In 2023, IT and data leaders cited data quality, visibility, and trust in data as the top three challenges in the strategic use of data. Without reliable and transparent data pipelines, data engineers struggle to extract actionable insights from their data. These issues also make it difficult to use data to its full potential.  

Data intelligence platforms have become essential for overcoming these hurdles. These solutions help data leaders gain insights from large data volumes, ensuring better decision-making.  

In this article, we’ll look into some top data intelligence platforms and how they can address common data challenges.

What is data intelligence?

Data intelligence is the use of tools and methods to transform raw data into actionable insights. It uses data analysis, artificial intelligence (AI), and machine learning (ML) to enable organizations to make smarter decisions through advanced data management and governance. 

The key components of data intelligence platforms include: 

1. Data Cataloging – Organizes and indexes data for easy search and access.
2. Data Mapping – Links data across various systems to ensure consistency and understanding.
3. Automated Metadata Harvesting – Gathers and updates metadata automatically for more efficient data management.
4. Data Analysis and Insights – Applies advanced tools to interpret data and provide meaningful insights.
5. Data Lineage and Impact Analysis – Tracks data flow across systems and analyzes its impact on different processes.

What is the difference between data intelligence and business intelligence (BI)?

Business intelligence (BI) analyzes structured business data to create reports, dashboards, and trends based on past performance. It helps companies understand past events and supports decision-making through historical data insights.

On the other hand, data intelligence goes beyond BI. It analyzes structured and unstructured data and uses AI and machine learning to predict trends, provide real-time insights, and comprehensively manage data.

While both BI and data intelligence are used to understand data, they differ in a few ways:

Best data intelligence platforms

Several platforms are available to manage your data intelligence tasks. Here’s an overview of some popular ones, along with their key features, pros, and cons. 

1. Secoda

Secoda is an AI-powered data intelligence platform that simplifies data cataloging, discovery, and governance for modern enterprises. It integrates with your existing data stack, providing a comprehensive view of your data through automated lineage tracking and AI-powered search. This lets teams quickly locate data across columns, tables, dashboards, and metrics, helping them make faster, data-driven decisions. 

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Secoda’s AI also helps generate documentation and queries, streamline workflows, and reduce repetitive tasks for data teams. One of Secoda’s standout features is its real-time multiplayer editing, which promotes collaboration across technical and nontechnical teams. 

The platform also offers robust data governance tools, ensuring that organizations can maintain control over data access while enabling self-serve data usage. With a user-friendly interface, Secoda makes data more accessible and actionable for everyone. 

Key features

• Automates the discovery and cataloging of data across the organization
• Tracks data from its origin to ensure accuracy and transparency
• No-code data centralization on a highly scalable platform
• Generates and updates data documentation automatically
• Allows teams to collaborate with live edits and async commenting
• Integration with data warehouse tools such as Snowflake, Redshift, Big Query, etc
• Role-based permissions and security controls ensure proper data management
• Out-of-the-box integrations with business intelligence (BI) tools like Looker, Tableau, and more

Pros 

• Modern and user-friendly interface
• Self-service analytics for nontechnical users
• SOC 2 compliant for secure data management 
• Integration with Git and version control for changes
• All-in-one data intelligence platform with AI capabilities

2. Informatica

Informatica is a comprehensive data intelligence platform that prepares data for AI and analytics. With its Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC), Informatica connects, manages, and unifies data across multi-cloud and hybrid environments. 

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The platform supports various data workloads and simplifies processes through low-code, no-code solutions. Informatica helps businesses achieve better outcomes by ensuring their data is AI-ready while offering flexible, consumption-based pricing for easier scalability.

Key features

• Provides data cataloging, integration, and governance in a unified solution
• Automates data quality monitoring and observability
• Low-code, no-code solutions reduce the complexity of custom coding
• Supports a wide range of data workloads and types
• AI-powered data management platform that integrates with multi-cloud and hybrid environments

Pros 

• Scalable for both small and large enterprises
• Solutions for the latest data problems
• Support for data governance and compliance
• Easy API management

Cons

• Complicated workflows
• Suboptimal data discovery for Salesforce
• Improvement required on basic features
• Costs may be high for small businesses and startups
• Lack of good log tracing and search capabilities in real-time

3. Collibra 

Collibra is a data intelligence platform that enhances data governance, cataloging, and lineage using active metadata. Collibra helps organizations streamline decision-making and improve productivity by centralizing and automating data management. It also reduces risks across various data environments. 

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The platform enables collaboration between data teams and offers tools for AI governance, data quality monitoring, and privacy management. Collibra’s flexible, scalable architecture supports many integrations, making it adaptable to diverse enterprise needs.

