The Coolest Business Analytics Companies Of The 2022 Big Data 100
Part 1 of CRN’s Big Data 100 includes a look at the vendors solution providers should know in the big data business analytics space.
Anything But Business As Usual
Business analysis and data visualization software are critical components of the big data technology stack. They are the software tools that business analysts and information workers use to gain understanding and insight from the exponentially growing volumes of data businesses are generating today and to share that knowledge throughout an organization.
Worldwide sales of business intelligence software are expected to reach $24.04 billion this year and grow at a CAGR of 6.03 percent to $32.21 billion by 2027, according to market research firm Statista. “Companies’ need for data insights, customer analyses, and all kind of business processes have strongly increased due to digitization and data that is collected online,” said a Statista report.
As part of the CRN 2022 Big Data 100, we’ve put together the following list of business analytics software companies—from well-established vendors to those in startup mode—that solution providers should be familiar with.
These vendors offer everything from self-service reporting and data visualization tools for nontechnical managers and business users to high-performance business analysis software needed by data analysts and data scientists to tackle the most complex analytical tasks.
This week CRN is running the Big Data 100 list in a series of slide shows, organized by technology category, spotlighting vendors of business analytics software, database platforms, data warehouse systems, data management and integration software, data science and machine learning tools, and big data systems and cloud platforms.
Some vendors market big data products that span multiple technology categories. They appear in the slideshow for the technology segment in which they are most prominent.
Ahana
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Steven Mih
Ahana offers the Ahana Cloud for Presto, a SQL data analytics managed service based on Presto, the high-performance, distributed SQL query engine for distributed data residing in a variety of sources.
The service, available on the Amazon Web Services platform, is targeted toward data platform engineers who build data lake solutions on AWS S3 storage. In March Ahana added new capabilities to its service that boost data lake governance and security capabilities.
Ahana, which launched in 2020 and is based in San Mateo, Calif., raised $20 million in Series A funding in August 2021, adding to the $4.8 million in seed funding raised in 2020.
Alteryx
Top Executive: CEO Mark Anderson
Alteryx markets the Alteryx Analytic Process Automation (APA) Platform, a complete big data analysis system that includes data analytics, data science, machine learning and business process automation technologies. The platform’s capabilities are also offered through the Alteryx Analytics Cloud.
In February Alteryx, based in Irvine, Calif., completed its acquisition of Trifacta, a San Francisco-based developer of data integration and transformation software. That was preceded by other acquisitions including data modeling software developer Lore IO and AI software provider Hyper Anna, both acquired in October 2021.
In March Alteryx launched a significant expansion of its partner program, looking to provide partners with more enablement resources and incentives as the company shifts to a more partner-led go-to-market model. The move comes as Alteryx is selling more of its software for enterprise-scale implementations, a change that puts greater emphasis on partners’ service capabilities and their domain and vertical industry expertise.
AtScale
Top Executive: CEO Christopher Lynch
The AtScale Enterprise platform provides business intelligence and data science capabilities across distributed data—no matter where it resides—enabling a more agile analytics infrastructure and self-service BI. At the core of the AtScale system is the company’s Universal Symantec Layer, Intelligent Data Virtualization and Autonomous Data Engineering technologies.
In March Boston-based AtScale said it had achieved Snowflake Premier Partner status to work with the Snowflake Data Cloud. That followed the February announcement that AtScale had joined the Amazon Web Services ISV Accelerate program.
Domo
Top Executive: CEO John Mellor
Domo’s business analytics and visualization platform collects data from operational applications and systems and presents the analytical results to decision makers in real time.
The Domo software offers services for reporting, visualization and dashboards, self-service analytics, data sharing and embedded analytics. The Business Cloud platform provides data integration, security and governance capabilities and the ability to build data applications—all either using the Domo cloud or a customer’s existing cloud provider.
In March Domo, based in American Fork, Utah, debuted Data Apps, new low-code data tools for building applications that contain data, analytics and workflow functionality—either for mobile devices or embedded into an existing application or business process. The company said the new toolset can be used by anyone within an organization, including those without technical expertise, as a personalized stand-alone experience.
Grafana Labs
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Raj Dutt
Grafana Labs develops open-source observability and data visualization software used to build data dashboards and visualizations for metric, log and trace data generated by IT infrastructure, networks, cybersecurity tools and other systems, helping IT and AppDev managers monitor IT system performance and track users and events.
In November Grafana Labs, based in New York, established a strategic partnership with Microsoft to develop a Grafana managed service that runs on the Azure cloud platform. The company has a similar relationship with Amazon Web Services struck in 2020.
Earlier this month Grafana Labs raised $240 million in a Series D round of funding.
Hitachi Vantara
Top Executive: CEO Gajen Kandiah
Hitachi Vantara, a subsidiary of Hitachi Ltd., offers a range of digital infrastructure (including storage systems and converged and hyperconverged systems), data management and data analytics software for big data projects.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company’s big data software lineup includes the Lumada DataOps Suite that provides data integration, data catalog and data optimization for Hadoop capabilities. The Lumada DataOps Suite includes Pentaho, Hitachi Vantara’s business intelligence software.
