100 new options. 20 new integrations. 2 huge product launches. A primary of its type buyer convention. At Atlan, 2023 was the yr of constructing the long run, with knowledge groups which are envisioning it. And we couldn’t be extra excited to recap the yr, so let’s get began.
The First AI Copilot for Information Groups
Generative AI modified the know-how panorama in 2023 and each knowledge crew began fascinated about the methods wherein they might use AI to turn out to be extra productive.
Armed with learnings from once we had been a knowledge crew, we seized the chance to make the lives of people of knowledge higher with Generative AI. In April 2023, we known as for a company-wide AI hackathon, sourcing concepts for the way forward for knowledge catalogs and knowledge governance.
Two months later, in June 2023, we launched Atlan AI. By partnering with Microsoft and utilizing Azure OpenAI Service, Atlan was the primary to deliver AI superpowers to knowledge catalogs, main a wave of AI innovation for knowledge governance.
Make your crew love documentation with Atlan AI
Within the previous world, everybody uncared for documentation, blocking companies from trusting knowledge and making sooner, higher selections. Atlan AI brings an finish to the ache by auto-generating descriptions for a variety of knowledge property in Atlan. All knowledge producers should do is overview, edit, and publish.
After 6 months of testing with clients below a closed preview, we’ve seen Atlan AI’s description strategies shine with an acceptance charge of 60%, giving people of knowledge extra time to work on business-critical tasks.
Clarify lineage transformations with Atlan AI
Lineage simplifies transformations by taking complexity away, displaying relationships between knowledge property. However when a knowledge analyst desires to dive deeper into how and why a knowledge asset was reworked, the method of parsing by way of advanced SQL queries can take hours. However not anymore.
Atlan AI helps knowledge analysts and engineers perceive advanced lineage transformations by explaining what’s occurring in pure language.
It’s not an exaggeration to say that knowledge catalogs and knowledge governance are altering eternally, and for the higher, due to AI.
The Way forward for Information Governance
In 2023, we hosted a primary of its type neighborhood convention on fashionable knowledge governance — Re:Govern. Almost a thousand people of knowledge got here collectively to listen to visionary knowledge leaders, from corporations like Nasdaq, Fox, Autodesk, Elastic, and HelloFresh, discuss their methods and playbooks for contemporary knowledge governance.
If there was just one key takeaway from Re:Govern, it will be this: the way forward for knowledge governance will look very totally different from its previous.
Amy Raygada (Swiss Market Group) and Mark Kidwell (Autodesk), shared their visionary approaches to constructing a knowledge mesh. Takashi Ueki (Elastic) make clear constructing automating belief by way of knowledge contracts. And Mihir Modi (FOX) defined his imaginative and prescient for knowledge merchandise and AI in knowledge governance.
Information groups are forsaking the previous world of handbook, siloed, one-size-fits-all approaches for a brand new world the place automation & AI, collaboration, and suppleness are key to success.
That’s why, in 2023, we began innovating in direction of a future the place knowledge mesh involves life, AI is embedded in our workflows, and handbook, conventional governance is automated. With that, Let’s recap 2023’s knowledge governance updates:
Convey your knowledge mesh to life with Atlan Mesh
Atlan Mesh is the primary ever native knowledge mesh expertise in a knowledge catalog. It’s an expertise that caters to knowledge shoppers and improves their understanding of the information property. Right here’s how:
- Information merchandise as first-class residents: Treating knowledge as a product requires a local answer, not workarounds. Information merchandise can now be created & curated natively in Atlan, inside a brand-new dwelling for simple, context-rich discovery for enterprise customers.
- Devoted areas for federated domains: With Atlan Mesh, every area will get its crew’s personal workspace and touchdown web page to deal with curated knowledge merchandise and documentation for knowledge shoppers.
- Enterprise lineage: Historically, lineage has been a technical device for knowledge producers to know influence and discover root causes. Atlan Mesh introduces enterprise lineage for knowledge shoppers, who need to perceive the provenance, not the technical structure, behind how knowledge merchandise are created to information utilization selections.