Key features

• An active metadata-driven platform for enhanced data governance and transparency
• Integrates with multiple data sources and environments using out-of-the-box APIs
• Supports AI governance, ensuring traceable and compliant AI models
• Offers data cataloging and lineage tracking to maintain data integrity
• Promotes collaboration with tools like Collibra Data Notebook for querying and analysis

Pros

• Flexible integration options with enterprise-grade security
• Easy and business-friendly user interface
• Customizable workflows and data dictionaries
• Helpful support team

Cons

• Poor documentation and weak semantic search
• Complex deployment setup
• Manual methods for capturing lineage
• Pricing may be high for small businesses
• Less mature data quality functions like observability, security, and connectivity

4. Alation

Alation is a data intelligence platform to help organizations maximize the value of their data and AI initiatives. By offering a robust data governance framework and tools for building trusted data products, Alation ensures data quality, transparency, and compliance. 

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It supports collaboration across teams, enabling self-service analytics and faster decision-making. Alation also simplifies cloud migrations and integrates metadata into everyday workflows, making managing and modernizing data easier.

Key features

• AI governance framework ensures data quality and compliance
• Data marketplace for easy access to reliable data products
• Seamless integration with tools like Slack, Tableau, and Excel
• Data lineage tracking to maintain transparency and integrity
• Automates metadata curation using AI

Pros

• Simple to navigate and intuitive
• Flexible customizations 
• Out-of-the-box connectors
• Robust search capabilities 

Cons

• Limited AI/ML functionality
• Complex lineage UI
• Limited inbuilt data quality capability
• Lacks some basic functionality compared to more mature platforms
• Customization options may be limited compared to open-source alternatives

5. Atlan

Atlan is a modern data intelligence platform that simplifies data management and boosts collaboration. It acts as a "Google for your data," allowing users to search across their data ecosystem using natural language or SQL syntax. 

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With features like column-level lineage and active data governance, Atlan ensures teams can easily trace and manage data. It also offers data products, a business glossary, and active metadata management to streamline data operations.

Key features

• Natural language search for easy data discovery
• Column-level lineage to trace data origin
• Active data governance for enhanced control
• Business glossary for consistent terminology
• Unified control plane for the entire data stack

Pros

• Decent and intuitive user interface
• Seamless integration of lineage with Jira and Slack for efficient data tracking
• Easy access to well-organized data tables for quick retrieval via SQL
• User-friendly glossary with clear definitions of business terms and metrics

Cons

• Lacks some key integration features
• Outdated documentation
• AI-driven insights require additional costs
• Complex setup process for personas and roles, limiting admin control
• Ineffective search functionality, with slow loading and sometimes inaccurate results.

6. Talend

Talend offers a comprehensive data management solution that helps organizations transform their data into valuable business insights. With its end-to-end platform, Talend Data Fabric enables data integration, quality, and governance into a single, low-code solution. 

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It supports various data environments, allowing businesses to manage their data effectively while ensuring security and compliance. Talend's robust tools facilitate easy data discovery, organization, and team collaboration, driving better decision-making.

Key features

• End-to-end data management
• A low-code platform for flexibility
• Supports multiple deployment options (on-premises, cloud, hybrid)
• Comprehensive data catalog for easy search and discovery
• Automated data profiling and lineage tracing

Pros

• Highly flexible, accommodating various data architectures
• Self-service interface that is easy to use
• Facilitates data transformation for creating dashboards
• Compatible with multiple BI solutions

Cons

• Analytics need improvement 
• Occasional lagging
• Performance issues when dealing with large datasets
• Real-time processing is slow compared to other tools

7. Looker 

Looker is a business intelligence platform that boosts data intelligence. It helps organizations create custom data experiences and embed analytics into applications easily. Looker's universal semantic modeling layer ensures consistent metrics across different data sources, making it easier for users to analyze and understand their data.

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It offers self-service analytics through enterprise dashboards and Looker Studio. Users can perform ad-hoc analysis and gain real-time insights. Looker also includes AI features to speed up analytical workflows and support data-driven decisions.

Key features

• Embedded analytics for easy integration with applications
• Universal semantic modeling for reliable metrics
• Self-service analytics with dashboards and Looker Studio
• AI-driven analytics to enhance workflows

Pros

• Customizable data visualizations for tailored reports and dashboards
• User-friendly interface reduces the learning curve for less technical users
• Triggers alerts in case of suspicious activity
• Integrates well with Google Analytics for Firebase

Cons

• It’s not available offline
• Limited integration features
• Limitations in the free version in terms of data volume and user access
• Some users may find it complex when using advanced features

8. SAP Data Intelligence

SAP Data Intelligence helps businesses manage and connect their data more effectively. It allows companies to integrate different data types, such as structured, unstructured, and streaming, into one place. With SAP Data Intelligence, organizations can create a unified view of their data. It features a data catalog that helps users quickly find and understand their data.

