El Gobierno del Dato & la IA están de moda y por eso, después de haber publicado varios Market Guides para este ámbito en los últimos años, Gartner acaba de publicar los primeros Magic Quadrant y Critical Capabilities para el ámbito de Data & Analytics Governance Plaftorms.

En estos informes, Gartner ha seleccionado a los 16 vendors más relevantes a nivel mundial para este segmento y, como no podía ser de otra forma, Anjana Data ha sido incluida en la lista.

Desde nuestro nacimiento en 2019 hemos ido cosechando muchos éxitos pero aparecer en un Magic Quadrant (nada menos que en el primero que se publica para un segmento tan relevante como lo es el de Data & Analytics Governance) no es simplemente otro éxito más. Esto supone un verdadero reconocimiento a nuestra visión innovadora y disruptiva, a nuestra propuesta de valor diferencial, a nuestro trabajo, esfuerzo y dedicación en estos últimos 5 años, y a todo aquello que un día decidimos llamar #GenAnjana.

Este reconocimiento nos sitúa en lo más alto de la cúspide de las empresas proveedoras de tecnología para gestión de datos a nivel mundial. Tal y como suena.

Y es que no es muy habitual que en este tipo de informes de clase mundial realizado por analistas para los que el mercado americano es el 90% del mundo, se cuele una empresa española, con poco más de 5 años de vida, cuyo foco son los mercados de Iberia y Latinoamérica donde aportamos un valor tremendo, que no tiene detrás ningún Venture Capital ni ningún Private Equity ni ninguna gran Corporación que la financie, etc. Es por eso que para nosotros, además de por aquello de codearnos con los big players a nivel global con los que ya venimos compitiendo cara a cara en Iberia y Latinoamérica, ser una de las bolitas de un Magic Quadrant es algo tremendamente especial y de lo que nos sentimos enormemente orgullosos.

Este reconocimiento no solo es un motivo de orgullo, sino también un testimonio del impacto de nuestra visión y tecnología en el mercado. En este artículo queremos explicar qué significan estos informes, por qué son importantes y cómo posicionan a Anjana Data.

¿Qué son estos informes y por qué son tan importantes?

El Magic Quadrant es uno de los informes más reconocidos en la industria de la tecnología. Su objetivo es ofrecer una evaluación clara de los principales proveedores en un mercado específico, utilizando dos ejes: Ability to Execute (capacidad de ejecución) y Completeness of Vision (integridad de visión). Esto da lugar a cuatro categorías de proveedores:

• Leaders: Excelencia tanto en ejecución como en visión.
• Visionaries: Innovadores con gran visión, pero aún en proceso de consolidar su ejecución.
• Challengers: Sólidos en ejecución, pero con una visión menos desarrollada.
• Niche Players: Proveedores que destacan en nichos específicos o en regiones concretas.

Por su parte, el informe Critical Capabilities complementa al Magic Quadrant proporcionando una evaluación más técnica y detallada de las funcionalidades clave de cada proveedor, evaluándolas según casos de uso específicos como enterprise control, domain analytics y experimentation.

Estos informes no solo proporcionan una visión clara del mercado, sino que también ayudan a las empresas a identificar las soluciones más adecuadas para sus necesidades.

Aquí te dejamos los enlaces a los informes pero recuerda que tienes que ser cliente de Gartner para poder acceder al contenido. Lamentablemente, nosotros no podemos compartirlo porque no tenemos la autorización para ello.

• Magic Quadrant
• Critical Capabilities

El mercado de Data & Analytics Governance Platforms según Gartner

Gartner define este segmento como plataformas que ofrecen un conjunto integrado de capacidades tecnológicas y empresariales para desarrollar, implementar y monitorizar políticas de gobernanza en sistemas empresariales. Estas plataformas son fundamentales para garantizar que los datos sean fiables, seguros y estén alineados con los objetivos estratégicos de la empresa.

