Actian, the data and analytics division of HCLSoftware, has officially relaunched the Actian Data Platform (formerly known as Avalanche), enhancing it with new integration as a service capabilities. The unified platform, which makes data management simpler across cloud, on-premises and hybrid environments, has been designed to bolster businesses' trust in their data, improve data quality, assist in cost reduction, and facilitate more informed decision-making across various business operations.
The standout feature of the Actian Data Platform is its ability to collect, manage, and analyse data in real time through its transactional database, data integration, data quality, and data warehouse capabilities, all housed within an easily navigated platform. The platform manages data from any public cloud, multi/hybrid cloud, and on-premises environments through a single interface, making data access and control easier for businesses.
Speaking on the relaunch, Emma McGrattan, Senior Vice President of Engineering at Actian, noted: "The Actian Data Platform provides businesses with self-service data integration that lowers costs and addresses multiple use cases without needing multiple products. We simplify the delivery of real-time analytics and insights that businesses can both trust and use to act quickly."
The enhancements include a new user interface and user experience design, and new API-first integration capabilities, which allow businesses to bring data from varied sources into the platform. By bridging data silos and streamlining data workflows, businesses can improve their overall data management processes and data preparation efforts. The platform also includes tools for data profiling and improving data quality by tracking its quality over time and applying rules to existing integrations to quickly identify and isolate inconsistencies.
Joe Jones, Chief Information Officer at Aeriz, highlighted the tangible benefits of the platform: "The Actian Data Platform enables us to quickly consolidate and analyze all of our disparate data sources to deliver accurate and timely reports. We’ve saved 150 hours a month previously consumed by manual data integration and preparation which has empowered our analysts to dedicate their efforts to strategic initiatives that solve business challenges and help grow our business."
By 2025, it's estimated that over three-quarters of enterprises will have data spread across multiple cloud providers and on-premises data centres. Matt Aslett, Director of Research for Data and Analytics at Ventana Research, part of ISG, states: "Actian Data Platform provides data leaders with confidence that they have a strategic platform that can be used to address a variety of use-cases without complex integration of multiple products, facilitating self-service access to data and improving trust in data-driven applications."
Furthermore, the Actian Data Platform supports the rise of advanced use cases like Generative AI by automating time-consuming data preparation tasks. These include data aggregation, handling missing values and standardizing data from various sources. This automation aims to give customers confidence in the data they use to train AI models effectively and explore new opportunities in the fast-paced digital economy.
Another feature is the flexible 'database as a service', which simplifies the deployment of transactional databases in the cloud, and is currently available to select customers in an Early Access Program.