- Information contracts: To help the creation of knowledge merchandise and proactively bridge the hole between knowledge producers and shoppers, we launched a brand new imaginative and prescient for knowledge contracts in Atlan.
We’ve already began rolling out Atlan Mesh to the primary few clients, who will probably be part of the Atlan Mesh Advisory Council, and we’re excited to construct the way forward for federated, versatile knowledge governance collectively.
Handle compliance in a single dwelling with Tag Administration
As the fashionable knowledge stack continues to evolve, knowledge groups want to make sure the suitable individuals have the suitable entry to the suitable knowledge. This includes figuring out delicate knowledge and defending it with the suitable entry controls, whereas serving trusted knowledge to knowledge shoppers.
To resolve this problem, we launched Tag Administration — a brand new approach in your knowledge crew to handle compliance and safety — and have become one of many first Snowflake knowledge governance companions to allow bi-directional tag sync between Snowflake and Atlan.
Tag Administration lets you:
- Create tags natively or import tags from instruments like Snowflake into Atlan
- Classify knowledge property with tags at scale utilizing Atlan’s Playbooks
- Sync tag updates in Atlan again to knowledge sources like Snowflake
With Atlan’s Tag Administration for Snowflake, our crew can have one central dwelling to handle tags. Bi-directional tag sync will empower our knowledge producers to tag property the place they work and allow our platform crew to handle tags and permissions seamlessly.”
Roi Levoso Fernandez, Information Engineering Supervisor, Taxfix
Perceive influence and optimize prices with Reputation & Utilization metrics
As a knowledge chief, you’re at all times trying to get probably the most out of your knowledge, whereas controlling prices. However you want visibility into who’s truly utilizing what knowledge wherein instruments.
In 2023, we launched Reputation & Utilization for 4 connectors — Snowflake, Databricks, Energy BI, and Redshift — giving knowledge groups the power to:
- Uncover probably the most or least used property by sorting by recognition
- Perceive recognition in lineage with recognition indicators & pop-ups
- See who’s utilizing knowledge with High Customers and Current Customers
- Optimize the information property with Widespread, Gradual, and Costly queries
With the launch of Reputation and Utilization for Snowflake, Mistertemp, a pacesetter in recruitment and short-term work primarily based in France, deprecated 50% of unused Snowflake tables and over 60% of their Looker property:
Every thing downstream modified. We had been in a position to see each current connection in Fivetran. We might see what was truly used. We saved these, and for the whole lot else, we might disconnect.”
David Milosevic, Head of Information & Analytics, Mistertemp
The Period of Lively Metadata
Lively metadata has at all times been core to Atlan’s platform, and in 2023, we noticed it changing into the middle of knowledge estates throughout industries and companies too.
This yr, we had 20 new knowledge leaders, from companies like Docker, Purple, and Datacamp, be part of the Lively Metadata Pioneers membership — a visionary group that’s pushing the boundaries of metadata ahead by making lively metadata a precedence. And to shut out the yr, in November 2023, G2 launched its first Lively Metadata Grid Report, pushed by evaluations from actual customers, with Atlan being the one chief within the class.
With that, let’s recap 2023’s lively metadata developments:
Don’t go breaking my coronary heart dashboards with Metadata CI/CD
Affect evaluation is a tiring, time consuming, and disheartening course of for knowledge engineers. However with out it, one small change might break hundreds of dashboards. What if influence evaluation might be proactive and preventative, as a substitute of reactive and handbook? Say hiya to Metadata CI/CD.
With integrations for GitHub and GitLab, Metadata CI/CD robotically surfaces impacted property proper within the knowledge producer workflow. This implies knowledge engineers don’t should manually test influence and enterprise customers can belief their dashboards, which break much less typically.