Lo que diferencia a estas plataformas de la gestión de datos tradicional es su enfoque en la creación y cumplimiento de políticas, en lugar de la ejecución de las mismas​. En concreto, Gartner diferencia este ámbito de otras áreas de la Gestión de Datos, como Data Quality o Master Data Management (MDM), por su enfoque en la organización, control y responsabilidad sobre los datos dentro de un ecosistema empresarial.

La gobernanza de datos no solo asegura el cumplimiento normativo, sino que también crea confianza en los datos y potencia la toma de decisiones basada en analítica. Así, a diferencia de otros mercados dentro de la gestión de datos, el gobierno de datos se centra en el diseño, la definición y la aplicación de políticas y procedimientos así como en garantizar el cumplimiento regulatorio, delegando aspectos más operativos y técnicos en soluciones complementarias.

El papel del gobierno de datos es más relevante que nunca en un mundo donde las organizaciones manejan volúmenes masivos de información y deben cumplir con normativas cada vez más estrictas, como GDPR, CCPA, AI Act o las Leyes de Privacidad y Protección de Datos emergentes en Latinoamérica. Este contexto ha impulsado a las empresas a buscar soluciones que garanticen un gobierno de datos robusto y escalable.

Nuestro posicionamiento como Niche Player

En este primer Magic Quadrant de Data & Analytics Governance Platforms, Anjana Data ha sido incluida como Niche Player. ¿Qué significa esto? Básicamente, que somos un jugador especializado, con un enfoque claro y diferenciado, que destaca en áreas específicas del mercado.

En este contexto, nuestro posicionamiento como Niche Player tiene una explicación lógica:

1. Foco geográfico: Estamos profundamente enraizados en los mercados de Iberia y Latinoamérica, lo que ha limitado nuestra expansión global por ahora, pero también nos ha permitido ser líderes en nuestra región. En este sentido, nuestro foco va a seguir siendo el mismo en 2025 pero también hemos lanzado ya algunas iniciativas para entrar poco a poco en otros países de Europa.
2. Especialización en Gobierno: Nuestra plataforma prioriza las capacidades de gobernanza, integrándose con herramientas de terceros y soluciones open-source para funciones más centradas en Gestión de Datos, como Data Quality, MDM o Data Virtualization.
3. Fase de crecimiento: Somos una scaleup en plena expansión, y aún estamos en proceso de alcanzar nuestro máximo potencial.

Nuestro valor diferencial

En los mercados de Iberia y Latinoamérica, la presencia de la gran mayoría de vendors que aparecen en el cuadrante se reduce considerablemente. De hecho, casi siempre nos encontramos compitiendo cara a cara con los vendors identificados en este cuadrante como Leaders en la mayoría de las oportunidades, destacando frente a ellos por ofrecer una visión más innovadora y disruptiva, un enfoque más ágil, cercano y unas capacidades más flexibles tanto para distintos grados de madurez como para cubrir las necesidades cambiantes de las organizaciones.

Hace poco escribimos un artículo hablando en detalle sobre esto pero, resumiéndolo en 3 puntos, nuestros clientes nos eligen porque aportamos:

• Flexibilidad y personalización: Nuestra plataforma está diseñada para empezar por los casos de uso más básicos pero también para adaptarse rápidamente a entornos altamente complejos ofreciendo capacidades avanzadas.
• Soporte local y especializado: Entendemos las necesidades del mercado y de nuestros clientes de manera más profunda que los gigantes globales y somos capaces de ofrecerles soluciones mucho más efectivas y eficientes en tiempo récord.
• Colaboración y visión conjunta: Junto con nuestros partners, nos asociamos con nuestros clientes para apoyarles y desarrollar con ellos iniciativas que realmente les aporten un valor diferencial.

Echar la vista atrás para volver a mirar al futuro

Este reconocimiento coincide con un cierre de año con muy buenos resultados y marca el comienzo de una etapa emocionante para Anjana Data. Nos motiva a seguir expandiendo nuestras capacidades y aumentando nuestro impacto en el mercado global, mientras continuamos liderando en nuestra región.

Pero este reconocimiento no sería posible sin tod@s aquell@s que nos acompañan en este viaje. A tod@s ell@s, ¡GRACIAS!

Gracias a tod@s aquell@s que comparten el #GenAnjana.

