Reliable for day to day data work
What do you like best about the product?
What I like most about Alation is that it reduces the amount of time I spend searching for data. Before using it, I often had to rely on multiple people or old documentation to figure out where something lived. Now I can usually find the table, definition or owner through a quick search.
What do you dislike about the product?
The main issue I run into with Alation is that some parts of the interface can feel slow especially when navigating between sections or loading larger assets. It’s not unusable but there are moments where it takes longer than I’d expect for a tool that’s meant to speed up data work.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Alation has helped reduce the amount of time I spend trying to figure out where data comes from and who is responsible for it. Before using it a lot of my work involved asking around or checking multiple systems just to confirm simple details. Now most of that information is in one place.
Increases data discoverability and boosts self-service analytics through enriched metadata and intuitive search
What is our primary use case?
My main use case for Alation Data Catalog is data discoverability and metadata management.
In my day-to-day work, I use Alation Data Catalog for data discoverability and metadata management by ingesting metadata from a number of different data platforms, including Snowflake and Power BI. We use the lineage features to keep track of where the data is moving within our environment. We also maintain certain items related to our data assets, including sensitivity tags and data descriptions, which makes it easier for our self-service analytics users to find the data they need.
What is most valuable?
The best features that Alation Data Catalog offers are its search capabilities and the fact that it works with many different data platforms; it is essentially platform agnostic. The other piece that I really think is important is how easy it is to use as well as to manage.
What makes the search capabilities of Alation Data Catalog stand out for me is the fact that every item within the catalog is indexed and searchable, as well as the filtering features that allow you to narrow down to just the types of assets that you need. Wildcard searches are also very helpful. It is a very intuitive tool, as long as you are using the filters.
Alation Data Catalog has positively impacted my organization by allowing users to answer questions that they had without trying to track down an expert. This has saved them quite a bit of time and frustration. It has allowed them to solve problems they probably would not have been able to solve had they not had the catalog.
We have been measuring the curation of content within the catalog that has gone up over time, and we have also seen the number of users in the catalog increase, as well as the amount of activity within the catalog increase. We were seeing about an average of about 20% increase month over month for the last few months.
What needs improvement?
Alation Data Catalog can be improved by enhancing their lineage capabilities to make it easier for us as users to search the lineage without having to use the Alation Data Catalog user interface. If they could put it in a relational format, then we could join that information with other metadata from other platforms. We could join it in reporting. Lineage improvement would be the biggest thing.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Alation Data Catalog for eight years.
How was the initial setup?
I choose a nine for my rating because it has been extremely easy to use and extremely easy to set up. It allows us to automate our curation. It allows us to integrate with metadata from other platforms, such as Power BI and Snowflake. It gives us a much better overall view of our data environment. The search capabilities are extremely useful. It is easy for a user to come in and find what they need without having to learn a very complicated tool.
What other advice do I have?
My advice to others looking into using Alation Data Catalog is to give a very close look at the capabilities and make sure that they suit what your organization needs. If you are looking for better data discoverability, Alation Data Catalog is basically your best choice. Consider which connectors that you want to purchase, since those are licensed separately. Make sure that you purchase only what you need as far as that goes. Consider trying to integrate Alation Data Catalog information with other platforms as well to allow you to improve upon reporting. That worked successfully for us. I give Alation Data Catalog a rating of nine.
Which deployment model are you using for this solution?
Public Cloud
If public cloud, private cloud, or hybrid cloud, which cloud provider do you use?
Powerful Data Interpretation with Impressive Algorithms
What do you like best about the product?
I like the alation algorithm & ability to create sharp data interptretation output.
What do you dislike about the product?
I found alation package cost is slightly high.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It saving time in drug discovery process and helping to solve data analysis problems of clinical patient data.
Experience of working on Alation
What do you like best about the product?
What I appreciate most about Alation is its intuitive interface combined with robust data cataloging features. Navigating and managing data throughout the organization becomes straightforward, making it much easier to locate, comprehend, and oversee information. Additionally, the collaboration tools and search capabilities stand out, significantly enhancing both data accessibility and trust within the team.
What do you dislike about the product?
While Alation serves as a robust data catalog platform, I have noticed that it can occasionally become sluggish when working with particularly large datasets. Furthermore, the user interface might benefit from being more intuitive in some sections, especially for newcomers who may not be well-versed in data governance concepts.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
It is making search for data easier which saves time and also I can use natural language for query. It also helps breaking down data silos
Insightful Analytics with Excellent Data Quality Scores
What do you like best about the product?
I love the insights it provides particularly the data quality score
What do you dislike about the product?
Sometimes the platform can be a little slow
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Saves me time when analysing date and instead does it for me
Facilitate metadata management and SQL query sharing but user experience needs enhancement
What is our primary use case?
I had several use cases for
Alation Data Catalog. The number one is metadata management. Additionally, analysts and data analysts were asking how we can share the SQL queries easily in a platform. So it was very much useful because I did not find any other data catalog tool where you can save and even create SQL queries.
What is most valuable?
I found
Alation Data Catalog very useful for sharing SQL queries easily in a platform. Additionally, the platform is beneficial for technical users. For me, it was the only data catalog tool where I could save and even create SQL queries.
What needs improvement?
