The 28 Best Data Integration Software Tools for 2018
Like many of the categories we cover at Solutions Review, the one constant always seems to be change. Traditional data integration providers continue to offer legacy capabilities for bulk/batch, message-oriented movement, and replication. However, the space has split into two distinct categories, one for on-prem tools, and the other for cloud-based Integration Platform as a Service (iPaaS).
Traditional products, like those offered by HVR Software, IBM, and Adeptia, still reign supreme in large, enterprise settings, but face increased competition from cloud SaaS vendors such as Dell Boomi, Jitterbit, and SnapLogic. In an attempt to assist you with what can become a daunting task of selecting the right product, these are the top-28 best data integration software tools for 2018.
Actian DataConnect allows organizations to integrate with cloud, on-prem, mobile, or IoT data using hundreds of pre-built connectors. DataCloud enables users to connect to any endpoint and automatically expand service reach on-demand. Last April, Actian released Actian X, a hybrid database that combines the Actian Ingres OLTP database with its Vector query engine. The company unveiled Apache Spark support in its Vector in Hadoop tool shortly after. Actian offers a niche selection of data integration and data management tools.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Adeptia offers a broad spectrum of data integration capabilities in several deployment methods. Its traditional, on-prem product is considered to be one of the best in the market. However, Adeptia’s cloud-based Integration Platform as a Service product has not yet been recognized in the same breath as its competitors. Adeptia’s tools are also lacking in interoperability with other data management solutions. However, what Adeptia does, it does well, and buyers report that the company’s integration tools are attractively priced compared to other providers in the space.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Attunity is one of the few providers in the marketplace to offer above average on-prem and cloud data integration products. Its suite of traditional solutions includes virtually every major tool type. CloudBeam is offered through Amazon Web Services and the Azure Marketplace in a unique instance for each customer. Attunity’s cloud iPaaS product is big data-centric, offering integrations for Hadoop, Spark, and Kafka.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Built.io enables anyone to connect any tool through its cloud-based integration service. The company offers solutions for both citizen integrators and IT administrators. The enterprise version features thousands of pre-built integrations, and additional integrations are added on-demand by the vendor. Flow provides an intuitive drag-and-drop user interface, advanced debugging, and a code editor for Node.js custom code. Built.io was included in analyst house Gartner Inc.’s most recent Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Celigo has targeted the middle enterprise market for NetSuite and Salesforce environments. Its integrator.io platform is ad hoc integrator-centric and developed for line-of-business users. Celigo has focused in on the North American market, and as a result, is not the best choice for organizations outside the continent. The Data Loader features advanced capabilities like dynamic search and calculations that will append, concatenate, or format data during import. 2017 saw Celigo eclipse more than 1,000 customers.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Dell Boomi’s portfolio of data and API integration software is available on a common technology platform. The company’s capabilities span a number of different use cases, and organizations have the ability to tailor specific features to their deployment on a per-need basis. Boomi provides standardized and certified connectors to integrate enterprise applications like Oracle E-Business Suite, SAP Business Suite or NetWeaver. A December 2017 AtomSphere update added new integration accelerators and features to expand security and compliance.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
The Denodo Platform offers data virtualization for joining multistructured data sources from database management systems, documents, and a wide variety of other big data, cloud, and enterprise sources. Connectivity support includes relational databases, legacy data, flat files, CML, packed applications, and emerging data types including Hadoop. Denodo also offers self-service data preparation capabilities. Although Denodo’s traditional integration capabilities are lackluster, it remains one of the top data virtualization solutions.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Hitachi Vantara’s Pentaho platform for data integration and analytics offers traditional capabilities and big data connectivity. The solution supports the latest Hadoop distributions from Cloudera, Hortonworks, MapR, and Amazon Web Services. However, one of the tool’s shortcomings is that its big data focus takes attention away from other use cases. Pentaho can be deployed on-prem, in the cloud, or via a hybrid model. The tool’s most recent update, Pentaho 8, features Spark and Kafka stream processing improvements and security add-ons.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
