the new Informatica offering allows customers to rapidly load data into the Google platform and very quickly start analyzing it with no extra charge, Walia said.

“The goal here is to very rapidly in a matter of minutes load a lot of data using Data Loader into the Google platform for businesses to start analyzing data and making decisions and analysis of their businesses,” he said. “In a matter of minutes, they can get to analyzing data versus something that could take them weeks. And this is a zero-setup and a zero-cost offering. So basically, very quickly in a matter of minutes you‘re making decisions versus something that could take you weeks [where you might need to go to IT for help]. Business users can directly use this right away right out of the gate.”

Also new from Informatica is a wider range of industrial verticals for its Intelligent Data Management Cloud, or IDMC, cloud data platform, Walia said.

“Earlier this year, we announced IDMC for Retail,” he said. “At Informatica World, we will be announcing IDMC for Financial Services, IDMC for Healthcare, and IDMC for Life Sciences. That’s three industry flavors we’ll be announcing for our platform.”

Walia said Informatica plans to add more industry-specific capabilities.

“Our goal is to take a platform and make it very industry-specific to some of the large industries, so expect more from us for sure,” he said. “I can say [what comes next] right now. But expect more from us for sure. Financial services, retail, healthcare, and life sciences are four very big verticals. Expect more from us over time.”

All the new capabilities will be available to Informatica’s various indirect channels, including large global system integrators like Deloitte or Accenture, cloud service providers, distributors including value-added distributors, and solution providers, Walia said.

Informatica is showing it is doubling down on cloud providers like Azure and Google even as customers are moving to adopt a cloud-first approach to business, said Scott Holcomb, equity partner at New York-based Deloitte which has partnered for years with Informatica and currently has 5,000 practitioners trained on the platform.

“Migrating to the cloud is nothing new,” Holcomb told CRN. “But it remains a tremendous opportunity for service providers like Deloitte and companies like Informatica. We’ve been working with Informatica on increasing automation to drive more business to the cloud. It sounds easy, but it’s extremely difficult. Automating complex architectures is very complex. We see a lot of upstarts come in saying they can do it. But when we do bake-offs, we see nobody does it better than Informatica.”

A lot of the data migrated to the cloud is aimed at use in artificial intelligence, but while a lot of companies talk about A.I., a lot of proofs of concept don’t pan out, Holcomb said.

“In my experience, to unpack the data to use in A.I. is very difficult,” he said. “The key to unlocking it is in many of Informatica’s platforms. For example, MDM (Master Data Management) may not be sexy. But it enables data to be managed with full governance. Informatica is at a critical junction of unlocking enterprise A.I.”

General availability of Informatica’s new offerings is now. Live demonstrations were shown at Informatica World.