Alation Named a Leader in The Forrester Wave^™: Data Governance Solutions, Q3 2021

I’m pleased to share that Alation has been named a data governance leader in the new report, The Forrester Wave™: Data Governance Solutions, Q3 2021. In fact, Alation received the highest score in the current offering category. This recognition from Forrester is gratifying, as we feel it aligns with the success our customers are having with Alation and their data governance programs.

“Alation is a top choice for clients requiring class-leading data discovery, access, and cataloging capabilities to realize their data governance initiative,” writes Achim Granzen, the report author.*

We believe our placement in this Wave is a powerful affirmation of our unique approach to active data governance. We believe data governance should:

• Start with people and govern their behavior vs. simply locking down access to data

• Be collaborative vs. bureaucratic

• Benefit from iteration and improvement – waterfall approaches simply don’t work

Done right, data governance should help foster a data culture, empowering people to discover and use the data they need to solve their most pressing business challenges.

Class-Leading Capabilities

The report evaluated 12 data governance solution providers, scoring them based on 31 criteria. Alation received the highest possible scores in 17 criteria, including data discovery & access, data governance management, solution vision, planned enhancements, innovation roadmap, and product revenue; and tied for the highest score in the stewardship management criterion.

Every data question begins with search. Indeed, a user’s ability to find great data quickly can have an exponential impact on a project’s success. This is why we’re proud to highlight that Alation secured the highest possible data discovery & access score in this report, which found: “Alation’s capabilities in data discovery and access as well as data usage and collaboration are highlights.”

User-friendly search democratizes data for people with diverse backgrounds and skillsets, from data analysts to scientists and engineers, to business users whose jobs depend on data. And by embedding user feedback, like conversations and comments about a given asset where that asset resides, folks can collaborate around data with ease.

Customers Like Alation for Ease of Use & Deployment

One of our company values is “Measure Ourselves Through Customer Impact”. Feedback from actual vendor clients was a key input Forrester relied on as part of the scoring for this Wave. This quote from the report is emblematic of our approach:

“[Clients] cite the solution’s ease of deployment and ease of use for both business and IT audiences, its connectivity, and its API framework as key decision factors.”

In particular, driving ease of use for both business and IT audiences, is central to our mission. Enterprise-wide adoption of any new product or service can be challenging, but our focus on delivering consumerized experiences in an enterprise-grade data catalog and governance platform is a big part of why customers choose Alation.

Our design principles drive rapid onboarding and adoption for a range of users, from analysts to data scientists and IT experts. In fact, customers report benefits within just weeks of launching Alation.

Many Alation customers have shared their data governance success stories, including:

• Riot Games leverages non-invasive data governance with Alation to guide accurate, well-governed data usage and scale rapidly to support League of Legends, the world’s #1 PC game.

• Fifth Third Bank uses Alation as its data marketplace for curation and consumption, leveraging active data governance to promote data literacy across the enterprise.

• Cisco delivers a superior digital experience for customers with Alation. Active data governance enables them to drive business value, democratizing data and mitigating risk.

Alation Is a Recognized Leader

Forrester’s recognition of Alation as a leader is, in our opinion, part of a running theme. In the report, The Forrester Wave: Machine Learning Data Catalogs, Q4 2020, the independent analyst firm named Alation a Leader, granting us the highest scores possible in 26 criteria, as well as the highest score in the strategy category.

Just last month, Alation was recognized as Snowflake’s Data Governance Partner of the Year. We were also recently named a leader in the inaugural GigaOm Radar Report for Data Catalogs. And in the latest Dresner Wisdom of Crowds® Data Catalog Market Study, Alation was crowned a leader, as well.

Big Things Ahead

We’re equally pleased that Forrester gave Alation the highest possible score in the solution vision, planned enhancements, and innovation roadmap criteria. Not only do we consider this high praise for the current product, but a hint that more innovation is on the horizon. Watch this space! I can’t wait to share more about what we’re up to very soon…

This report arrives at an exciting time of growth for Alation. Just last month, we announced the company had raised $110 million in Series D financing, which will allow us to build out further governance enhancements to better support our customers.

We’re just getting started. In the immortal words of Jeff Bezos, it’s always Day 1 at Alation.

*The Forrester Wave: Data Governance Solutions, Q3 2021