Industry Analyst and Marketing Strategy - Ferraro Consulting

The Data Fabric as a Value Generation Engine

Thu, 02 Apr 2026 06:55:11 -0700

Three major technology trends are rapidly changing the requirements for information technology modernization: the unification of everything, generative AI, and agentic AI. First, weare seeing the unification of multiple data stores into a single store, multiple data engineering tools into a single platform, and multiple analytical
approaches into a unified analytical layer. Second, generative AI has radically changed the way people engage with data at every stage of the data lifecycle, from data generation to insight. We have moved from visual to verbal
interaction with data. Third, agentic AI has moved us from simple automation to autonomous agents that perform the work of various roles throughout the entire data lifecycle. The combination of these three trends sets the stage for reimagining the data fabric.

Like other modernization initiatives, data fabric return on investment goes beyond cost savings. The data fabric has the potential of generating value in seven ways: AI and generative AI readiness, unified data engineering productivity gains, real time decision intelligence, unified governance and regulatory responsiveness, democratized self-service, technical debt reduction, and innovation acceleration.

Take some time to read the Ferraro Consulting POV paper, The Data Fabric as a Value Generation Engine. Discover how to architect a data fabric and begin generating value immediately. The impact on your business will be transformative.

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Cloudera: From Acquisitions to AI Strategy

Mon, 27 Oct 2025 12:22:55 -0700

Not all acquisitions are equal. In fact, most acquisitions fall short of expectations due to insufficient due diligence, and incomplete follow through. Integrating software is never as easy as it seems. Cloudera stand out as an exception to the acquisition challenge. The company has been quietly chipping away at their quest to become a leading data and AI vendor. Through a series of strategic acquisitions—Verta, Octopai, and Taikun—they are putting the right pieces in place to deliver on a cohesive vision to become an end-to-end data and AI platform provider for everyone from
startups to enterprises.

This Ferraro Consulting POV paper drills into each of Cloudera's last three acquisitions, assessing the reasoning behind the acquisitions and detailing related platform evolution. Read "Cloudera: From Acquisitions to AI Strategy” to discover how Cloudera is transforming itself into a new company. It's the new Cloudera.

DOWNLOAD the Ferraro Consulting POV, “Cloudera: From Acquisitions to AI Strategy

Personally, I've been covering agentic AI since well before it was the latest shiny object and the "must mention" of every technology company, every press release, and every article. In addition, I decided to go back and study agentic AI historically, looking back to the mid-1900s. The more I researched and the more I read, the more I realized that the agents are not yet here. The agents are coming!

Take some time to download the first of a ten-part series on agentic AI. In this 4-minute read, "The Agents are Coming!" you'll learn the basics of agentic AI including some tips on how to distinguish between the real thing and the marketing hype, and some ideas on a framework for the different types of AI agents.

DOWNLOAD the POV Paper, "The Agents are Coming," part one of a ten-part series on agentic AI.

Deep Seek: A Shot Over the Bow

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 02:02:45 -0800

WOW, I take one day off and the entire world of AI changes! In fact, according the 1,333,000 articles I read on what happened while I was cooking for my friends here in Tuscany, China is now ahead, the US is now behind, and the rest of the world is in trouble. Tech stocks crashed, trillions were lost in value, billions were lost in the sell off, and China now has an economic advantage with cost at about 4% of what their AI competitors are charging.

I say, TIME OUT. Let the dust settle. There is more here than what meets the eye. This is China. The same country trying to undermine retail in the US with entire companies based on loss leaders. The same country that told us that COVID didn't come from the Wuhan Lab. A country that by nature of their ideology, will do whatever it takes to beat the US and the world. China's strategic initiatives to disrupt the US is indisputable and openly documented by China itself. So, time out.

Just because DeepSeek says they spent $6M on training their models, doesn't mean that is true. Something is not right. Just because they published a paper "documenting" how they trained their models for $6M, doesn't mean that is true. The whole launch, campaign, and fear-mongering that goes with it is designed to upset the market, and to spread fear and doubt about other AI products.

Now is not a time to panic. Now is a good time to dig deeper into DeepSeek to see what is true and what is a lie. There is certainly some of both. On the positive side, this is a good wake up call for AI vendors, researchers, and buyers. Now is the time to ask more questions: How can we do AI in a less expensive way? How can we do AI without consuming as much power? What does this shift toward OpenSource mean for us? How do we continue to excel in our AI research? How can we work together?...Read More

Ferraro Consulting FirstGlance™ Zenlytic

Tue, 07 Jan 2025 10:50:45 -0800

2025 is the year of the AI agent!

If you thought generative AI created a massive technology wave, wait until you see the coming agentic AI tsunami. Imagine a world where persona-based AI agents mimic the roles of today’s workforce, and even outnumber their human counterparts.

It is not unexpected that agents are arriving. It is not quite an invasion yet, but they are here and more are coming. In the world of business intelligence and analytics platforms, we are already seeing the race for the "AI Business Analyst" heat up.

As the battle rages, business intelligence and analytics vendor Zenlytic is worth a FirstGlance™ and likely a second look. By focusing on the user experience and delivering a highly functional AI Business Analyst at the core of their product, they are winning new customers with impressive demos where users can ask literally any question relevant to the business and the data, and get back a relevant answer. Like most generative AI technologies, it may take some fine tuning of the prompts, but the answers bring back data, business logic, natural language explanations easily understandable by a business person.