Gracias a tod@s l@s anjaner@s y también a los que en algún momento han sido o se han sentido uno más de esta familia, por haber aportado tanto.

Gracias a nuestros clientes y partners, a los actuales y los futuros por confiar en nosotros pero también a los pasados por habernos servido de aprendizaje en el camino.

Gracias a l@s que nos aguantan de forma continua, tanto en lo profesional como en lo personal, que no es fácil.

Gracias a nuestros inversores que han apostado su patrimonio personal recogido después de años de mucho trabajo, dedicación y esfuerzo.

Gracias a las instituciones y organismos, tanto públicas como privadas, y a tod@s aquell@s profesionales y expert@s que nos han apoyado y nos siguen apoyando en este camino.

Gracias a nuestros competidores que nos hacen ser cada día mejores.

Gracias a los analistas de Gartner con los que hemos tenido el placer de hablar en todo este tiempo, en especial a aquellos que han elaborado estos informes: Guido de Simoni, Anurag Raj, Melody Chien, Stephen Kennedy. Y también a aquellos con los que hemos compartido numerosos debates como Saul Judah, Andrew White, Amy Bickel, Lydia Ferguson, Robert Thanaraj, Georgia O’Callaghan, Jason Medd, Christopher Long, Mark Beyer, entre otros.

Y por supuesto gracias a todas aquellas personas del ecosistema y de la comunidad del Data Management de las que siempre aprendemos cada día un poquito más.

Si deseas saber más sobre cómo podemos ayudarte a transformar tu estrategia de Gobierno de Datos & IA, no dudes en contactarnos. ¡Esto es solo el principio de un gran viaje!

Anjana Data has obtained the Foundational Technical Review (FTR) from AWS, which certifies that the platform meets all the requirements of adaptability and flexibility that make it possible to work well with the AWS Cloud. This not only establishes a seal of assurance for any Anjana Data and AWS customer but also positions Anjana Data as one of the AWS recommended Data Governance & Analytics Platforms within the category that AWS recognised as Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) and qualifies it to be part of a number of specific AWS partner programmes for the acceleration of their joint business.

Thus, Anjana Data and AWS take another step forward in their partnership agreement after 3 years of working together. The reason for the success of this collaboration and the commitment of both companies to take it to the next level is that Anjana Data and AWS share the goal of helping organizations in their Data Strategy with a common vision: “Organizations that do not use innovative technologies as enablers of a modern and flexible approach to the implementation and operationalization of their Data Governance & Analytics frameworks will be at risk in the short term”.

This new agreement comprises the following lines of work, in addition to those already being worked on jointly by the two companies:

• Development of a value proposition to offer our customers our shared vision through the implementation of a complete, innovative and differential solution, fully integrated natively on AWS.

• Design, development and availability of new integration mechanisms between different parts of AWS and Anjana Data, such as the evolution of existing integrations with IAM, Glue Catalog and Lake Formation or the development of new integration parts with DataZone and Cloud Trail.
• Availability of different Anjana Data offerings in the AWS Marketplace, especially boosting the SaaS offering, so that AWS customers can have a much richer Anjana Data deployment experience and can also benefit from the advantages offered by AWS to its customers who are consumers of Marketplace applications.
• Design and development of a specific business and commercial plan thanks to which our clients will be able to benefit not only from the power of the solutions of both companies but also from credits, discounts and joint adoption and support plans.
• Launch of joint marketing and communications actions to position our joint value proposition in the market, also giving visibility to the success stories already achieved in our joint customers.

