February 11th, 2021 | Updated on June 25th, 2022
Due to the presence of so many data integration tools, choosing one can be a difficult job. You can end up with the wrong product if you are not sure what exactly you are looking for. If you have all the essential details and information beforehand, the choice becomes easy.
Read on with us to know:
- What exactly is Data Integration?
- What are Data Integration tools?
- Different Types of Data Integration Tools
- How you should select the right Data Integration Tool?
- Top Data Integration Tools of 2021
We have also provided a data integration tool list along with all the crucial details. Here we are:
What Exactly Is Data Integration?
In simple terms, data integration is a process where you compile data from different sources and place it in a single destination. And from this destination, users can derive essential insights. They can integrate the data in a manner that is reliable, accurate, and comprehensive. In other words, the data should be optimum for business analysis and reporting.
What Is Data Integration Tools?
Data Integration tool is a software that you can use to perform a data integration process on the source, thus moving the data to its destination. The users can perform mapping, data cleansing, and transformation. Let us further read about different types of data integration tools.
Different Types Of Data Integration Tools
Here we will tell you about the different types of data integration tools:
On-premise data integration tools are usually the tools that are suitable to integrate data from various local and on-premise data sources. They are mostly installed in a private cloud or a local network. There are also native connectors for batch, which load from different data sources.
Cloud based data integration tools, on the other hand, are iPaaS, also known as integration platforms, as services that help in integrating the data from separate sources and into a cloud-based data warehouse.
Open-source data integration tools are perfect if you want to avoid the usage of proprietary and enterprise solutions. It is also suitable in case you want to have control of the data in house.
Proprietary data integration tools are different from open-source tools in the way they are priced. You will find that they are better suited to cater to specific businesses.
How You Should Select The Best Data Integration Tool?
When you start picking the best data integration tool, you have to be very careful. Here we mention some of the factors you should pay attention to:
Data Sources Supported
As the business expands, data integration strategy will become more complex. Remember that there are multiple streams and web-based applications, along with data sources that your teams keep adding every day. Therefore it is crucial that you select a tool that could accommodate these different data sources as well.
The Scale
In the beginning, the volume of data needed would be low. But once the business expands, you will have to capture every touchpoint of the customers, thus leading to an expansion in the volume of data your infrastructure can handle. When you choose the data integration tool, make sure it is one that you can scale as per the data needs.
Security And Compliance
Now that you are dealing with such vital data, you will have to ensure that solution gives the expertise and resources that you need to see that your data is safe and secure.
Real-time Data Availability
This is useful only if you just want to bring data to the destination to analyze it. In the case of most companies, this is what they need the tool for. However, not all the data integration tools support this. Many tools bring the data to their destination and thus create a lag of time.
Data Transformations
The data you extract comes from various sources and is available in multiple formats. For example, the date you can see in the database can be in the epoch time, whereas in another system, the data could be in “mm-dd-yy” format. To do meaningful analysis, companies want the data to be available in a standard format, making the analysis easy. Here is where Data transformation becomes useful. You should choose a tool that provides smooth data transformations.
Top Data Integration Tools 2021: A Quick Review
Now you can move on to read about the Data Integration tools. These are some of the best data integration tools you will find in the market.
1. Boomi
Boomi is a unified cloud-based integration solution designed to centralize data, applications, and processes into one unified ecosystem, effectively breaking down data silos. Using Boomi’s integration capabilities, businesses are able to connect systems, transform business processes, modernize system architecture, and innovate new ideas and experiences. Boomi’s iPaaS (Integration Platform as a Service) solution offers intuitive integration tools, a master data hub, B2B/EDI management, API management, workflow automation, and low-code app development.
Review: Trustradius
Dell Boomi is used for integration activities to bridge environments (both internal and external) with our Netsuite implementation. It is used in the IT organization and is an analyst/engineer tool to use preexisting or built from scratch integration connectors between systems. One of the best advantages of the tool is that it is cloud based for the management tier.
2. Domo
Domo is the Business Cloud, empowering organizations of all sizes with BI leverage at cloud scale in record time. With Domo, BI-critical processes that took weeks, months or more can now be done on the fly, in minutes or seconds, at unbelievable scale, helping teams and organizations go fast, go big and go bold.