HVR Software operates under the radar in the data integration marketplace due to the dominance of several larger solution providers. The company’s product portfolio is made up of largely traditional technologies. However, support for Hadoop and data lake integration are welcomed additions. HVR’s geographic distribution capabilities via multi-directional data replication also stand out to us. In June 2017, Database Trends and Applications named HVR Software one of the 100 Companies That Matter Most in Data.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
IBM’s data and analytic product portfolio is expansive, and the vendor offers a tool for virtually every enterprise use case. The company continues to pool resources to expand its core data management and governance capabilities, including data quality. In addition, IBM’s iPaaS is widely considered one of the best in the marketplace, and the provider plans to add additional functionality to the solution in the months ahead. IBM is an excellent choice for enterprise settings.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
iCEDQ assists organizations in being more productive with data integration, migration, and other data-centric projects and operations. The platform brings a holistic approach to data testing, quality assurance controls, and monitoring from project planning, building, and data operations. It features a high-performance and scalable in-memory rules execution engine that validates large datasets to meet demanding and stringent SLAs. Its included suite of modules and automation capabilities lower implementation costs and hasten deployment.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Informatica offers an expansive portfolio of data management tools in various deployments. The vendor’s customer base is more than 7,000 organizations. Informatica touts strong interoperability between its growing list of software solutions, and the AI-powered CLAIRE engine is an intriguing add-on to the existing platform. Analyst house Gartner, Inc. named Informatica a leader in both the Data Integration Tools and Enterprise Integration Platform as a Service space this past year.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Information Builders received a growth equity investment from Goldman Sachs in May 2017. The company unveiled feature enhancements to InfoSearch, Omni Data Quality Workbench, prescriptive analytics, and usage monitor shortly after. Information Builders offers an expansive portfolio of big data integration products, as well as more forward-thinking capabilities for data quality and data preparation. Although it still provides traditional integration technologies like support for ETL, the company’s focus is clearly on modern integration products.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
IRI’s Voracity hastens and combines the complete data management lifecycle capabilities that are essential to data and BI/data warehouse architects who need Eclipse-front-ended big data discovery, integration, migration, governance, and analytics. The solution also offers embedded reporting and data preparation for analytics, and features to help clean, mask, and organize ODS, EDH, EDW, LDW, and data lakes. Database Trends and Applications named IRI to its 100 Companies That Matter Most in Data in July, 2017.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Jitterbit’s Harmony platform is an Integration Platform as a Service product that provides connectivity to cloud and on-prem environments. The vendor’s API transformation capabilities are expansive, and allow organizations to create, run, secure, and manage APIs and microservices using the cloud. APIs can also be infused with artificial intelligence. Jitterbit raised $25 million in venture capital last year to grow its sales and service teams, as well as expand its international presence.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Liaison’s product is an alternative to integration models such as ESB or iPaaS. Its ALLOY platform allows organizations to integrate, transform, harmonize, manage, and secure data on-prem and in the cloud. The solution features flexible document formats, real-time visibility, and the ability to deploy Liaison as a fully managed service. Benefits of the managed service deployment range from shorter document cycles to enhanced compliance. Liaison also earned a number of data and regulatory compliance awards, including for GDPR, in December.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Microsoft offers an almost dizzying number of data integration solutions for virtually every enterprise and citizen integrator use case. The company’s data platform is expansive and features a suite of tools that allow organizations to manage the full lifecycle of mission-critical data. SSIS can extract, transform, and consolidate data from multiple relational databases and sources such as XML data files and flat files, and then load the processed information into an enterprise data warehouse or other large target system. Microsoft, as one would expect, is an excellent choice for large enterprise deployments.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
MuleSoft’s Anypoint product features far-reaching API management capabilities that span creation, publishing, integration, and cloud messaging. Anypoint’s portfolio of connections is crowdsourced, and integrations with the solution can be made both on-prem and in the cloud. MuleSoft updated its flagship platform with enhancements for line-of-business users in last May. According to analyst house, Gartiner, Inc., MuleSoft offers some of the best customer support in the marketplace. However, the solution is complex, and may not be the best fit for ad hoc integrators.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Oracle offers a half-dozen traditional data integration products that range in enterprise functionality. The company’s cloud iPaaS tools come in two editions, one for ad hoc integrators and another for more advanced users. Oracle also does business in the API management and managed file transfer marketplaces. 2017 saw Oracle deliver many enhancements to its integration solutions, including self-service features based off integrated natural language processing and machine learning.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
