Informatica Fall 2024 Release: Your Path to AI-Ready Data

Artificial intelligence (AI) and generative AI (GenAI) discussions have never been more prominent across all global organizations. Boards and CEOs constantly ask how data leaders plan to leverage AI to keep their enterprises competitive. However, beneath this promise lies a sober reality: bad data leads to bad AI. Most AI projects still aren’t considered enterprise-grade, and leaders struggle to scale those projects from pilot production. If left unaddressed, this bad data could result in AI that increases costs, stifles innovation and limits top-line revenue growth.

If everybody’s ready for AI except their data, we must evolve the conversation to include what makes data ready for AI and how to get there. AI-ready data fuels relevant, responsible and robust AI … all the required attributes to drive real competitive differentiation. AI-ready data is accurate and contextual. It’s governed and secure. It’s complete, consistent and resilient. AI-ready data also empowers data leaders to use GenAI to simplify how they manage their data estate.

Informatica is your path to AI-ready data. As a leader in AI-powered cloud data management, we recently released updates to our Intelligent Data Management Cloud™ (IDMC) with innovations aimed at equipping organizations with AI-ready data. With enhancements to advanced analytics, AI-driven application integration and master data management, you can now ensure your AI systems are powered by the most reliable, accurate, high-quality data.

Let’s explore the innovation highlights of the Informatica Fall 2024 release.

Our Fall release includes improved Data Integration capabilities, focusing on seamless integration with Databricks Delta Lake and Google BigQuery for efficient ELT processes. The update also includes support for Databricks native generative AI (GenAI) functions, native SQL ELT experiences and a simplified task wizard for data ingestion and replication to optimize cost, performance and user experience in data pipeline management. Highlights include:

• Accelerate GenAI analytics in Databricks Delta Lake with SQL ELT by integrating advanced functions via Informatica’s no-code solution and Databricks LLM, optimizing cost and performance.
• Scale cloud data warehouse and lake projects using the native SQL ELT experience, seamlessly converting data pipeline flows for efficient processing in Databricks Delta Lake and Google BigQuery.
• Enhance user experience in data ingestion and replication with a streamlined, modern task wizard featuring easy task creation, a unified guided interface and a powerful, intelligent workflow from start to finish.

This release introduces major upgrades in Application Integration, emphasizing increased performance, real-time functionality and AI-driven automation using GenAI recipes. It also expands connectivity with new connectors and offers a more user-friendly design interface. These improvements aim to deliver faster, more efficient integrations and processes across different platforms and industries, focusing on scalability, intuitive design and tailored industry solutions. Highlights include:

• The Turbo-charged Application Integration Runtime, set to go live in November 2024, offers a performant engine with autoscaling, built-in resiliency, high throughput, low latency, real-time integration capabilities and a serverless option for efficient API and app integration.
• Jumpstart GenAI app development using 6+ prebuilt integration recipes supporting popular hyperscalers like AWS, Azure, Google, and Oracle, process automation scenarios and industry-specific solutions such as financial services.
• The update introduces a new set of connectors for seamless integration with various business and messaging apps, including hyperscaler AI platforms (AWS Bedrock, Azure AI Search, Google Vertex AI) and common business and messaging applications (Coupa, Salesforce Streaming Events, Azure Service Bus).
• The application integration design interface now features a modern look, an improved homepage and connector creation page and a self-serve toggle switch for theme changes, including feedback options.

New MDM & 360 Applications features focus on enhancing workflow integration and governance through dynamic fields and improved decision-making tools, such as match tuning and survivorship. These updates aim to increase productivity, improve data quality and offer a better visual experience for data stewards and business users by enabling more organized configurations, flexible data deduplication and personalized data remediation activities. Highlights include:

• Dynamic fields are now integrated into workflows, offering improved governance for a 360-degree view of business entities through variant-specific values. It also supports multidomain projects with features like approval processes, tree table configurations and advanced output management.
• Enhanced decision-making and match tuning by exporting match pairs for configuration refinement and case-insensitive deduplication, with changes to master records triggering recalculation jobs.
• Enhancements in visual experience for data stewards and business users result in increased productivity, personalized data formatting, improved data remediation visibility and tracking of business entity history. Reporting on and searching for null attributes to enhance data completeness and automatic localization of date and time attributes on the UI are also part of the 2024 Fall launch.

The Fall release introduces new Data Governance and Privacy features that enhance data management and security for operations across multiple regions, business domains and partner platforms. These updates provide granular, federated control over data to streamline data operations on IDMC and beyond. Highlights include:

• Metadata access control in Cloud Data Governance & Data Catalog (CDGC) and Cloud Data Marketplace (CDMP) allows for granular, attribute-based control and federated policy management, ensuring business domains have comprehensive control over their data.
• Expanded policy pushdown in Cloud Data Access Management (CDAM) simplifies data access management on Snowflake and Databricks through universal, metadata-driven policies, ensuring a seamless and secure user experience.
• The Data Quality Bundle for India provides rules for validating common data types, addressing data quality challenges, ensuring high-quality data usage, and compliance with industry and geographic regulations.

Informatica has expanded GenAI-powered data management global footprint with new regional availability for CLAIRE GPT while simplifying master data exploration and unlocking next-level data quality through natural language interfaces and actionable rule recommendations. Highlights include:

• Enhance global data management capabilities by expanding the AWS POD regional availability worldwide, offering GenAI-powered data management with faster response times and adherence to local data regulations.
• Revolutionize MDM exploration by providing a GenAI-powered CLAIRE GPT with a natural language interface, simplifying data set discovery.
• Elevate data quality using GenAI for actionable rule recommendations and streamline the creation and filtering of Data Quality rules with CLAIRE GPT's Natural Language capabilities.

Begin transforming your organization’s data management capabilities today. For more details on how the Informatica Intelligent Data Management Cloud can advance your specific AI missions, contact us for more information about the Fall IDMC release and discuss ways to get your data AI-ready.

Contact Informatica to learn more about the Fall release!