In July 2021 Hitachi acquired digital engineering services company GlobalLogic for $9.6 billion in a move to expand the services available for its Lumada platform.
Incorta
Top Executive: CEO Scott Jones
Incorta develops “direct data analytics” software that aggregates large volumes of complex data in real time for analytical tasks without the need to collect and prepare data beforehand in a data warehouse, providing what the company calls “an end-to-end self-service data experience.”
The key to the company’s software is its “Direct Data Mapping” technology that pre-processes incoming data, eliminating the need for it to be aggregated or transformed before analysis.
The Incorta product portfolio also includes Incorta Intelligent Ingest for transforming, connecting and synchronizing data between business applications and data lake systems.
In January the San Mateo, Calif.-based company reported “significant acceleration in revenue growth” and major global expansion in 2021.
Infor Birst
Top Executive: CEO Kevin Samuelson
Infor Birst is the cloud-based business intelligence and analytics system offered by ERP application provider Infor (New York). Birst, using automated data integration, networking business intelligence and other functionality, enables information workers to consume data and analytics via self-service options.
Birst utilizes a unique data model designed to connect users throughout an organization through a network of virtualized BI instances in a common base of analysis. The software connects insight from various teams, helping users make informed decisions using a shared knowledge base.
Kyligence
Top Executive: CEO Luke Han
Kyligence offers an AI-enhanced analytics platform that’s capable of delivering sub-second query response time against petabytes of data. The Kyligence system is based on Apache Kylin, a distributed analytics engine for performing multi-dimensional analysis on huge datasets.
The original Kylin technology was developed by the founders of Kyligence, who launched the San Jose, Calif.-based company to provide a commercial version of the open-source technology with added capabilities and services. At the system’s core is OLAP (online analytical processing) functionality that pre-aggregates data in multidimensional indexes, greatly accelerating queries and data analysis.
In March Kyligence debuted Kyligence Managed Services, a fully managed edition of its software with automated operation, consulting services and 24/7/365 support.
Kyvos Insights
Top Executive: Founder, CEO Praveen Kankariya
Kyvos Insights develops its Cloud BI Acceleration platform using its patented “Smart OLAP” technology that uses machine learning and advanced algorithms to build data aggregates based on massive volumes of data. The aggregated data improves the performance of modern data platforms such as Cloudera and Hadoop, BI tools like Tableau and MicroStrategy, and cloud data warehouses including Snowflake, Amazon Redshift and Google BigQuery.
In November the Los Gatos, Calif.-based company announced the general availability of Kyvos 365, a business intelligence acceleration Software-as-a-Service offering that the company said eliminates deployment and maintenance chores and provides elastic deployment, quick on-boarding and controlled costs.
MicroStrategy
Top Executive: CEO Michael Saylor
MicroStrategy remains the largest independent, publicly traded business intelligence software company. The company’s flagship platform provides a range of data reporting, analytics, discovery and visualization capabilities. The company’s HyperIntelligence tools are used to embed business intelligence into applications that employees use every day.
MicroStrategy, based in Tyson’s Corner, Va., also markets mobile and cloud-based business intelligence applications.
The company reported $511 million in revenue in 2021. MicroStrategy has also pursued an aggressive bitcoin acquisition strategy.
Promethium
Top Executive: Founder, CEO Kaycee Lai
Promethium addresses the challenges of self-service data discovery and business analytics with the Promethium Data and Analytics Acceleration offering, which includes augmented analytics, data fabric and data catalog software. The company targets its next-generation collaborative analytics platform toward data teams and business users.
The platform’s natural language processing capabilities are a key component of the platform, and in November Promethium CEO Kaycee Lai was awarded a patent for the company’s NLP data search technology,
In February the Menlo Park, Calif.-based company raised $26 million in Series A funding.
Pyramid Analytics
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Omri Kohl
The Pyramid Decision Intelligence Platform provides business analytics, data science and data preparation in a single integrated system, eliminating the need to use multiple, disparate tools and lowering total cost of ownership.
A new release of the Pyramid Analytics software in November addressed the need to support increasingly complex, data-driven decision-making in real time with new performance and security features, natural language processing capabilities and a direct query engine that accesses data where it is stored.
Pyramid Analytics is based in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.
Qlik
Top Executive: CEO Mike Capone
The Qlik Active Intelligence Platform is an end-to-end business analytics and data integration system that includes the company’s flagship Qlik Sense self-service data discovery, analytics and visualization software. The platform also includes Qlik Data Integration, the data integration and data management technology Qlik acquired when it bought Attunity in 2019.
Last year Qlik bought Big Squid, a developer of automated machine learning technology, in a move to provide more augmented analytics capabilities and build on its “active intelligence” moniker. Qlik also acquired Blendr.io and its embedded integration and automation platform.