After its launch, Metadata CI/CD helped a knowledge crew on Atlan notice that the request for a column identify change might influence greater than 1,000 business-critical dashboards.
Atlan has been an important assist. We now not should depend on these paperwork, and we’re in a position to do influence assessments on the click on of a button.”
Nestor Jarquin, International Information & Analytics Lead, Aliaxis
Bringing metadata to everybody’s favourite device: spreadsheets
There’s one knowledge device that has stood the take a look at of time: Excel.
In 2023, we launched and upgraded our integrations with Microsoft Excel and Google Sheets to allow new use instances:
- Speed up documentation by enriching metadata at scale
By importing knowledge property from Atlan into Excel or Sheets, now you can doc descriptions, certificates, homeowners, tags, and bulletins in your column property utilizing spreadsheet flexibility and sync the metadata updates to Atlan with a single click on.
- Construct belief and preserve finish customers knowledgeable with influence evaluation
Now you can analyze influence sooner by importing influence evaluation right into a spreadsheet and add bulletins to maintain finish customers knowledgeable.
Convey enterprise and knowledge collectively in Microsoft Groups
To create true company-wide adoption, you have to meet your customers the place they work. That’s why Atlan now integrates with Microsoft Groups. Now you can speed up your knowledge and enterprise tasks with higher, cross-functional collaboration round knowledge.
Atlan’s integration with Microsoft Groups lets you:
- Share knowledge property & ask knowledge questions in a Microsoft Groups channels with out leaving Atlan
- Hyperlink important, context-rich Microsoft Groups threads to Atlan property
- Get notifications & alerts in chosen Microsoft Groups channels
Push the boundaries of metadata with Webhooks and new Python and Java SDKs
Making ready your knowledge property and crew for mission-critical knowledge tasks, like AI fashions, wants a platform strategy to metadata. From event-driven metadata use instances like alerting to derived metadata use instances like Information as a Product scoring, knowledge groups are making the way forward for metadata come to life with this yr’s extensibility enhancements.
In 2023, we launched the Java and Python SDKs, enabling knowledge groups to construct customized lively metadata use instances like:
- Governance reporting: Measure the success your governance initiatives by automating metadata enrichment experiences.
- Customized connections: Join Atlan to your enterprise homegrown programs to allow end-to-end discovery and lineage.
- Derived metadata: Create customized metadata reminiscent of a “Metadata Completeness Rating” or “Information as a Product Rating” by analyzing metadata enrichment.
- Metadata migration: Robotically migrate all of your current metadata out of your legacy knowledge catalog to Atlan.
Together with Python and Java SDKs, we additionally launched help for Webhooks in 2023 — opening up the world of event-driven metadata use instances.
Webhooks can help you monitor occasions occurring in Atlan, obtain notifications to a URL of your alternative, and take motion instantly. For instance, you possibly can create a webhook to ship notifications to your electronic mail tackle or collaboration app, like Slack or Microsoft Groups, when a time period is up to date or an asset is tagged.
The probabilities are actually countless and we’re excited to see the way forward for lively metadata, constructed not by Atlan, however by knowledge groups all over the world.
A Collaboration to Ship Trusted Information
With each device within the fashionable knowledge stack changing into more and more siloed, the people of knowledge have gotten siloed as effectively.
Information shoppers, who stay in BI instruments, don’t have visibility into the upstream pipeline world of knowledge producers. So when issues go fallacious, they’re typically the final to know. And knowledge producers don’t know the way their code modifications are breaking downstream dashboards.
This yr, we launched native, out-of-the-box connectors for 18 new instruments, overlaying areas like Information High quality, Information Observability, Information Orchestration, and Enterprise Intelligence, to deliver the world of knowledge producers and shoppers nearer collectively. Let’s recap 2023’s key integrations.
All-New Partnerships with Information High quality Instruments
Almost 75% of the time, when issues go fallacious, enterprise stakeholders are the primary to establish knowledge points. It doesn’t should be this manner. Information high quality is a elementary sign into knowledge belief, however it wants to satisfy enterprise customers the place they work, together with the suitable metadata context.
