The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q3 2024 | Available Now

Updated September 28th, 2024
header image

Share this article

The wait is over! The market-defining Forrester Wave™ report on enterprise data catalogs is out.

Forrester recently published The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q3 2024, evaluating 12 data catalog solutions, including Atlan.

All platforms were evaluated across 24 criteria, which included Data discovery and profiling, Data quality and observability, Governance, risk, and compliance, Data lineage, and Data privacy and security.

This marks a big change for Data Catalogs, with the Forrester report stating that “Enterprise Data Catalogs (EDCs) are witnessing a transformation” driven by Gen AI, fragmented data estates, diverse user needs, and business-critical use cases.

The report shows how each provider stacks up and helps AI, data, and analytics professionals select the right fit for their organizations and use cases.

Atlan was named a leader in the report, scoring highest in the Current Offering and Strategy categories. According to the report, Atlan is an “unparalleled partner” for “organizations aiming for democratization and AI-enhanced self-service to governed data.”

In this article, we’ll give you a quick overview of the report, guide you on how to read it, and include the full report for you to download.

Table of contents #

  1. Forrester Wave™ enterprise data catalogs: 3 key attributes
  2. Forrester Wave™: Evaluation overview
  3. Atlan a Leader in The Forrester Wave™ Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q3 2024
  4. Conclusion
  5. Related reads

Forrester Wave™ enterprise data catalogs: 3 key attributes #

Forrester guides data, analytics and AI practitioners to note that comprehensive data and AI cataloging is the first step to AI readiness. As per the report, “…customers seek solutions that can bridge the gap between complex datasets, governance, business insights, and AI enablement.”

So, what makes for a comprehensive data catalog solution? Forrester asks enterprises to look out for solutions providers that:

Automatically catalog the entire technology, data, and AI ecosystem #


Intelligent EDCs automate cataloging beyond traditional databases to include cloud storage, SaaS platforms, IoT devices, unstructured data, and AI/ML repositories. Features like automated metadata harvesting and cross-platform semantic mapping ensure comprehensive data governance, compliance, and use across the organization.

Put AI and automation first #


Modern EDCs integrate AI, ML, and automation to enhance traditional cataloging processes, offering capabilities such as AI-assisted data discovery, ML-driven profiling, and automated anomaly detection. This streamlines data governance, improves data quality, and accelerates time to value.

Prioritize data democratization and self-service #


EDCs should provide user-friendly interfaces with natural language processing and generative AI to make data accessible to both technical and business users. Features like self-service data exploration, personalized views, and seamless BI integration empower users to independently leverage data for informed decision-making.

Forrester Wave™: Evaluation overview #

These three key attributes form the basis of the 24 criteria Forrester used to evaluate the top 12 enterprise data catalogs. Below, we provide a comprehensive list of these criteria and their high-level categories.

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 #


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 #


Each market presence criterion receives a 50% weight, and these include:

  • Revenue for the last four completed fiscal quarters
  • Number of customers

To know exact scores and standing of solution providers across all criteria 👉 See full report here.

Atlan was named a Leader in The Forrester Wave™ Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q3 2024 #

Atlan secured the highest score possible in 15 criteria, including Governance, risk, and compliance, Data lineage, and Adoption. We believe these scores are due to Atlan’s AI-powered catalog, commitment to partnership over mere vendor status, and vision for data and AI governance. Here are some of our highlights from the report that, in our opinion, showcase why Atlan is a leader in this field.

An automated, personalized & AI-ready data catalog #


Atlan was ranked highest in the Current Offering category, with highest possible scores in 11 criteria, such as Metadata management and Data lineage. Atlan was also the only company to score highest in the Governance, risk, and compliance criteria.

The Forrester report stated that Atlan’s “Third-Gen data catalog is quickly outpacing established players by … addressing strategic customer needs through automation” and Atlan “differentiates itself with a personalized, AI-driven catalog…”.

Committed to being a partner, not just a vendor, to visionary organizations #


Atlan is the only vendor to receive top scores in the Adoption and Deployment and time-to-value criteria.

Today Atlan partners with the world’s leading organizations, like Autodesk, General Motors, and Hubspot, on their data governance journey to AI readiness.

When it comes to Atlan’s partnership approach, the Forrester report states, “organizations aiming for democratization and AI-enhanced self-service to governed data will find Atlan to be an unparalleled partner,” and “Reference customers praise the dedicated attention to their needs…”.

The data and AI control plane, powered by metadata #


After working with visionary data teams across various industries—such as manufacturing (General Motors), banking (North American Bancard), and technology (Nasdaq and Autodesk)—Atlan has recognized that each organization handles data uniquely. For data teams, diverse approaches are a feature, not a flaw.

With the highest scores possible in the Vision, Innovation, and Roadmap criteria, Atlan is confident in its mission to build a data and AI control plane powered by active metadata. Atlan’s platform offers complete configurability, interoperability, and openness to support every data team in every industry, no matter how unique or complex their needs.

Forrester describes Atlan as “a visionary player with a clear, ambitious goal: to become the data and AI control plane enabling complex business use cases.”

Excited to read the full report? 👉 See full report here.

Conclusion #

The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Data Catalogs, Q3 2024, provides enterprise customers with guidance on selecting the best data catalog solution to manage the velocity, variety, and volume of data in their organization. The report is based on a 24-criterion evaluation of enterprise data catalog providers. The most significant vendors were identified, researched, analyzed, and scored. To understand the vendor inclusion criteria, detailed scoring across each criterion, and Forrester’s view of the enterprise data catalog landscape, download the full report here.

Share this article

[Website env: production]