Actian Corporation, the data and analytics division of HCLSoftware, has relaunched the Actian Data Platform, known previously as Avalanche, accompanied by a variety of new capabilities, including hybrid Integration-as-a-Service. Designed to drive data confidence, data quality, and affordability, the Actian Data Platform centralizes data processes while inviting easy, efficient data integration.
The Actian Data Platform “makes data easy” as a comprehensive, scalable platform that collects, manages, and analyzes data in real time. Putting its transactional database, data integration, data quality, and data warehouse functions in a single, easy-to-use place, Actian can manage data from any public cloud, multi-/hybrid cloud, and on-prem environments from a single pane of glass, according to the company.
Actian’s rebranding of its platform delivers new integration capabilities for the solution, ultimately introduced to address the changing needs of its customers.
“What's really exciting about the Actian Data Platform is the hybrid capabilities that it offers,” said Jennifer Jackson, CMO at Actian. “We are told time and time again that on-premise is still a thing and this…hybrid solution [enables organizations to] deploy anywhere, really opening the doors of data integration to a much broader group of people in your company.”
Data integration, data quality, and data preparation are all intrinsically tied, leading Actian to unite a wide breadth of capabilities within a single, easy-to-use platform.
“As we talked to our customers, the biggest pain points…around integration are reducing data silos to take advantage of all of the data that companies have accumulated [and] integrated with… [as well as] improve data quality…because for any application for analytics or for GenAI [generative AI] …data quality remains the biggest hurdle,” explained Vamshi Ramaparu, VP of engineering at Actian.
“Instead of having to go acquire various tools and integrate with third party applications, which require maintenance and bottlenecks, you…[can] depend on a platform that provides [all of these] native capabilities,” Ramaparu continued.
By reducing context switching and tool disparity, the Actian Data Platform delivers efficient and affordable API-first integration for a diverse range of sources. The platform also offers no-code, low-code, and pro-code integration and transformation options, meeting enterprises exactly where they are in their skillsets.
Actian enables businesses to integrate and transform data by leveraging or building APIs via drag-and-drop blocks, designed for self-service and eliminating complex programming. Connections can be created to applications using a REST or SOAP API endpoint, which are further reusable between cloud and local apps.
Additionally, the platform simplifies data profiling and tracks data quality over time, ensuring that proprietary data remains as clean as it is integrated.
With the surge in interest of GenAI, the Actian Data Platform accommodates this use case by automating data preparation tasks and increasing overall data trust when training AI models.
“We've been talking with our customers quite extensively about generative AI…[and] most of what we're hearing is an uncertainty about how to proceed. Our customers are asking for guidance on, ‘Okay, if we're going to take this step, how do we get ready?” said Jackson.
“So, [as a response,] we've really been homing in and focusing on data integration [and] data quality as a mechanism for the data preparation [necessary] for those complex use cases like GenAI…working with our customers directly as they figure out how they want to get in the [GenAI] game,” she added.
The Actian Data Platform offers a free trial program for enterprises interested in the company’s latest integration services. To learn more about the Actian Data Platform, please visit https://www.actian.com/.