The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q3 2024, is a guide to considering, evaluating, and selecting the right data catalog for mature data organizations. It evaluates 27 prominent enterprise data catalogs (EDCs), including Atlan, on capabilities for metadata management, data lineage, governance, data quality, UI/UX, and more.
The latest report is scheduled for release in Q3 2024. Meanwhile, let’s recap the current enterprise data catalog landscape and preview key insights.
The enterprise data catalogs landscape according to Forrester
Permalink to “The enterprise data catalogs landscape according to Forrester”Forrester defines an enterprise data catalog (EDC) as a centralized repository for organizing metadata, lineage, and quality information.
Enterprise data catalogs help map your entire data estate and simplify the discovery, understanding, and governance of data products for everyone.
The top use cases for EDCs include:
- Metadata management
- Data governance and compliance
- Data democratization and self-service
- Data analytics and business intelligence
EDCs deliver business value by promoting data democratization, self-service, and a culture of data sharing. This is why, when Forrester surveyed data and analytics decision-makers with purchase influence in 2023, 68% stated that their organizations were adopting enterprise data catalogs.
Forrester highlights that the market is driven by the need for data governance, regulatory compliance, and self-service.
The enterprise data catalog market is dynamic and fiercely competitive, with vendors increasingly consolidating functionalities like metadata management, data governance, and data quality under one roof.
Moreover, innovative capabilities — leveraging Gen AI and NLP to automate data discovery, cataloging, and recommendations — can be game-changers, offering an edge to EDC vendors.
With that context in mind, let’s explore the essential evaluation criteria for the Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Data Catalog, Q3 2024 report.
Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q3 2024 | Key evaluation criteria
Permalink to “Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q3 2024 | Key evaluation criteria”Forrester considers 24 key evaluation criteria grouped under current offering, strategy, and market presence:
- Current offering: The Y-axis represents the strength — weaker to stronger — of each solution provider’s current product offering. Evaluation parameters include capabilities such as metadata management, data products, lineage, governance, quality, and more.
- Strategy: The X-axis represents the strength of each provider’s strategy — product vision, market approach, performance, partner ecosystem, etc.
- Market presence: The circle size represents market presence — revenue, number of customers, and average deal size.
Forrester uses these three factors to list several key evaluation criteria and award scores to each enterprise data catalog provider. Providers receive a score from 1 to 5 (with 5 being the highest) for each criterion.
Current Offering
Permalink to “Current Offering”Forrester assigns a 5-10% ranking weight to 16 essential product capabilities that are must-haves in an enterprise data cataloging solution. These capabilities include:
- Metadata management
- Data products
- Data discovery and profiling
- Granular data lineage
- Governance, risk, and compliance
- UI/UX
- Deployment options and time-to-value
- Data quality and observability
- Monitoring and alerts
- Data privacy and security
- Workflow and task management
- Integration
- Collaboration capabilities
- Marketplace and exchange
- Real-time, IoT, and edge
- Advanced capabilities
Strategy
Permalink to “Strategy”Forrester assigns a 15-20% ranking weight to 6 defining criteria on EDC product strategy. These criteria include:
- Product vision
- Innovation strategy
- Roadmap
- Partner ecosystem
- Adoption strategy and retention rate
- Supporting services and offerings
Market Presence
Permalink to “Market Presence”Each market presence criterion receives a 50% weight, and these include:
- Revenue for the last four completed fiscal quarters
- Number of customers
Atlan, a Leader in Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q2 2022
Permalink to “Atlan, a Leader in Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q2 2022”The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Data Catalog, Q3 2024 report isn’t out yet. We’ll make it available to you right after Forrester releases it.
The last time Forrester published a report on Enterprise Data Catalogs (Q2 2022), Atlan was recognized as a Leader, receiving the highest score possible in 17 criteria, such as:
- Cataloging
- Data Intelligence
- DataOps & Engineering
- Product Vision
- Market Approach
- Innovation Roadmap
- Performance
- Connectivity, Interoperability, and Portability
“Atlan is the tool of choice for DataOps and data product deployment. Atlan’s extensive integration makes data sharing easy, flexible, and scalable within hybrid distributed ecosystems for analytics and operational use cases.” — The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Data Catalog for DataOps, Q2 2022
If you’re considering a third-generation data catalog for your organization, explore Atlan. As a comprehensive data and AI control plane, Atlan empowers you to discover, trust, and govern AI-ready data efficiently.
Join industry leaders like Nasdaq, Dr. Martens, Takealot, and Porto Seguro, who use Atlan to unlock the full potential of their data. Chat with us about how Atlan can transform your data operations and drive innovation.
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