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Today Ventana Research released its 2023 Buyers Guide for DataOps, a quantified, research-based report evaluating technology providers and products. The Buyers Guide assesses 18 vendors’ products using our Value Index methodology to evaluate software in seven key categories that are weighted to reflect buyers’ needs based on our expertise and research. The Buyers Guide focuses on the delivery of agile business intelligence (BI) and data science through the automation and orchestration of data integration and processing pipelines, incorporating improved data reliability and integrity via data monitoring and observability.

Interest in DataOps is growing. Ventana Research asserts that by 2025, one-half of organizations will have adopted a DataOps approach to their data engineering processes, enabling them to be more flexible and agile. A variety of products, practices, and processes enable DataOps, including products that support agile and continuous delivery of data analytics and continuous measurable improvement. An emphasis on agility, collaboration, and automation separates DataOps from traditional approaches to data management, which were typically based on tools and practices that were batch-based, manual, and rigid. 

While traditional data management vendors have adopted the term DataOps, many have adopted a broad definition that could be interpreted to encompass all products and services that address data management and data governance, including many traditional batch-based, manual products that do not support agile and continuous delivery and continuous measurable improvement. A narrower definition of DataOps focuses on the practical application of agile development, DevOps and lean manufacturing to the tasks and skills employed by data engineering professionals in support of data analytics development and operations. This definition emphasizes specific capabilities such as continuous delivery of analytic insight, process simplification, code generation, automation to avoid repeated errors and reduce repetitive tasks, the incorporation of stakeholder feedback and advancement, and measurable improvement in the efficient generation of insight from data.

“In addition to agile and collaborative data operations, we believe that DataOps products and services provide functionality that addresses a particular set of capabilities: the development, testing, and deployment of data and analytics pipelines; data orchestration and data observability,” said Matt Aslett, VP and Research Director at Ventana Research. “These are the key criteria that we used to assess DataOps products and services as part of this Buyer’s Guide, providing a set of criteria for agile and collaborative practices that products and services can be measured against.”

The Buyers Guide for DataOps evaluates the following vendors that offer products that address at least two of the three core areas of DataOps functionality (data pipeline development, testing and deployment; data pipeline orchestration; and data pipeline observability): Alteryx, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Astronomer, BMC, Databricks, DataKitchen, Google, Hitachi Vantara, IBM, Infoworks, Matillion, Prefect, Rivery, SAP, Stonebranch, StreamSets and Y42.

The research finds IBM atop the list, followed by DataKitchen and Microsoft. Companies that place in the top three of a category earn the designation of Leader. IBM has done so in five of the seven categories; Microsoft in four; Alteryx and Databricks in three; Google in two and Amazon Web Services, DataKitchen, Hitachi Vantara, and SAP in one category.

The research places vendors into one of four overall categories: Exemplary, Innovative, Assurance, or Merit. This representation classifies vendors’ weighted performance overall in Product Experience and Customer Experience. The vendors were awarded the following categories:

• Exemplary - Alteryx, AWS, BMC, Databricks, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and SAP.
• Innovative - DataKitchen.
• Assurance - Matillion.
• Merit - Astronomer, Hitachi Vantara, Infoworks.io, Prefect, Rivery, Stonebranch, StreamSets and Y42.

This Ventana Research DataOps Buyers Guide is the distillation of over a year of market and product research efforts. It is an assessment of how well vendors’ offerings will address organizations' requirements for DataOps software. The index is structured to support a request for information (RFI) that could be used in the RFP process by incorporating all criteria needed to evaluate, select, utilize, and maintain relationships with technology vendors. An effective product and customer experience with a technology vendor can ensure the best long-term relationship and value achieved from a resource and financial investment.

The structure of the research reflects our understanding that the effective evaluation of vendors and products involves far more than just examining product features, potential revenue, or customers generated from a vendor’s marketing and sales efforts. We believe it is important to take a comprehensive research-based approach since making the wrong choice of a DataOps technology can raise the total cost of ownership, lower the return on investment, and hamper an organization’s ability to reach its potential performance. In addition, this approach can reduce the project’s development and deployment time and eliminate the risk of relying on a short list of vendors that do not represent the best fit for your organization.

”The emergence of DataOps has created confusion in the market with terminology and capabilities,” said David Menninger, SVP and Research Director at Ventana Research. ”This Buyers Guide provides an objective and comprehensive analysis of vendors and products to help organizations assess their existing efforts and plan for new ones to modernize their data management infrastructure.”

The Buyers Guide for DataOps is neither sponsored nor influenced by technology vendors and is conducted solely in pursuit of Ventana Research's mission to provide value to business and IT through the Consulting, Advisory, Research, and Education (CARE) portfolio of services. Ventana Research's goal is to help guide organizations to optimal efficiency in their use of technology investments for business and IT. Please click here to learn more and to read the Buyers Guide for DataOps.

About Ventana Research

Ventana Research is the most authoritative and respected market research and advisory services firm. We provide insight and expert guidance on mainstream and disruptive technologies through a unique set of research-based offerings including benchmark research and technology evaluation assessments, education workshops, and our research and advisory services, Ventana On-Demand. Our unparalleled understanding of the role of technology in optimizing business processes and performance and our best practices guidance are rooted in our rigorous research-based benchmarking of people, processes, information, and technology across business and IT functions in every industry. This benchmark research plus our market coverage and in-depth knowledge of hundreds of technology providers means we can deliver education and expertise to our clients to increase the value they derive from technology investments while reducing time, cost, and risk.

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