SAP’s data integration tools can be utilized across a wide array of uses cases. The vendor’s data management capabilities are far-reaching, and encompass data preparation, metadata management, and governance. SAP’s product portfolio also features excellent interoperability for enterprise deployments. The company recently added IoT integration, data quality, and high-performance messaging to its cloud integration tool. The only thing holding SAP back from emerging as a major player in the market is the perception that SAP’s tools don’t integrate well with others.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
SAS offers data integration functionality for a number of enterprise use cases. It requires little knowledge of the data or SQL required to surface it. SAS also features a multithreaded read interface, threaded kernel technology, and native APIs to Oracle, DB2 and Teradata. In addition, it allows users to analyze big data while it’s in motion via Event Stream Processing, a tool that helps discern patterns in text and structured streaming data. Data virtualization, Hadoop connectivity, and the SAS Decision Manager are some of the tool’s forward-thinking technologies. However, SAS still does not offer an iPaaS product.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Scribe Software’s Integration Platform as a Service product has been recognized by the leading analyst houses for its ease of use, breadth of connectivity options, and lifecycle management capabilities. The company recently unveiled a new developer portal that provides access to an updated SDK with a full suite of sample integrations and reference applications. Scribe’s new developer program allows developers to build custom connectors for any enterprise application through the Scribe Online Marketplace.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
SnapLogic offers an expansive set of native iPaaS capabilities to support a variety of use cases. Enterprise Integration Cloud features a web-based user interface for both IT and line-of-business users. The platform includes over 400 pre-built connectors, and the Monitoring Dashboard provides visibility into the health of cloud integrations with system performance dashboards, drill-down capabilities, triggered event notifications, and Iris AI-based recommendations. SnapLogic’s market focus makes it an excellent choice for enterprise deployments.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Striim allows organizations to integrate, analyze, and visualize streaming data across the cloud, big data, and IoT devices. The solution provides users with the capabilities to build data pipelines for big data integration, cloud migration and integration, and detect cybersecurity threats, fraud, and other operational risks and opportunities. Striim is a viable choice for a wide array of use cases, and connects to all the most popular enterprise sources and targets.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Syncsort offers both legacy ETL and integration with big data sources like Hadoop. The company recently updated the change data capture capabilities inside its flagship tool to enable Hadoop data lake population with changes to mainframe data. Syncsort unveiled Trillium Quality for Big Data in September on the heels of its late-2016 acquisition of Trillium Software. Syncsort’s ETL capabilities are expansive, and inclusion of its new data quality product makes it one of the more interesting vendors in the space.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Talend has beefed up its data management capabilities in recent months, and now offers perhaps the broadest product portfolio of any vendor in the market. The company’s data preparation functionality and support for multi-cloud environments are welcomed additions. In September, Talend unveiled a new governance and compliance tool to assist organizations in preparing for the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). With a strong portfolio for a number of data integration use cases, Talend remains a major player in the data integration landscape.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
TIBCO offers a fully integrated data platform that can handle a variety of data integration use cases. The company’s acquisition of Cisco’s data virtualization technologies rounds out its product portfolio even further. TIBCO’s integration solution can be deployed on-prem, in the cloud, or via a hybrid model. Cloud-native application integration, API management, IoT connectivity and an eye on evolving customer needs has TIBCO’s arrow pointing straight up.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.
Workato’s application integration product features a dizzying number of connectors for virtually every major business application. The solution offers an array of customizable integrations as well. When retrieving large volumes of data, Workato connectors use cursors to transparently process data in batch to optimize resource consumption. The tool also provides a secure agent for on-prem integration with databases, ERP files, applications, and custom apps.
For an even deeper breakdown of each provider listed, consult our buyer’s guide.