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.
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Facilitate metadata management and SQL query sharing but user experience needs enhancement
What is our primary use case?
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?
Neutral
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
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.
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.
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.
Allation Governor
What do you like best about the product?
Governance Materials and content and details on the governance topics
What do you dislike about the product?
Integrated with applications for lineages
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Governance and Data Catalogue
Great size of event
What do you like best about the product?
Knowledge about sensitive data and risks to org
What do you dislike about the product?
Another tool requried to be trained on and deployed
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
I'd of sensitive data in org
Driving a data community culture
What do you like best about the product?
My favorite feature of Alation is the lineage graph. We actively reference the lineage graph during our routine discussions in our organization.
Currently exploring the API and getting more familiar with the Health API
Currently exploring the API and getting more familiar with the Health API
What do you dislike about the product?
I'm looking forward to being able to catalog our ML models in the near future.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We're currently cataloging our customer and partner data and ensuring our stakeholders have a source of truth for all customer data references
Promising Opportunities
What do you like best about the product?
Alation provides many opportunities for data governance and innovation.
What do you dislike about the product?
New to Alation, so it would be great to see more relatable examples of the data integration from other companies.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Data integrity
Good conference
What do you like best about the product?
Workflow and feedback loops are the best
What do you dislike about the product?
No built in data quality engine so it's a half baked data intelligence product with integrations.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Discovery across hybrid environments
Great tool
What do you like best about the product?
Semantic Datacatalog search helps to find product catalogs easily
What do you dislike about the product?
Data Quality being integrated in tool, one of the key platform feature which is most waited
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Data Cataloging, effective technical Metadata management
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