Informatica moves to support cloud computing

Informatica, the data integration software company, has announced a new version of its data management platform. The 8.6 release will be available at the end of June, in both on-premises and hosted versions.

According to the company, Informatica 8.6 is the first toolset that will work with data from multiple software applications. The application suite will work with data regardless of the database, middleware or line of business application used by enterprises.

The new release also integrates support for data from cloud computing applications, from Google Apps to software-as-a-service (SaaS) implementations. The Informatica 8.6 platform includes PowerCenter and PowerExchange.

PowerCenter has been upgraded to a Real Time edition. This supports both conventional batch data capture, as well as "streaming changed data capture", a technology that allows Informatica-based data warehouses to bring in information from SaaS applications, as soon as changes are made.

"We allow you to access off-premises data through streaming data capture," said Sohaib Abassi. "It allows [customers] to deploy on cost-effective grid computing. And integrating with SaaS applications is as simple as accessing a consumer web site."

The company also announced a new B2B data exchange product line, which allows companies to share information with customers and suppliers.

According to Girish Pancha, executive vice president and general manager of Informatica's data integration business unit, the goal is to allow customers to do this with "no coding: no hardware no software and no services".

The new software includes B2B Data Transformation, to handle unstructured information, and B2B Data Exchange, which automates data exchange between organisations, and is based around XML. B2B Data Transformation supports files for office applications such as Microsoft Excel and Word, as well as semi-structured information such as SWIFT in financial services or HIPAA in health care.

The applications updates should, Abassi claimed, allow companies to close the data "value gap" by ensuring higher data quality, as well as making more and better use of the data businesses collect on day to day basis. "Seventy per cent of executives in large multi-national companies report that data is one of the most valuable corporate assets," he said. "But only 40 per cent of executives are using data as a competitive advantage."

IT PRO will publish a video interview with Informatica chief executive Sohaib Abassi later this week.

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