In terms of the joint value proposition, a Data Governance & Analytics Platform such as Anjana Data has all the elements of governance and orchestration of the flows of a governance operating model, which is where the roles exercise responsibility for the data. The AWS cloud lacks these functions, but it provides great value in knowing what happens to the data (how it is used, who uses it, where it moves, what that data is and its classification) and all that happens to the data gives us a real and dynamic view of its lifecycle within the cloud environment. All this information is of great value to incorporate into Anjana Data, unifying both visions and capabilities. In this context, the highlights of the Anjana Data and AWS value proposition are:

• Anjana Data complements and extends the capabilities of the cloud-native Data Catalog (AWS Glue Catalog) to offer advanced features for the implementation of proactive and preventive, as well as effective and efficient Data Governance (automation of common technical processes). Therefore, we can say that Anjana Data establishes a business-oriented and technology-agnostic governance layer that extends to the entire organization (technical and non-technical users) the possibility of using all these capabilities.
• Anjana Data’s Data Sharing Agreements allow users to request access to the data they are interested in within a complete, governed Data Marketplace ecosystem. Through the use of plug-ins, we can leverage the power of Anjana Data and its integration with IAM and Lake Formation to allow such requests to be made on the AWS platform in an automated and controlled manner.
• Anjana Data can provide through plugins that interact with the Apis of the different parts of AWS, both labels and specific columns (Personal Information, Sensitive, etc) interacting with Glue Catalog and Lake Formation from the Anjana Data Glossary and Data Catalog.
• Similarly, in the other direction, the Anjana Data APIs can be invoked from the various pieces of AWS to provide the governance layer with all the low-level data management information that allows non-technical users to have visibility into what is happening with data assets on the AWS platform.

Last Friday, 26th August 2022, Anjana Data celebrated our third anniversary in style. A large group of members of the company made an informal and casual video in which we talked about the philosophy that guides us in Anjana Data, a philosophy that we have called the Anjana Gene. This gene represents each and every one of the people who make up this family that never stops growing and achieving milestones and is what keeps the flame of this adventure alive.

A lot has happened in these three years at Anjana Data and we could not be prouder of everything we have achieved since we founded the company and launched our platform to the market. However, despite all the evolution of this time, all changes, all growth, all successes and failures, we have managed to maintain that which makes us unique. And we have found no better way to tell all this than through the anjaneros

WATCH VIDEO

However, we also wanted to share with all of you who accompany us in this adventure, Partners and Customers, the internal initiative that we have had with the whole Anjana Data team. Thanks to the designs of Laura Pareja, Front-end Developer & UX/UI Designer at Anjana Data, all Anjaneros will have their own avatar. Laura’s designs have a touch of humour and a circular shape that surrounds the caricature and describes through drawings what hobbies that each member of the Anjana team has. Below, we leave you a video in which you can see the whole process of creating the avatars of Anjana Data.

WATCH VIDEO

In the end it´ss these initiatives that differentiate us and make us unique, and although Anjana has changed a lot since that first demo in 2019, we have managed to scale the company to the point where we are now, preserving the philosophy with which we were born. In the coming months we have a new landscape ahead of us, with new fellow travellers, new goals and new capabilities. Soon we will announce many new developments that will mark a before and after in our evolution as a company. From Anjana Data we hope that in another three years we can still be proud of having kept intact the Anjana Gene that has brought us this far and that will continue to take us very far.

The Beaz Acceleration Program launched by the Provincial Council of Bizkaia consists of a high performance program thanks to which it aims to deploy a dynamic business acceleration in the Historical Territory of Bizkaia with which it seeks to support the innovative ecosystem through four verticals: exclusive training, expert advice, tailored financing and facilities that connect with the world.

The program is focused on adapting to the specific needs of the companies, defining an action plan to achieve the objectives set for them and also includes a business training plan provided by IE University in addition to the relationship with the advisory board that will guide the companies throughout the acceleration process.

In this context, Anjana Data has been one of those chosen to be part of the program «because it’s at an ideal moment of opportunity to accelerate the proposed growth project», according to the Admissions Committee.

According to Mario de Francisco Ruiz, CEO of Anjana Data, “the innovation ecosystem that the Provincial Council of Bizkaia is setting up around investment in startups is very relevant. The fact of being able to be in such an important ecosystem at a territorial level, and especially with the bridges they’re building with the rest of Europe, with venture capital funds and with other innovative companies”.

In addition, the Beaz Acceleration Program also offers the opportunity to be in the B Accelerator Tower space, the world’s best connected entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem, alongside other leading global innovation companies.