Review: Softwareadvice
We were originally looking for dashboard software. Something like Geckoboard, but we wanted something more advanced. We were using multiple tools, and wanted to collect data from them. We then found Domo. Within days we had integrated our CRM database, Website Analytics, Invoicing database, and Order Processing database.
3. Sisense
Sisense is an agile business intelligence (BI) solution that provides advanced tools to manage and support business data with analytics, visuals and reporting. The solution allows businesses to analyze big and disparate datasets and generate relevant business trends for them. Sisense allows businesses to combine data from many disparate sources and club them into a single database. Once done, the solution itself rearranges data into a predefined standard format.
Review: Trustradius
As a Business Intelligence professional, I live to learned about new solutions to create opportunities in different sized organizations. We implemented Sisense in order to help visualize data across different organizations. As of now the tool is used to display performance indicators and to help develop and maintain the performance-based budget.
4. Dundas BI Software
Dundas BI, from Dundas Data Visualization, is a browser-based business intelligence and data visualization platformthat includes integrated dashboards, reporting tools, and data analytics. It provides end users the ability to create interactive, customizable dashboards, build their own reports, run ad-hoc queries and analyze and drill-down into their data and performance metrics.
Review: Capterra
We needed a self-service BI solution that would cover manufacturing operations dashboards and use cases. We wanted a tool that would allow for the distribution of centralized common dashboards but also allow for self-service customization. It needed to connect to multiple disparate data sources, and provide native ETL. It also needed to allow for real-time refresh capability.
5. AnswerRocket Software
AnswerRocket is a search engine-based analytics and data visualization solution used by companies to receive complex analysis results in charts and graphs. The solution has a speech-to-text feature in which users can speak a query and the solution will provide relevant data with insights. It also provides data storage both in the cloud as well as on-premise.
Review: G2
Answer Rocket provides real data answers to questions in a fast, easy to use platform. Our team can literally make huge strategic decisions mid-meeting with the help of A-rock. The tool has a vast feature set and allows you to see your data in a wide range of chart options or exporting to Excel. As a director, this tool make it much easier to build strategic initiatives that are well informed and based on data, which everyone feels more comfortable with.
6. BOARD
Created to combine business intelligence, corporate performance management, and business analytics, BOARD is a full-featured business intelligence system that serves midsize and enterprise-level companies in a variety of different industry segments. Within the reporting functionality, BOARD allows users to pull from almost any data source, as well as generate full self-service reporting.
Review: G2
Board is a completely unique platform that allows its users to: plan, forecast and perform advanced analysis in the most efficient way available, personally I consider that all the functionality provided by Board is completely unified and shares the same metrics, data and vision of customers, products or services and marketing.
7. Phocas Business Intelligence Software
Phocas is a cloud-based, SaaS company specializing in data analytics for manufacturing, distribution and retail industries. Phocas uses sector knowledge to consolidate essential business data from common ERP, CRM and AP/AR systems to make it simple to access companywide insights through historical and predictive analysis. A core philosophy at Phocas is to make its software easy-to-use, which has endeared Phocas to a range of people in a company, non-technical and business analysts alike.
Review: Capterra
Phocas provided an ideal solution for producing the same views of information for Different job roles using the permissions in the background. This reduced our dependance on Excel reporting by around 60%.
8. ArcESB
CloverDX is a rapid, end-to-end data integration solution. Businesses choose CloverDX for its usability and intuitive controls, along with its lightweight footprint, flexibility, and processing speed. Achieving true, rapid data integration means much more than just raw data processing power. Rapid refers to an end-to-end process that begins the moment a data-related problem is recognized to the point when the data is in the right place and form to be analyzed and monetized.
Review: G2
I’ve managed software development projects for ETL tools and have used or evaluated a number of them. I’ve been continually impressed with the ease of use and tooling capabilities of CloverDX. Though CloverDX isn’t a specialized tool for Healthcare, the ability of the out of box components along with the ability to extend its usage through custom Java components makes it a great tool for any data pipelining task.
9. Linx
Linx is a low code platform to easily build and manage integration processes for nearly any business system, including databases, APIs, files, third-party libraries, enterprise systems or custom apps. It can Build, manage and deploy automated custom applications, code -free,Visually connect back-end data in databases, XML, HTML, Web services, JSON, or develop your own back-end as a service. Quickly build and reuse connections to bridge public and private environments
Review: G2
The best thing about LINX is the Plugins. LINX is a nifty set of tools that are allowing me to complete my data integration task quickly and efficiently. The more I use LINX, the more I realize that I have captured back time on my project and provided my clients with a great solution.
