Alation Named a Leader in 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Metadata Management Solutions for the Second Year in a Row

Redwood City, CA – August 14, 2018 – Alation Inc., the data intelligence company, today announced it has been named a Leader for the second consecutive year in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Metadata Management Solutions. Metadata management is becoming more critical to data-driven organizations as a foundation for both business-oriented and technical data and analytics projects. Alation’s machine-learning data catalog represents a new approach to metadata management that brings value directly to the business user, who is relying on data and analytics to make decisions.

According to Gartner, “The growing need for data governance, risk and compliance, data analysis and data value still drives strategic requirements in metadata management and the growth of its solutions.”*

Metadata management has become a critical business investment as data leaders, like chief data officers, seek to govern and maximize the value of the influx of data at their disposal. According to Gartner, “By 2020, most data and analytics use cases will require connecting to distributed data sources, leading enterprises to double their investments in metadata management.”* As a broader range of users are leveraging data from an increasing number of sources for decision-making, more organizations are turning to the Alation Data Catalog to manage their technical and business metadata.

“Metadata management solutions must be dynamic and agile enough to meet the needs of today’s data-driven organizations. Static repositories will no longer suffice,” said Satyen Sangani, CEO of Alation. “The Alation Data Catalog provides the single-source of reference for the enterprise. Over time our customers, including eBay, Munich Re and Pfizer, have moved from using a data catalog, to organizing departmental metadata for analytics and data governance, to using the Alation Data Catalog as their enterprise metadata management solution.”

Alation uses machine-learning algorithms to automatically analyze technical and business metadata and use this information to make real-time data recommendations for self-service analytics users. Together this combination improves analyst productivity, increasing the accuracy of analysis with automated data governance and saving teams the tedious work of manual documentation.

According to a Gartner July report, The State of Metadata Management, “IT-led traditional metadata management practices and solutions are being completely transformed by more automated and collaborative approaches involving business roles.”**

Alation recently invested in two programs that support enterprise-wide data catalog deployments. Recently, Alation announced the launch of the Alation Partner Program, which focuses on making it easier for customers to find leading regional systems integrators and technology partners with metadata management, data governance and self-service analytics expertise. In addition, Alation Accelerate is a new training program, developed in partnership with Eckerson Group, that supports data and analytics leaders with courses on curating and cataloging data, rethinking data governance and establishing an enterprise data marketplace.

*Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Metadata Management Solutions, Guido De Simoni, Alan Dayley, Roxane Edjlali, 9 August 2018 **Gartner, The State of Metadata Management, Roxane Edjlali, Guido De Simoni, 31 July 2018

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