Informatica: A Play for Greater Relevance in an Amazon Chess Game?
January 3, 2020
Informatica was set up in 1993. The company was private, then public, and now private. Its new CEO is a former McKinsey professional, a background which some may find reassuring and others terrifying. (McKinsey had a racketeering lawsuit dismissed. How does a consulting firm ensnare itself in an allegation of racketeering? I will leave it to you to answer that question.)
The big news, however, is that Informatica is making an attempt to retain its relevance and increase its impact among Fortune 1000 firms, investment banks, financial services firms, insurance companies, and other blue chip customers.
The method, its seems to DarkCyber, involves Amazon. Keep in mind that Informatica’s previous attempts to add some zing to its quarter century of database-related work involved Microsoft and Salesforce, both next big things.
According to “Informatica Aims to Better Track Data Lineage with AI-Powered Data Catalog,”
its AI-powered data catalog, called Catalog of Catalogs is notable because it is trying to track data lineage across ecosystems. Catalog of Catalogs includes metadata scanners for business intelligence, data warehouses, big data and third party repositories.
The “new” Informatica is represented in this graphic, which has a remarkable resemblance to Amazon Web Services blockchain diagrams:
Is this an Amazon diagram in recognizable AWS orange or an Informatica diagram?
There’s a hook to Amazon’s data marketplace technology, support for Amazon’s smart workflow, and the federation of metadata.
But what’s missing in this real news story?
- The write up makes zero reference to Informatica’s efforts to create new businesses designed to create value added data analysis tools in bustling and interesting Newark, New Jersey.
- Blockchain is missing in action, and the Informatica initiative seems to be ideal for that technology.
- An explanation of how Informatica will avoid Amazon lock in as it seems to hitch its repainted wagon to the Amazon Bezos bulldozer.
Perhaps a McKinsey wizard can avoid the chess game that Amazon is likely to play as its examines which of its partners is generating the most money for AWS?
Amazon has demonstrated that it is better at business chess than many other masters. What happens when checkmate looms: “Your prices for AWS are going up now.”
Is it possible that Informatica is acting from a limited set of options? Is Informatica’s innovation engine sputtering, nudging the company into the Amazon ecosystem? Will Amazon decide to eliminate intermediaries?
These are Amazon “basics” questions in the view of DarkCyber. Some Amazon customers know what “basics” really mean to Amazon.
Stephen E Arnold, January 3, 2019
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