Informatica has unveiled its latest cloud data integration suite, offering a variety of enhancements to help customers deal with the challenges of data integration that arise from increasing use of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications and cloud platforms.
The Informatica Cloud Fall 2010 release introduces a new Trust site, which provides Informatica Cloud customers with access to real-time performance and availability status of the multi-tenant service, the firm said. It also delivers updates, incident reports and maintenance schedules as well as historical details on integration jobs and transactions processed.
Dan Niemann, VP Informatica Cloud sales and business development, told CBR the new Trust site will help customers that are just beginning to explore cloud computing. "It was first pioneered by saleforce.com and we now allow our customers to see how the business is scaling and performing. It helps them understand how they are doing with Informatica and shows that we are comfortable with showing the metrics. SaaS and cloud vendors have to have a Trust site these days," he said.
Other new developments include expanded connectivity to include SAP, Web Services, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 and FTP endpoints. A number of new cloud integration plug-ins are available on Informatica’s app store-like Marketplace.
Task-level notification has also been introduced, so users can now receive email notifications for individual data synchronisation, data replication or data quality assessment tasks. Query options have also been improved, giving users the ability to retrieve data from specified standard and custom Salesforce CRM and Force.com objects, even if they have been deleted. Support has also been added for the Force.com Web Services API version 19, the company said.
Niemann added that one of the most significant updates is the improvement in support. Informatica has extended its Enterprise Support option to Informatica Cloud, offering 24/7 support in a number of different languages. Customers can also log in globally for self-service support.
"The market for cloud data integration is growing rapidly as SaaS application adoption continues to accelerate, leading to increasingly formidable data integration and governance challenges," said Ron Papas, general manager, Informatica Cloud. "’No software’ does not mean ‘no integration’ and companies from small businesses to global enterprises, rely on Informatica to increase adoption and gain more business value from cloud computing."