SAP Data Intelligence brings machine learning into everyday business processes. This means companies can use advanced analytics to improve their operations and innovate faster.

Key features

• Comprehensive data integration across all data types
• Centralized data management for easier oversight
• User-friendly data catalog for discovery and insights
• Support for machine learning integration in processes
• Capabilities for managing data in hybrid environments

Pros

• Establishes operational links between SAP and non-SAP systems
• Can analyze massive amounts of data
• Good performance and scalability 
• Wide range of add-on compatibility 

Cons 

• The user interface lacks intuitiveness and user-friendliness
• Unclear error logs, which makes troubleshooting difficult
• The complex setup process sometimes causes delays
• Data Intelligence has no out-of-the-box functionality to retrieve the classification data of suppliers

9. Zeenea

Zeenea is a cloud-native solution that makes it easy for organizations to access and manage their data. Its user-friendly platform democratizes data access, helping teams make informed decisions quickly. With Zeenea, businesses can accelerate their data-driven initiatives and create a culture of data collaboration.

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The platform includes a data catalog and an enterprise data marketplace, providing a central data discovery and sharing hub. Zeenea helps users build a common data vocabulary while ensuring compliance and governance. 

Key features

• Centralized data catalog for unified metadata management
• Enterprise data marketplace for sharing valuable data products
• Automated business glossary for consistent data terminology
• Data lineage tracking to understand data origins and movement
• Universal connectivity to scan and update data from various sources

Pros

• User-friendly interface
• Helps organizations ensure data compliance and governance
• Improved data organization and discovery 
• Knowledge graph offers a flexible approach to metadata management

Cons

• Limited and outdated functionality 
• Manual data lineage
• Data lineage is only limited to a dataset level
• Some users find it expensive 
• New connections can only be set up on the backend (server side), which requires specialized skills. 

10. BigID

The BigID Data Intelligence Platform helps organizations manage their data for better governance, security, and compliance. It uses advanced machine learning to discover, classify, and take action on sensitive data. This makes it easier for users to understand and control their information.

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BigID works with various types of data, including structured and unstructured data. It offers modular apps that focus on data privacy and protection. By unlocking the value of data, organizations can respond quickly to regulatory and industry challenges.

Key features

• Comprehensive data discovery through machine learning
• Classification and correlation across diverse data types
• Modular apps for privacy and protection
• Active metadata hub for streamlined data solutions
• An extensible platform for regulatory compliance

Pros 

• Smooth and hassle-free experience for managing data
• Easy access and management due to cloud-based features
• Intuitive user interface for effortless navigation
• Integrates well with Microsoft platforms 

Cons 

• Slow performance and latency issues 
• Higher cost compared to competitors 
• Limited UI customization options
• Integration complexity may lead to setup difficulties

How to choose the right data intelligence platform for your company?

With so many available options, choosing the right tool to make the most of your company's data becomes overwhelming. 

Here are some factors to remember when making your decision:

• Assess Your Data Needs – Think about the kind of data your company handles and the insights you hope to gain. This will help you choose a platform that fits your specific goals.

• Check for Data Governance and Compliance – Ensure the platform can keep your data secure and meets industry regulations, especially if you’re handling sensitive information.

• Assess Ease of Use and User Experience – The platform should be easy to use and work well with your team’s workflow. If it’s too complicated, it could slow things down.

• Evaluate Advanced Analytics and AI Capabilities – Look for tools that offer advanced features, such as AI or machine learning, to help you extract more value from your data.

• Seek Feedback – Ask others who’ve used the platform or read reviews to learn about their experience. This can give you valuable insights into the tool's performance in real-world situations.

• Demo Your Chosen Tool – Always try a demo or free trial. This will help you see if the platform fits your needs and is easy to work with before committing.

Why choose Secoda for your data intelligence needs

Are you looking for a tool that makes data management easy and efficient? Secoda simplifies your data intelligence needs. Its automated data cataloging and clear data lineage empower your team to access and understand data effortlessly.

Secoda's user-friendly interface ensures everyone can easily use the platform regardless of technical skill. Moreover, it integrates with your existing data sources, making it a versatile addition to your toolkit. 

Try Secoda today to learn how it can unlock the full potential of your data.