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Informatica Corp. is extending its alliance with Amazon Web Services Inc. today with the announcement of a new set of cloud data management services that are intended to make it easier for nontechnical users to upload and manipulate data in AWS’ Redshift cloud data warehouse.
Informatica said its Data Loader software, which is a free tool for loading data into a cloud warehouse, is now embedded directly into the Redshift Console to enable users to upload data from multiple sources quickly without the extensive cleansing and governance procedures that can stretch that process to days or weeks.
“Traditionally, loading data is a heavy-scale use case with IT involvement and governance,” said Informatica Chief Executive Amit Walia (pictured). “If I’m a departmental use, I don’t want all that complexity. Because Data Loader is natively integrated, it’s very easy to apply.”
Informatica said it’s targeting end users who want to experiment with data analysis but aren’t ready to put their workloads into operation. Data Loader is free to use up until an unspecified threshold, after which consumption-based pricing applies. “This is about reduced friction at the front end,” Walia said.
Simpler access to third-party data
To make it easier for users to access data from third-party sources, Informatica has also integrated its Cloud Data Marketplace with AWS Data Exchange, which is a repository of more than 3,000 data collection sets from more than 250 data providers available in a single, centralized interface. The Cloud Data Marketplace allows data from multiple sources to be organized into categories for browsing and ingestion by data consumers, with a data asset registry for inventorying available data sets and built-in governance.
“It’s a way for any user to shop for data in a very governed way,” Walia said. Informatica said it’s now the only vendor that packages both first- and third-party datasets in combination with AWS Data Exchange.
In an announcement aimed at data scientists and engineers, Informatica said it has integrated its Infacore headless data management platform with AWS’ SageMaker managed machine learning service. A headless platform is one that can be used with any front end. Infacore can be used to quickly build data pipelines and to simplify the process of consuming, transforming and preparing data from any source.
“Infacore is a developer-centric product that gives them all the capability of our Intelligent Data Management Cloud with the ability to code on top of it,” Walia said. “The native user interface is embedded within the AWS experience so developers can do all the jobs they need without going from one interface to another.”
Informatica also partners with Google LLC and Microsoft Corp. to deliver cloud services, but Walia wouldn’t say if the integrations announced today will be duplicated on those platforms.
Informatica and AWS have several hundred joint customers, the companies detailed today in conjunction with the release of the new features. The features join a number of existing integrations that the former company provides for AWS services.
In recent years, Informatica has made the public cloud a major focus of its sales growth strategy. The company’s cloud annualized recurring revenue jumped 39%, to $400 million, last quarter. The number of organizations that spend more than $1 million annually on Informatica’s products grew 50% during the quarter.