In January Philadelphia-based Qlik said it had submitted a draft registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for a proposed IPO of common stock. While the IPO could happen this year, the exact timing, along with such details as the number of shares to be sold and the price range for the proposed offering, have yet to be determined.
Rockset
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Venkat Venkataramani
Rockset offers real-time analytics in the cloud, including the company’s database platform for developing high-performance data analytics applications and dashboards.
The company’s technology indexes structured, unstructured, geographical and time-series data—pulled from OLTP databases, streaming data and data lakes—to process sub-second queries at massive scale.
In September Rockset, based in San Mateo, Calif., launched a new release of its database with enhanced enterprise-grade security and compliance capabilities.
SAS
Top Executive: Co-Founder, CEO Jim Goodnight
SAS is one of the leading players in the big data analytics space with its broad portfolio of analytics, data mining, artificial intelligence and data management software. The SAS Viya analytic, AI and data management platform is the company’s flagship product.
The company also develops analytical software for specific tasks such as marketing analytics, fraud detection and security, risk management, and Internet of Things solutions.
On July 29, 2021 SAS, based in Cary, N.C., said the company would begin preparing for an initial public offering by 2024. While SAS doesn’t disclose details about its financial performance, the company’s annual revenue has been around $3.1 billion in recent years.
Sisense
Top Executive: CEO Amir Orad
Sisense develops Sisense Fusion, an AI-driven analytics system that’s designed to bring actionable intelligence to employee- and customer-facing applications by providing analytical results through more easily consumed and actionable formats.
The company’s product line includes the Sisense Fusion Analytics data analytics software and Sisense Fusion Embed for building analytics capabilities into applications and services. It also includes Sisense Infusion Apps, analytical tools that work with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Google G-Suite and Salesforce.
In December New York-based Sisense launched Sisense Notebooks, new functionality within Sisense Fusion Analytics that data analysts use to conduct advanced data analysis using SQL and Python.
Starburst
Top Executive: CEO Justin Borgman
Starburst Data develops Starburst Enterprise, the company’s commercial offering of the Trino open-source, distributed SQL query engine that locates and queries data across distributed data sources. The technology, promoted as an alternative to conventional data warehouses, is capable of analyzing data where it resides without having to move it—a major advantage in cloud and hybrid IT environments with increasingly dispersed data sources.
In 2021 the company launched Starburst Galaxy, a cloud-based, fully managed edition of its analytics platform, and Starburst Stargate, an add-on for Starburst Enterprise for cross-cloud analytics.
In February Boston-based Starburst raised $250 million in Series D funding, boosting its valuation to $3.35 billion.
Tableau, a Salesforce Company
Top Executive: President, CEO Mark Nelson
Tableau offers one of the most popular data analytics and interactive visualization platforms in the industry. The Tableau Platform includes Tableau Server, Tableau Desktop and Tableau Online editions, as well as the Tableau Prep data preparation tools and other products.
Tableau was acquired by Salesforce in 2019 for $15.7 billion. Tableau has since been building links between its software and other Salesforce products, but the company has continued to operate as an independent subsidiary.
A late 2021 update to Tableau’s software included new data preparation and governance capabilities, dynamic scaling, centralized row-level security and an enterprise reference architecture.
Also in 2021, Tableau completed a two-year overhaul of the company’s partner program that provided partners with more visibility and consistency in partner requirements, assessments and benefits.
ThoughtSpot
Top Executive: CEO Sudheesh Nair
ThoughtSpot’s flagship Modern Analytics Cloud data analytics platform emphasizes ease of use through AI, search and natural language capabilities.
In November the company debuted ThoughtSpot Data Workspace with capabilities that help analysts, data engineers and developers build what the company calls “Live Analytics”—a technology layer that helps users interact with live data and drill down more deeply into datasets.
ThoughtSpot, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., made a strategic pivot to the cloud in 2020 and in the last year annual recurring revenue from cloud products grew more than 250 percent. The company raised $100 million in Series F funding in November, raising its valuation to $4.2 billion.
TIBCO
Top Executive: CEO Dan Streetman
TIBCO offers a broad portfolio of business analytics, data integration and data management software, largely assembled through acquisitions in recent years.
In business analytics and data visualization the company’s product lineup includes TIBCO Spotfire, TIBCO Jaspersoft and TIBCO WebFocus—the latter from TIBCO’s January 2021 acquisition of data analytics pioneer Information Builders.
On the data management and data quality side the company offers TIBCO Cloud Metadata, TIBCO EBX Software and TIBCO Omni-Gen, among others.
On January 31 private equity firms Vista Equity Partners and Evergreen Coast Capital announced a plan to buy publicly held Citrix Systems for $16.5 billion and merge Citrix with TIBCO—which has been owned by Vista Equity Partners since 2014. While the Citrix acquisition is expected to close by mid-2022, the timetable for combining Citrix with Palo Alto, Calif.-based TIBCO hasn’t been disclosed.