Additionally, the CEO of Anjana Data also adds that “in our market we compete with very large companies, companies like Microsoft or IBM; so our differential value with respect to these organizations is proximity, agility, flexibility and trust”.

From Anjana Data we want to thank the Provincial Council of Bizkaia and Beaz for betting on innovation through investment and support to companies with a disruptive and differential vision like ours. For Anjana Data, the fact of having been selected for this program is a great milestone, as this opens a range of possibilities for the development of the company.

Following the same line that has led Anjana Data to become one of the most innovative and disruptive Data Governance solutions on the current scene, we present the new version 4.3, which brings a series of relevant evolutions and improvements in terms of the design of the entire tool, with new advanced UX & UI capabilities to improve the experience of different types of users, as well as improvements in the performance of the solution and some other new features in terms of functionality coverage.

The evolution in the UX & UI design is one of the most significant changes in the new version of Anjana Data, including general improvements in the dynamic forms, the evolution of the designs of some UI screens unifying colors and styles, the introduction of graphic and intuitive elements to facilitate the interaction of users with the application and the creation of new screens for the massive management of objects.

The new multi-language management capabilities is another of the differential points to be highlighted with respect to other Data Governance solutions. In addition to having a multi-language interface in previous versions, this new 4.3 version allows the configuration of different languages for managing the content of the metadata attributes of the governed objects. This option also applies to practically all the functions of the tool, from auditing related to the governed objects to the notifications of the solution itself.

Additionally, it’s also worth mentioning the evolution in the object bulk management capabilities, both through the interface and the APIs, since Anjana Data 4.3 includes the object bulk editing functionality from the UI for those users who have the corresponding permission configured. Thanks to these changes, the user will be able to mass edit a list of attributes for several objects of the same subtype.

Anjana Data 4.3 also includes an evolution in the configuration capabilities of validation flows, allowing the complete evaluation of the object at the beginning of any workflow in order to design alternative paths based on any attribute and logical rules. Additionally, it incorporates the possibility of configuring attributes for which it isn’t necessary to launch a validation workflow.

Another of the most relevant aspects to be highlighted is related to snapshot management, since this version makes it possible to download snapshots of the governed objects both from the Anjana Data UI and from the APIs. Thus, the user will be able to download a snapshot with all the information of the object at any time of its life cycle in order to know the snapshot of an object at a given moment.

The latest version of Anjana Data also includes improvements with respect to the management of roles and permissions, as it adds the possibility of assigning a default role to users who register for the first time in Anjana. This role grants the configured permissions to users who, initially, haven’t specific role in the application. In addition, it also incorporates the use of user and role caching to improve application performance, and an alternative internal authorization mechanism that avoids the need to use an external identity management system.

Finally, the architectural improvements focus on the upgrade to the latest version of Angular, design improvements thanks to the incorporation of the ng-zorro library and the use of grids for graphical interfaces, improved performance of microservices, centralization of UI error management, inclusion of kubernetes operators for several modules and availability of two new kits: one for deployment automation using Ansible and another for advanced monitoring of the platform with Prometheus and Grafana.

Discover all the information about Anjana Data v4.3 by downloading the Release Notes.

When we created Anjana Data as an independent company in mid-2019, we could not have imagined that in just two years we would be recognised by Gartner as one of the most relevant solutions in the global Data Governance market, one of the most demanding markets, which has been changing radically in recent years, a market in which almost all the leading vendors in data solutions are signing up, in which we compete on a daily basis with multinational companies with a lot of muscle and very powerful solutions, and in which every week new start-ups appear with innovative solutions or new open-source initiatives are launched, apparently promising.

Moreover, it is a market where there is still a long way to go and a lot of evangelisation to be done, with very high barriers to entry and very long sales cycles, so at first glance everything would suggest that entering the Champions League and rubbing shoulders with the most representative vendors seems complicated. But sometimes these things happen and it is then that you look back and realise how much you have achieved in such a short time. It is then when you really think that being faithful to a philosophy, putting it into practice and transmitting it with passion can be more powerful than the solutions that have been leading the market for years, than the marketing messages launched by the most powerful technology companies in the world or than their sales teams with their commercial strategies.