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Hype Alert: Not All AI-Enabled Business Intelligence Makes the Grade

Tue, 05 Nov 2024 07:19:57 -0800

Who would have guessed that the foundation for an explosion of AI-enabled business in telligence would have been laid all the way back in 2018? At the time, we saw the emerging of a new category of business intelligence with augmented and automated intelligence built into the platform. In addition, was a shift toward the use of semantic layers to business-enable access to intelligence. While exisiting vendors were anticpating the coming trend with their investments in AI, business intelligence vendors were emerging from stealth, with AI at the core of their platforms.

Fast forward to 2024 and we have seen the biggest expansion in the use of AI that the world has ever experinced. As a result, the companies that began their journies half a decade ago have an significant competitive advantage against the laggards who failed to invest early.

We are also seeing a rush of new companies using AI to enable business intelligence with new models for conversational business intelligence and self-service analytics. While their demos are inspiring, most of them have years of development before they can offer what it takes to run enterprise-grade business intelligence.

If you are looking to invest in AI-enabled business intelligence, it is important to understand how to spot an AI imposter. A fancy front end dialogue with a business intelligence tool, does not mean the platform will have everything you need to deploy analytics for the masses in your organization. Take some time to read the Ferraro Consulting POV paper, Hype Alert: Not All AI Enabled Business...Read More

Ferraro Consulting FirstGlance™ Keboola

Wed, 10 Jul 2024 03:15:37 -0700

One of the ways to predict market direction is to find places where technologies are converging. While DataOps began as a technology focused on engineered data flows, it wasn’t meant to stay contained. Data is data, whether it is stored, streaming, flowing, being transformed or in a data pipeline. So then, it makes sense to expand our definition of data operations to include all data.
In my coverage of unified data engineering, self-service DataOps vendor Keboola is worth a FirstGlance™ and likely a second look. Having built an end-to-end data engineering platform designed specifically for data operations in the midmarket, the company is extremely well-liked by a high percentage of users. Keboola covers all the areas mentioned above in the first paragraph, including data storage. I look forward to seeing how Keboola plans to break into the US market.
In the words of Pavel Dolezal, Keboola’s CEO. “We have been gratified by the feedback we’ve received from our clients who feel they now have full control of their data and processes in ways they didn’t before, and have been encouraged that many customers have found Keboola useful across business AI initiatives, which we expect to continue to drive demand for our platform.”

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Ferraro Consulting FirstGlance™ Promethium

Thu, 04 Jul 2024 05:29:19 -0700

In my coverage of unified data engineering, data fabric vendor Promethium is worth a FirstGlance™ and likely a second look. Having built an end-to-end data fabric from connection to compilation, the company is well positioned to fill a market need for quick, simple business insight, especially for the midmarket, departments, and enterprise customers without big IT.
In the words of founder, Kaycee Lai, “What’s unique about this data fabric is that it is purpose-built to solve a very specific problem. Nearly all of the data management solutions today from BI tools to Catalogs to ETL/ELT tools are all focused on production usage. But, in many cases, users have a need to experiment, ask adhoc questions, or simply produce data products that may be consumed once or twice. These use cases require speed in the workflow that simply doesn’t exist in production workflows. The challenge with using production tools for these use cases is that they can break production workflows and most customers do not need 100% of the capabilities in all those many tools. [At] Promethium [we] built a single solution that allows users to safely and quickly build, discover, reuse, or build data products on the fly without breaking production workflows and delivering answers in a few minutes or even seconds.”

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Examining the Informatica Playbook

Fri, 07 Jun 2024 08:47:26 -0700

“Everyone is ready for AI, except your data.”
That was the theme for Informatica World 2024 in Las Vegas, Nevada, May 20-23. While millions, yes millions, are flocking to generative AI as a panacea for business transformation, Informatica is sticking to its big guns in data management; and Ferraro Consulting believes that is exactly the right strategy for the current leader in the race for unified data engineering. If you want great AI, focus on curating great data!
At the conference, Informatica delivered on its promise to bring AI to their platform and to deploy AI with their platform, but CLAIRE was the start of the show. After all, what is not to love about CLAIRE. She is smart, she never forgets, she makes friends easily, she gets stuff done, and she makes the best recommendations of anyone I know.
Read the Ferraro Consulting POV, “Examining the Informatica Playbook - A Close Look at Informatica World 2024,” and discover what makes CLAIRE so special. More importantly read about what Informatica is doing to ensure their leadership position, how they are differentiating themselves in a busy market, what they are doing to extend their lead, and how they are partnering to continue to lead with leaders. The paper also includes some insight into the hurdles Informatica needs to overcome to maintain their market position.
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Ferraro Consulting FirstGlance™ Datavolo

Mon, 03 Jun 2024 04:12:42 -0700

In my coverage of unified data engineering, dataflow infrastructure vendor Datavolo is worth a FirstGlance™ and likely a second look. With a well-seasoned and proven founding team, along with $21M in funding, almost right out of the gates, the company should be well set to take advantage of the open source commercialization wave. Founder Joe Witt and Luke Roquet are betting on the former NSA project, #NiFI, to carry them into the winners circle. With thousands of NiFi users already proving the worth of the product, opportunity abounds.

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* Ferraro Consulting FirstGlance™ takes a quick look at vendors with innovative technology. A first glance is almost always followed up with SecondLook™.

#UnifiedDataEngineering #DataEngineering #GenerativeAI #GenAI #DataIntegration #DataTransformation #AI #Metadata

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