Informatica is the leader in data integration technology. But it will make us so curious. Therefore, there will be always so much buzz around this. Also, most importantly we should know what is the Informatica. First, let us see the answer for this question. In this article we see about this very clearly. From this you can understand the concept from this topic.
What is Informatica?
It will have several products. It will focus on the data integration. Informatica PowerCenter is the product of flagship. This is especially in the portfolio. It has become so popular. The Informatica PowerCenter is now act as the synonymous to Informatica. So, when we use Informatica, it essentially means Informatica PowerCenter. The Informatica is a data integration tool. This tool will base on the architecture of the ETL. It will provide the data integration software as well as the services. This is for the following sectors. They are,
- Various businesses.
- Industries.
- Government sectors.
- Telecommunication.
- Health care.
- Financial.
- Insurance services.
Now, let us look at some of the main key of the metrics. This is to understand why the Informatica is as a leader. This is especially in the technology of the data integration.
Informatica Key Metrics:
Following are a few stats. This will reflect the growth in the demand. It is especially for the Informatica certification quite accurately. They are,
- 2015 Revenue: $1.06 billion, more than the combined revenue of Abinitio, datastage, SSIS, and other ETL tools.
- 7-year Annual CAGR: 30%.
- Partners: 450+.
- Major SI, ISV, OEM as well as On-Demand Leaders.
- Customers: Over 5,000.
- Customers in 82 countries as well as direct Presence in 28 countries.
- # 1 in customer loyalty rankings, 7 years in a row.
The above indicator clearly establishes the fact. There will be a great demand of Informatica. This is across the globe. But it is equally important to understand what kind of problem this will solve. There are those problems critical to a business enterprise. To understand what is Informatica and its importance. We must first understand following 3 things. They are,
- What is the context in which Data Integration will use?
- What is ETL?
- Why Informatica as well as what are its real-life app?
Context behind ETL:
Now-a-days every company processes a huge set of data. They come from varied sources. They will need to be processed to give the insightful information. This is for making the business decisions. But quite often such data has the following challenges. They are,
- Large companies with lots of data:
Such huge chunk of data can be in any format. They would be available in the multiple databases. Also, they would be available in many unstructured files.
- This data must collate, combined, compared and made to work as a seamless whole. But the different databases will not communicate well.
- Many industries have implemented interfaces between this DB.
- Every pair of databases will require a unique interface.
- If you change one database, many interfaces may have to upgrade.
Data Integration is the solution for all such problems. The data Integration technologies will allow the data. This is from different DB as well as formats. This is to communicate with each other.
But there is different architecture in data integration technology. ELT stands for Extra, Transform and Load. Informatica uses the Extract as well as ETL architecture. This is the most popular architecture to perform data integration. So, it is imperative that we understand What is ETL. Also, how Informatica performs ETL? Especially, this is to solve such business problems.
What is ETL?
ETL is a type of data integration. It will involve an architecture that extracts and transforms. Then it will load the data in target database or file. It is the foundation of data warehouse.
An ETL system will perform the following. They are,
- Extracts data from source systems.
- Transforms and cleans up the data.
- Indexes data.
- Summarizes data.
- Loads data into the warehouse.
- Tracks changes made to the source data required for the warehouse.
- Restructures keys.
- Maintains the metadata.
- Refreshes the warehouse with updated data.
If we have understood what is ETL and the ETL process. We are now in a better position to appreciate why Informatica is the best solution. We will also understand what the typical real-life scenario are. This is the reason for the Informatica become very handy.
Why Informatica is the best Solution:
Informatica PowerCenter is a premium data integration solution. The reason it provides the best solution. This will be in the large enterprises. It is because of the following. They are,
- Database is neutral. Hence, it can communicate with any database.
- The most powerful data transformations tool. It converts one apps data to another’s format.
How Informatica performs ETL:
ETL: Extract
- PowerCenter reads data. It will be row by row from a table in a database, or from a file.
- This database or file is referred to as the source.
- The structure of the source will contain in a source definition object.
ETL: Transform
- Informatica PowerCenter converts the rows into a format. This will be the second (target) system will be able to use.
- The logic for this conversion will define in transformation objects.
ETL: Load
- Informatica PowerCenter writes data. It will be in row by row to a table in a database, or to a file.
- This database or file is referred to as the target.
- The structure of the target is contained in a target definition object.
Real-time app of Infomatica:
Typical scenario in which Informatica will use the following. They are,
- Data Migration:
A company purchases a new account payable app. PowerCenter can move the existing account data. It will move to the new app. Informatica preserves the data lineage. This will be for the following purpose. They are,
- Tax.
- Accounting.
- Other legally mandated purposes.
- App Integration:
The Company ‘A’ purchases Company ‘B’. So, they must achieve the benefits of the consolidation. The Company B’s billing system must integrate. This will integrate with the Company A’s billing system. This is easily possible with the help of the Informatica.
- Data warehousing:
- Typical actions will require in the data warehouses. This is for the following reasons. They are,
- Data warehouses will put the information from many sources. They put this information together for the analysis.
- Data will move from many of the DB to Data warehouse.
All the above typical cases will easily perform. This is possible with the help of the Informatica.
- Middleware:
Informatica can connect a variety of sources. It will include most of the App Sources. They are,
- SAP certified Data Integration tool.
- Can pull and push data into SAP R3, SAP BW systems.
- Have connectivity adapter. This is for majority of the App Sources.
It can also be used as middleware between two applications like SAP R3, SAP BW etc.