Alation Data Catalog is not user-friendly for business users. Its user experience is comparable to a Wikipedia page, lacking good visualization. In a fast-paced world, we need to grasp information quickly, and Alation does not facilitate that well. The platform needs improvement in integrating with BI tools, reducing manual efforts, and facilitating a smooth connection. Also, several use cases I presented, including certain configurations, were scheduled to be developed only in 2022, which did not meet my timeline.
For how long have I used the solution?
I worked with Alation Data Catalog for one year, back in 2021.
How are customer service and support?
Alation's technical support was responsive and heard my issues. However, they followed their own development roadmap. Many of my use cases were only scheduled for development in the future.
How would you rate customer service and support?
Which solution did I use previously and why did I switch?
I changed the platform from Alation Data Catalog to
Collibra because Alation was not beneficial for my company as it primarily consists of business users.
Collibra was more user-friendly for business users.
What's my experience with pricing, setup cost, and licensing?
The price difference between Alation Data Catalog and Collibra was not significant. Collibra is a little bit expensive than Alation, but I presented the benefits of having that platform, so that little bit of money was not a big deal.
Which other solutions did I evaluate?
Besides Alation Data Catalog, I evaluated Collibra, Power View, and Informatica.
What other advice do I have?
I would rate the overall solution as 7.5 to 8.
Builds data catalogs with a proper business glossary and establishes data lineage
What is our primary use case?
We do the integration work for our multiple clients. Their problem is that many of their legacy systems lack a defined data or business glossary for their data attributes. First, they want to build a data catalog with a proper business glossary. Second, they aim to establish data lineage to track their data's transformations. Lastly, in some cases, they want to integrate data quality rules or business rules across the platform using Alation. These are the three main use cases they are looking to address.
What is most valuable?
The most valuable feature is cloud integration. It can automatically crawl and index various data sources on-prem or in the cloud. With 70 to 80 percent of enterprises operating in the cloud, the automatic crawling feature has proven to be one of the best.
What needs improvement?
When issues arise, two key concerns arise. First, how can we perform root cause analysis faster? Second, how can we optimize resource allocation, considering the associated costs? Every customer is focused on reducing the cost of computing and resources deployed in the cloud. These two aspects should be more stable. In a nutshell, data observability within Alation would be incredibly helpful for addressing these challenges.
For how long have I used the solution?
I have been using Alation Data Catalog for ten years. We are using solution V 2024.3.
How was the initial setup?
The initial setup is easy. If the business rules or governance policies are already drafted, implementing them for one system might take around six weeks.
We work with the data governance team to configure the necessary rules and set up crawlers and workflows.
I rate the initial setup an eight out of ten, where one is difficult and ten is easy.
What about the implementation team?
We have a separate team of admins who take care of the installation. It's quite friendly.
What other advice do I have?
The key aspect is ensuring that any policy changes in data governance are translated into rules within Alation. For instance, if a new attribute, such as a private one like SSN, is added to a database, and a policy mandates SSNs be masked for the first eight characters, Alation will enforce that rule uniformly. This ensures that all SSN information columns are properly masked and aligned with the governance policy.
Data discovery is best achieved through crawling. If we need to build lineage around it—tracking how data flows from one system to another—some of that is automated.
With Alation in place, from a business user's perspective, if they need to derive a calculated field, the system helps track where the data originates. The entire transformation is captured in the data lineage from the source to the actual KPI value. This often involves multiple systems where the same attribute might change. Lineage becomes especially important during regulatory audits, where you're asked to explain how a KPI was derived. If the lineage is built into Alation, retrieving and providing that information is accessible. Without it, you'd have to analyze how the KPI was calculated each time manually.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Provides a nice interface for connecting to the database and querying the data
What is most valuable?
Alation Data Catalog provides a nice interface for connecting to the database, querying the data, and working on it.
What needs improvement?
Although the solution performs far better in terms of data cataloging, its data governance capabilities need improvement.
It would be helpful if the solution included data classification and an easier streamlining of the process of workflow creation.
What do I think about the scalability of the solution?
I usually recommend Alation Data Catalog to cost-conscious small and medium companies.
How are customer service and support?
The solution's technical support needs to be improved across the board, especially in lineage and other aspects. Sometimes, we find it difficult to identify the people with respective tool knowledge. It’s a bit difficult to identify resources for Alation.
How would you rate customer service and support?
What other advice do I have?
Alation Data Catalog is another data catalog product gaining momentum in small and medium financial institutions. The solution's data discovery and enabling the data marketplace improves productivity.
The solution has an AI-based metadata curation model, but I'm unsure how effective it is. I know Alation Data Catalog has some AI functionalities that they're cataloging to leverage.
Overall, I rate the solution an eight out of ten.
Alation is Best in Class
What do you like best about the product?
Alation is extremely flexible and able to fit small to large organizations. They tread the perfect line between analytics and governance. Their vision perfectly aligns with our organization's data management vision of universally understood and trusted data available across the company.
What do you dislike about the product?
There is definitely some room for growth with lineage capabilities. Alation has been upfront with their plans to rapidly enhance lineage functionality.
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
We have plenty of data tribal knowledge in our organization. Alation is helping us document and set up processes that capture tribal knowledge and share it along with best practices to key individuals.
Allation Governor
What do you like best about the product?
Governance Materials and content and details on the governance topics
What do you dislike about the product?
Integrated with applications for lineages
What problems is the product solving and how is that benefiting you?
Governance and Data Catalogue
