The Alation Data Intelligence Platform

I had several use cases for Alation Data Catalog . The number one is metadata management. Additionally, analysts and data analysts were asking how we can share the SQL queries easily in a platform. So it was very much useful because I did not find any other data catalog tool where you can save and even create SQL queries.

I found Alation Data Catalog  very useful for sharing SQL queries easily in a platform. Additionally, the platform is beneficial for technical users. For me, it was the only data catalog tool where I could save and even create SQL queries.

Alation Data Catalog is not user-friendly for business users. Its user experience is comparable to a Wikipedia page, lacking good visualization. In a fast-paced world, we need to grasp information quickly, and Alation does not facilitate that well. The platform needs improvement in integrating with BI tools, reducing manual efforts, and facilitating a smooth connection. Also, several use cases I presented, including certain configurations, were scheduled to be developed only in 2022, which did not meet my timeline.

I worked with Alation Data Catalog for one year, back in 2021.

Alation's technical support was responsive and heard my issues. However, they followed their own development roadmap. Many of my use cases were only scheduled for development in the future.

I changed the platform from Alation Data Catalog to Collibra  because Alation was not beneficial for my company as it primarily consists of business users. Collibra  was more user-friendly for business users.

The price difference between Alation Data Catalog and Collibra was not significant. Collibra is a little bit expensive than Alation, but I presented the benefits of having that platform, so that little bit of money was not a big deal.

Besides Alation Data Catalog, I evaluated Collibra, Power View, and Informatica.

I would rate the overall solution as 7.5 to 8.

We do the integration work for our multiple clients. Their problem is that many of their legacy systems lack a defined data or business glossary for their data attributes. First, they want to build a data catalog with a proper business glossary. Second, they aim to establish data lineage to track their data's transformations. Lastly, in some cases, they want to integrate data quality rules or business rules across the platform using Alation. These are the three main use cases they are looking to address.

The most valuable feature is cloud integration. It can automatically crawl and index various data sources on-prem or in the cloud. With 70 to 80 percent of enterprises operating in the cloud, the automatic crawling feature has proven to be one of the best.

When issues arise, two key concerns arise. First, how can we perform root cause analysis faster? Second, how can we optimize resource allocation, considering the associated costs? Every customer is focused on reducing the cost of computing and resources deployed in the cloud. These two aspects should be more stable. In a nutshell, data observability within Alation would be incredibly helpful for addressing these challenges.

I have been using Alation Data Catalog for ten years. We are using solution V 2024.3.

The initial setup is easy. If the business rules or governance policies are already drafted, implementing them for one system might take around six weeks.

 We work with the data governance team to configure the necessary rules and set up crawlers and workflows. 

I rate the initial setup an eight out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.

We have a separate team of admins who take care of the installation. It's quite friendly.

The key aspect is ensuring that any policy changes in data governance are translated into rules within Alation. For instance, if a new attribute, such as a private one like SSN, is added to a database, and a policy mandates SSNs be masked for the first eight characters, Alation will enforce that rule uniformly. This ensures that all SSN information columns are properly masked and aligned with the governance policy.

Data discovery is best achieved through crawling. If we need to build lineage around it—tracking how data flows from one system to another—some of that is automated. 

With Alation in place, from a business user's perspective, if they need to derive a calculated field, the system helps track where the data originates. The entire transformation is captured in the data lineage from the source to the actual KPI value. This often involves multiple systems where the same attribute might change. Lineage becomes especially important during regulatory audits, where you're asked to explain how a KPI was derived. If the lineage is built into Alation, retrieving and providing that information is accessible. Without it, you'd have to analyze how the KPI was calculated each time manually.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

Public Cloud

Microsoft Azure

Alation Data Catalog provides a nice interface for connecting to the database, querying the data, and working on it.

Although the solution performs far better in terms of data cataloging, its data governance capabilities need improvement.

It would be helpful if the solution included data classification and an easier streamlining of the process of workflow creation.

I usually recommend Alation Data Catalog to cost-conscious small and medium companies.

The solution's technical support needs to be improved across the board, especially in lineage and other aspects. Sometimes, we find it difficult to identify the people with respective tool knowledge. It’s a bit difficult to identify resources for Alation.

Positive

Alation Data Catalog is another data catalog product gaining momentum in small and medium financial institutions. The solution's data discovery and enabling the data marketplace improves productivity.

The solution has an AI-based metadata curation model, but I'm unsure how effective it is. I know Alation Data Catalog has some AI functionalities that they're cataloging to leverage.

Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.

We try to federate Alation Data Catalog from different parts of the project onto one platform.

The solution's most valuable feature is the ALLIE AI feature. The features are generally the same across all data governance tools I've had experience with, including OpenMetadata, Alation, and Collibra.

We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues.

I have been using Alation Data Catalog for six months.

Alation Data Catalog provides good stability.

I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.

I have previously worked with OpenMetadata and Collibra. From my reading and research knowledge, Collibra seems to be more stable on the connectors and security side. I still have to explore Collibra's federation part. Collibra is already FedRAMP certified, whereas Alation Data Catalog is in the process of attaining its FedRAMP certification.

We saw a return on investment with Alation Data Catalog on the federation side. We could bring everything to one place for the organization to know about the data assets, and the solution helped us integrate the knowledge.

I don't have all the details on the pricing side, but the solution was more expensive than originally expected.

On a scale from one to ten, where one is cheap and ten is expensive, I rate the solution's pricing an eight out of ten.

I haven't explored the solution's data lineage capabilities much. However, I have heard that there are some difficulties with getting the lineage to work, as it doesn't properly pull the information in. The solution provides automation, metadata descriptions, and tags. I would recommend the solution to other users because it's a stable product and an industry leader.

Overall, I rate the solution a seven out of ten.

Private Cloud

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

We are using the solution to query databases.

The solution is used to query MySQL clients and store data and documentation.

It would be good if the tool could show the output from the records while querying.

I have been using Alation Data Catalog for one and a half years.

Sometimes, the solution's stability was low, but it was mostly fine.

I rate the solution’s stability a six out of ten.

We had no issues integrating the solution with Redshift. Alation Data Catalog is a good tool for analytics, but we need to go for some other tools for reporting. Alation Data Catalog is mostly a tool for querying. We need to integrate it with other third-party tools for reporting.

Redshift, AWS, and MySQL tools are better than Alation Data Catalog for querying purposes. MySQL and Databricks are visually appealing and faster tools than Alation Data Catalog.

Even though Alation Data Catalog is a free tool, we can check other available tools. If other tools perform well, we can choose them over Alation Data Catalog.

Overall, I rate the solution a six out of ten.