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Facilitate metadata management and SQL query sharing but user experience needs enhancement
What is our primary use case?
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I worked with Alation Data Catalog for one year, back in 2021.
How are customer service and support?
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.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Besides Alation Data Catalog, I evaluated Collibra, Power View, and Informatica.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the overall solution as 7.5 to 8.
Builds data catalogs with a proper business glossary and establishes data lineage
What is our primary use case?
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.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
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.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Alation Data Catalog for ten years. We are using solution V 2024.3.
How was the initial setup?
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.
What about the implementation team?
We have a separate team of admins who take care of the installation. It's quite friendly.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Microsoft Azure
Provides a nice interface for connecting to the database and querying the data
What is most valuable?
Alation Data Catalog provides a nice interface for connecting to the database, querying the data, and working on it.
What needs improvement?
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.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I usually recommend Alation Data Catalog to cost-conscious small and medium companies.
How are customer service and support?
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.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Positive
What other advice do I have?
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.
ALLIE AI feature is helpful, but we have had issues setting up the connectors
What is our primary use case?
We try to federate Alation Data Catalog from different parts of the project onto one platform.
What is most valuable?
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.
What needs improvement?
We have had issues setting up the connectors and getting Alation's support team to resolve issues.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Alation Data Catalog for six months.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Alation Data Catalog provides good stability.
I rate the solution’s stability an eight out of ten.
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
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.
What was our ROI?
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.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
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.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Private Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Amazon Web Services (AWS)
Used to query databases, but it is slower than other available tools
What is our primary use case?
We are using the solution to query databases.
What is most valuable?
The solution is used to query MySQL clients and store data and documentation.
What needs improvement?
It would be good if the tool could show the output from the records while querying.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Alation Data Catalog for one and a half years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
Sometimes, the solution's stability was low, but it was mostly fine.
I rate the solution’s stability a six out of ten.
What other advice do I have?
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.
Alation is Best in Class
What do you like best about the product?
Alation is extremely flexible and able to fit small to large organizations. They tread the perfect line between analytics and governance. Their vision perfectly aligns with our organization's data management vision of universally understood and trusted data available across the company.
What do you dislike about the product?
There is definitely some room for growth with lineage capabilities. Alation has been upfront with their plans to rapidly enhance lineage functionality.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We have plenty of data tribal knowledge in our organization. Alation is helping us document and set up processes that capture tribal knowledge and share it along with best practices to key individuals.
Has valuable workflow automation features, but the data migration capabilities could be better
What is our primary use case?
We primarily use the product as a data catalog tool to search for data assets like tables or columns.
What is most valuable?
The platform's most valuable features are workflow automation, automated business metadata tagging, technical metadata tagging, and data integration with data quality tools or platforms.
What needs improvement?
The product's data governance features need improvement.
For how long have I used the solution?
Our company has been using Alation Data Catalog for the last three years.
What do I think about the stability of the solution?
We encounter a few system outages. However, it might be because we have deployed in on-premises infrastructure. I rate the stability an eight out of ten.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
The product's data migration from on-premise to cloud infrastructure is not seamless. I rate the scalability a six out of ten.
How are customer service and support?
The technical support team takes longer to respond than expected for simple issues.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I have used a different solution in my previous organization.
How was the initial setup?
I was not involved in the initial setup process, but I think it was not that complicated. It took less than a week to complete.
What was our ROI?
Alation Data Catalog generates a return on investment for our organization.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The platform is moderately expensive compared to the other competitors in the market.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
We are evaluating different vendors. In comparison, Alation Data Catalog is not performing that well and is moderately expensive.
What other advice do I have?
Alation Data Catalog has improved discovery by addressing and searching particular data, including systems, tables, and columns. However, it could have been more helpful in the data governance aspect. They are about to introduce more features in that area. Its knowledge community is active; I rate it an eight.
I rate the overall product a seven out of ten.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
On-premises
Loving Alation
What do you like best about the product?
I appreciate Alation's user-friendly interface, which simplifies the process of finding and accessing data. Its intuitive design enhances productivity and efficiency in navigating through various datasets and reports. Additionally, the platform's robust search capabilities empower users to quickly locate relevant information, supporting informed decision-making. The collaborative features within Alation foster effective communication and knowledge sharing among team members, contributing to a more collaborative and cohesive working environment, which we'd love to take advantage of soon.
What do you dislike about the product?
While Alation offers many valuable features, there are a few areas where improvements could be made. One aspect that I find challenging is the complexity of setting up and configuring certain functionalities, such as customizing data governance policies or integrating with external tools. Streamlining these processes and providing clearer guidance would enhance the user experience and reduce the learning curve for new users. Additionally, although the platform offers extensive documentation and support resources, navigating through them can sometimes be overwhelming, leading to difficulties in finding specific information or troubleshooting issues. Simplifying the documentation structure and improving search functionality would greatly benefit users in efficiently accessing the help they need.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Alation addresses several critical challenges in data management, ultimately benefiting our organization in various ways. One key problem it solves is the lack of centralized and accessible data documentation. By providing a unified platform for cataloging and organizing data assets, Alation ensures that stakeholders can easily discover and understand available data resources, fostering collaboration and informed decision-making across teams. Additionally, Alation helps to promote data governance and compliance by enabling the implementation of standardized policies and procedures for data usage, lineage tracking, and access control. This not only enhances data quality and security but also mitigates risks associated with regulatory non-compliance or data breaches. Alation's automated data profiling and analysis capabilities also streamline the process of data discovery and validation, saving time and effort for data professionals. Overall, Alation's comprehensive suite of features empowers our organization to effectively manage and leverage its data assets, driving efficiency, productivity, and data-driven insights.
Amazing experience
What do you like best about the product?
Governance across the company is critical and we're slowly getting there. It's simple as a google search.
What do you dislike about the product?
Not as user friendly on the backend. Some things require research.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Nothing yet as we're still soft launching but long term, we want to solve for data trust and ease of finding things.
Product recommendation of Alation
What do you like best about the product?
Alation strives for the best industrial business solultions and offers wide range of collections in their ecosystems be it across different categories like Finance, healthcare, etc., Alation delivers the best product which is ease of use and provide number of features across their deliverables.
What do you dislike about the product?
Alation has great examples of showcasing business usecases to the clients by addressing and fostering their problems that they want to leverage. Highly recommended platform and there's no dislike takeaway since they provide ease of integration and ease of implementation in their own catalog.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Being a passionate machine learning developer, Alation provide their easy to implement ML and unity catalog to seamlessly integrate with hosted platforms on Databricks since most of my use-cases or projects is to solve real-time examples in healthcare and finance sector which benefits me to connect with Alation applications.
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