On October 20, BARC hosted an interactive webinar with three historical data catalog vendors – Alation, Collibra, Informatica – and three challengers – dataspot, Synabi, Zeenea – to present their solutions. Zeenea won the public’s favor and was recognized by the consulting firm as the best solution for the democratization of data.
BARC Webinar: 6 data catalog products in direct comparison
Data catalogs enable organizations to leverage the value of their data assets. While there are many initiatives to implement and leverage a data catalog, few are effectively adopted and deployed within organizations. In an interactive webinar, BARC invited three historical market leaders – Alation, Collibra and Informatica – to the table, facing three challengers – Zeenea, dataspot and Synabi – to present their products in direct comparison. The session unfolded in three stages.
First, BARC presented the shortlist of vendors and demonstrated their software. A scenario was then introduced: how to select the best data cataloging solution in the context of a data democracy? The objective for the selected vendors was to demonstrate why their solutions best meet the ambition of creating a true data democracy and facilitate access to data by all catalog users in an organization.
The scenario as defined by BARC for the selection of the best data catalog provider
In a second stage, each vendor had 20 minutes to present its solution and demonstrate the differentiating characteristics of its offer. At Zeenea, it was Luc Legardeur – co-founder and VP International Sales – who took on the task with great enthusiasm. Each of them was able to answer questions from the live audience during the session.
Finally, BARC presented the best practices for selecting a data catalog and provided feedback on the products presented. The audience was then able to evaluate each solution using a rating system.
Watch the full webinar here: https://pages.barc.de/en/data-cataloging
The main strengths of Zeenea Data Catalog according to the audience
When the audience was asked to identify the top three strengths of each of the solutions presented, Zeenea came out on top in this friendly battle between the market’s leading data catalog providers. They particularly appreciated the user-friendliness and guidance offered to business users through the Zeenea Studio and Zeenea Explorer applications. The ease of data exploration within the catalog and the integration of data lineage in the solution were also highlighted.
Results of the live public vote on the top 3 strengths of the Zeenea software
Finally, the audience pointed out the flexibility of Zeenea’s software: the metamodel is not fixed but open and extensible to evolve and adapt to new business use cases in the company.
Zeenea: the data catalog that supports data democratization
The goal of the vendors participating in the webinar was primarily to demonstrate how their tool was able to support data democratization in organizations. So after each presentation, the audience was also asked to rate the product’s ability to implement data democratization on a scale of 1 to 10 (1=”no support”; 10=”full support”). Zeenea received the highest average score, and definitely dominated the competition ahead of historical players such as Informatica and Alation.
Results of the live public vote on data democracy
Analysis from Timm Grosser
Senior Analyst Data & Analytics at BARC
Overall feedback
“In my opinion, the presentation from Zeenea emphasized the easy extension of the metadata model. For example, it was shown how easy it is to add new “properties” to a data object and then make them available in analytics, searches, etc. without having to rework the metadata model or the application. Zeenea calls this concept the “organic data catalog”, a term I use myself to convey a similar meaning. The visual highlight was the discovery functions for objects and their dependencies.”
Zeenea wins the competition
“Zeenea, the only pure knowledge graph in the contest, was the best received by the audience. In my opinion, knowledge graphs are particularly interesting when metadata structures need to be flexible and extended. A useful side effect is that the metadata is equally comprehensible to humans and machines as correlations are stored directly in the graph and not in the application. In my opinion, knowledge graphs will therefore take a stronger position in modern data & analytics landscapes in the future, leading among other things to a reduction in information silos.”
To learn more about the concept of knowledge graphs, download our eBook:
BARC also notes that cloud solutions – like the one presented by Zeenea – are on the rise. A trend that allows for better use of shared services and computing power in the cloud as well as making the solutions easier to distribute.
Read the full analysis on the BARC blog:
- The Big Data Catalog Market Comparison – Part 1
- The Big Data Catalog Market Comparison – Part 2
- The Big Data Catalog Market Comparison – Part 3
About BARC
BARC (Business Application Research Center) is a German firm specializing in analysis and consulting in the field of enterprise software. Its areas of expertise include Business Intelligence and Analytics, Data Management, Content Management (ECM), Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP). BARC analysts have been providing strategic support to companies in their organization and software evaluation for over 20 years.
Website: http://barc-research.com/
If you would like to learn more about this webinar or to get more information about our Data Catalog:
