Actian simplifies data management
At the Big Data trade show in Paris, Actian, the data and analytics division of HCLSoftware, presented its platform dedicated to data management and analysis.
Vamshi Ramarapu, vice president of engineering at Actian, gives us a brief overview of the platform's positioning and components, as well as the benefits of the Actian Data Platform, an all-in-one solution.
Mr. Ramarapu, could you tell us more about your company?
Vamshi Ramarapu. Actian is the company that created the Ingres database in 1972 and our business is to provide data management solutions for companies. We employ more than 600 people globally and two years ago, we joined the HCLSoftware group, which has enabled us to enrich our range of services and bring greater value to companies. We offer data storage, with a wide range of solutions depending on the use case, with renowned databases such as Ingres for transactional management, HCL Informix for large enterprises, Vector a data center solution, Zen an embedded database for stand-alone applications, and Actian X a hybrid transactional and business intelligence solution.
Obviously, a data platform wouldn't be complete without tools for data integration, data profiling, data quality, data enhancement, data analytics and applications services using APIs and no-code and low-code development, which we deliver in our Actian Data Platform.
Why choose a Data Platform rather than a Best Of Breed solution?
V. R. We find that companies want to extract more value from their data, but they face three challenges: technical stacks are becoming increasingly complex, in-house teams in charge of data management are overwhelmed by user requests, and they are not trained in cloud computing. Companies are demanding integrated platforms that are easy to use, easy to manage and develop.
This is how we design our offers: efficient, easy to use and with no surprises when it comes to operating costs.
Who are your target customers, your buyer persona?
V. R. Our target customer is anyone who is interested in better managing their data. More and more companies are undergoing digital transformation, and they are confronted every day with a growing volume of data. Companies need to monitor this digital activity through synthetic and reliable dashboards and be confident in their data management and data quality. To do this, data must be hosted on a high-performance, secure platform. Actian can help them set up this platform and integrate it into their existing information systems.
What is the functional scope of your offer?
V. R. Simply offering efficient storage solutions is not enough today. If you really want to help companies manage their data, you need to provide them with a range of functionalities, integrated and scalable where possible. The Actian Data Platform provides numerous functionalities including data integration with a lot of connectors and the ability to manage real-time data flows; data sharing functions with APIs and applications developed in no code and low code. For this purpose, we have two development studios: Volt MX and OpenROAD. We are also working on Machine Learning to facilitate data quality and on Generative AI for producing metadata.
Every year we invest 22% of our revenues in research and development to keep pace with market trends and offer our customers the latest products and services.
What are the next developments?
V. R. Our mantra is data platform simplification. Today, the Actian Data Platform enables businesses to make data easy from any public cloud, multi/hybrid cloud, and on-premises environments through a single pane of glass. We want to be chosen by data managers because we offer them advanced, integrated and easy-to-use data management functions. We want to be chosen by IT managers because we leave them free to choose their implementation - public cloud AWS GCP Azure, on-premises, virtualized on Kubernetes - and by the Executive Committee for the excellent price/performance ratio of our Actian Data Platform.
Thank you, Mr Ramarapu.
Authors
Emmanuel LARTIGUE
Emmanuel Lartigue is mission director and Business Intelligence expert at CXP. He provides consulting and assistance in the selection of IT solutions, as well as technology roadmaps. His expertise covers the fields of BI, analytics, cloud computing, digital transformation, BAS...