That’s why, in 2023, we launched two new out-of-the-box integrations with leaders within the Information High quality and Observability market: Monte Carlo and Soda.
Monte Carlo x Atlan
With Monte Carlo and Atlan, companies can achieve an up-to-date understanding of their knowledge well being, construct belief in knowledge, and help progressive new methods to strategy distributed knowledge infrastructure. The native Monte Carlo integration provides you the power to:
- Uncover Monte Carlo incidents and screens in Atlan with Monte Carlo-specific filters.
- Democratize Monte Carlo’s knowledge high quality alerts wherever enterprise customers work with Atlan’s Chrome extension.
- Speed up root trigger and influence evaluation by way of Monte Carlo incidents being surfaced in Atlan’s column-level lineage.
With Monte Carlo and Atlan, we will catch knowledge incidents early on, and supply everybody with clear visibility into the present standing of knowledge accuracy. This has been important for the manager crew to have faith we will ship on our promise of dependable, reliable knowledge.“
Michael Weiss, Senior Director of Product Administration (NAM, Information Entry and Analytics), NASDAQ
Soda x Atlan
Atlan and Soda’s native integration supplies knowledge groups with an intuitive and complete platform to search out, belief, and use the suitable knowledge. The native Soda integration provides you the power to:
- Uncover Soda knowledge high quality metrics and ends in Atlan.
- Inform knowledge customers of knowledge points earlier than they make selections by highlighting Soda’s test ends in Atlan’s Chrome extension.
- Speed up root trigger and influence evaluation by way of Soda checks being surfaced in Atlan’s column-level lineage.
BI Connectors for Enterprise Adoption
To drive adoption of your knowledge catalog platform and knowledge governance initiatives, you have to meet enterprise customers the place they work: in BI instruments. In 2023, we launched native, out-of-the-box connectors for six new BI instruments to assist knowledge groups drive company-wide adoption:
- Sigma
- Qlik Sense
- Amazon Quicksight
- MicroStrategy
- Thoughtspot
- Sisense
These BI connectors allow companies to:
- Construct a verified, single supply of reality for BI property by enabling discovery and documentation of BI property in Atlan.
- Allow proactive influence evaluation of downstream dashboards and use instances by connecting BI property to upstream warehouse, ELT, and supply property with cross-system lineage.
- Construct belief in knowledge by surfacing belief alerts from knowledge high quality, observability, and orchestration instruments.
I’ve had at the least two conversations the place questions on downstream influence would have taken allocation of lots of assets. Then truly getting the work executed would have taken at the least 4 to 6 weeks, however I managed to sit down alongside one other architect and clear up that inside half-hour, saying ‘In the event you’re altering the column identify or including an additional column, that is what it’s going to interrupt or influence.”
Karthik Ramani, International Head of Information Structure, Dr. Martens
Bringing ELT & Orchestration Context to the Enterprise
Operational metadata can deliver highly effective context from pipeline processes for each enterprise customers and knowledge groups. In 2023, we invested in constructing native connectors to instruments that might assist reply this query: when a pipeline fails, how do you inform a enterprise consumer and assist a knowledge engineer discover the foundation trigger sooner? That’s why we constructed our first event-driven integration with Airflow and OpenLineage.
Airflow x OpenLineage x Atlan
In 2023, Airflow, OpenLineage, and Atlan partnered to construct an ecosystem of belief by making real-time pipeline observability a actuality. Right here’s how:
- Get a complete overview of your Airflow pipelines in Atlan by cataloging and documenting Airflow property, reminiscent of DAGs and duties.
- Observe and monitor your pipeline in a single dwelling with real-time operational metadata like process run particulars and statuses.
Perceive influence of your Airflow pipelines by visualizing how Airflow DAGs and duties connect with your knowledge property with cross-system lineage.
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