10. Xplenty
Xplenty is a cloud-based data integration platform that helps read, process and prepare information from various databases and integrate it with a wide variety of business applications. Primarily catering to the retail, hospitality and advertising industries, it allows businesses to have immediate connectivity to big data stores and manage processes such as planning dataflows, scheduling tasks and more.
Review: Softwareadvice
There are mostly two types of ETL as a service on the market: one is super easy to use and can migrate your data across services and databases but lacks transformation capabilities, while the other needs full-time data engineers to operate but tailored solutions are available programmatically. Xplenty sits in the golden middle letting analysts and engineers deploying custom transformation jobs in minutes even based on multiple data sources.
11. Integromat
Integromat is a free tool to connect apps and automate workflows using a beautiful, no-code visual builder. It enables one to connect to any API and create complex integrations using built-in apps and tools, no coding needed. Have the freedom to automate any online task, in just a few clicks.
Review: g2
The two best features of Integromat are the sheer volume of apps which you can connect together. This has been a game changer for our company, being able to connect all the main apps we use on a day to day basis, which are integral for running the business. The fact we can create an array of automation’s has taken so much of the manual process away.
12. ClicData
ClicData is a business intelligence (BI) dashboard solution designed for use primarily by small and midsized businesses. The tool enables end users to create reports and dashboards. A drag-and-drop interface designed for ease of use allows users to connect to data located both on-premise and in the cloud. Users can analyze data pulled from a wide variety of sources, including Google Analytics, Facebook, Salesforce, Oracle, MySQL and Dropbox.
Review: G2
I am coming off of using a competitive service (idashboards) for the past 5-8 years) and I only wish I had found clicdata sooner. idashboards wanted us to sign a 2 year contract for more than 7x the price of clicdata which jumped to 14x the price the 2nd year. Even putting price aside, ClicData is SO MUCH BETTER in every way! The mid tier membership with ClicData is serving our needs perfectly with a database connection.
13. Exago
Exago BI is a 100% web-based, end-to-end business analytics solution that’s designed to be embedded in web-based applications. Embedding Exago BI allows SaaS companies of all sizes to provide their customers with self-service ad hoc and operational reporting, interactive dashboards and scheduling capabilities. With Exago BI, users can blend data from different sources including SQL Server, MySQL, Oracle, PostgreSQL, DB2, Informix, MongoDB and Elasticsearch via CData drivers, ODBC, web service and custom assemblies.
Review: Capterra
Three years ago, we set out to find a reporting solution that could replace SQL Server Reporting Services. We had a long list of requirements, among them: A Web Based Report Designer Easy to Create Basic Reports with Little to No Training Advanced Functionality that would Satisfy our Advanced Users Licensing that working with an onsite and SaaS deployment model A Clean Modern Looking User Interface Ability to White Label Ability to Secure the Scope of the Accessible Tables and Data Ability to Integrate with our Security Model and Dynamic Table Relationships Ability to have a Distributed Execution Model for our SaaS solution that Maintained Data Isolation and Security Exago and one other reporting solution were short listed and went into an evaluation phase.
14. Rivery
Rivery is a cloud-based solution that provides small to large enterprises with business intelligence tools to manage and automate data pipelines. It comes with a centralized dashboard, which enables users to gain insights into business operations, review organizational performance and generate activity reports using key performance indicators (KPI).
Review: g2
First and foremost, even before the platform itself – the response time from the support team is very short. The support team also listen to your requests and questions, and are doing their best to provide a solution. You really feel that there is a genuine will to help.
15. Centralpoint
Centralpoint by Oxcyon is a content management solution that can be installed on-premise or accessed on the cloud from any mobile device with an internet connection.The modular applications can be deployed in a configuration that suits the specific needs of the company. The solution caters to large organizations in a variety of industries, such as Banking, Engineering, Manufacturing, Healthcare, and more.
Review: Softwareadvice
We have several self-hosted web sites that run on CentralPoint and are very happy with them. The Audience role is a powerful tool once we learned how to use it. They helped us set up the synchronization from development => user acceptance => production even though they are on different machines.