And that’s also when, after you’ve puffed out your chest a little at the recognition of having done well, you feel like thanking a lot of people. That is why this article has three main objectives:

1. To echo one of the most important milestones to date for Anjana Data (it is not every day that you are recognised as one of the most representative vendors worldwide in your market).
2. Carry out a small analysis of the market in which we are framed (the typical analysis of where we come from, where we are and where we are going).
3. And, of course, a big thank you to all those who have placed their trust in Anjana Data and, of course, to those who have not. Both have given us the strength to get this far and continue to give us the strength to continue on this journey, which has only just begun.

Starting with point one, we are very excited to share with everyone that Anjana Data has been included by Gartner in the Market Guide for Data & Analytics Governance Platforms as one of the most outstanding solutions in the market for Data Governance. Moreover, it is especially relevant to point out that it is the only Spanish solution of all those included and also the only one that generates genuine content in Spanish as the main language (although we also translate it into English as it is commonly accepted as the universal language in technology and business).

The market for technology solutions that support data governance is evolving at a very fast pace and that is why Gartner has begun to replace some of the most recognised Magic Quadrants in this segment with other types of reports such as Market Guide and Vendor Identification Tools. In this context, in December 2021 Gartner has published those related to what they have called Data & Analytics Governance Platforms and in both of them Anjana Data appears as one of the main solutions in the market.

Specifically, being included in the Market Guide puts Anjana Data in a privileged position, as this report only selects the most representative vendors in the market that meet a series of capabilities and requirements, which have been evaluated by some of the best independent analysts following a methodology of recognised prestige.

And what is meant by Data & Analytics Governance Platforms? Well, Gartner states the following: “A data and analytics governance platform is a set of integrated business capabilities that help business leaders and users to evaluate and implement a diverse set of governance policies and monitor and enforce those policies across their organizations’ business systems. These platforms are unique from data management and discrete governance tools in that data management and such tools focus on policy execution, whereas these platforms are used primarily by business roles, not only or even specifically IT roles”.

Thus, Gartner establishes the following capabilities within the scope of this type of platform:

• Access management
• Active metadata
• Analytics
• Business glossary
• Connectivity/integration
• Data catalog
• Data classification
• Data dictionary
• Data lineage
• Impact analysis
• Information policy representation (high level)
• Matching, linking and merging
• Orchestration/automation
• Profiling
• Rules management (low-level)
• Tag management
• User interface (as support for all governance related roles)
• Workflow management
• Task management
• Model management
• Security (on the platform itself)
• Organization and role models

Regarding the market, as Gartner points out: “The data and analytics governance platforms market is embryonic. Overall, data and analytics governance has attracted technology investments that give organizations capabilities from a range of technologies, both broad and deep”.

The importance of this market in the current ecosystem is therefore clear, as is the long road ahead. Gartner also states that this is due to the difference in capabilities required between Data Management and Data Governance: “There is a need for convergence of capabilities with the recognition that the work of data and analytics governance is different than the work of data management. Although the capabilities that serve both are similar, the context in which those same capabilities are used differs between governance and management”.

In this context, we can analyse the main drivers that have led to the evolution of the market and also those that will mark the future of the market, which goes far beyond the functionalities and features offered by this type of solutions.

If we focus on the functional vision of these solutions aligned to the business requirements of the organizations:

• Data is becoming one of the most important strategic assets for organizations and they are all striving to become Data-Driven. This means that data as an asset ceases to be something under the umbrella of IT and becomes of much greater interest to business areas, who demand technological solutions with a business vision, which facilitate the management and governance of the data they work with on a daily basis. This is why they are also beginning to require intuitive solutions with a more manageable learning curve.
• The consolidation of the data economy and the need for organizations to share reliable and quality data both internally and externally has led to the creation of data spaces, which must be based on fully governed ecosystems that provide reliability and transparency to the processes of publication, sharing and consumption of information. This requires technological solutions that support such creation and facilitate its operation and maintenance.
• The emergence of concepts that are closer to the language of business such as “Data Culture”, “Data Literacy”, “Breaking information silos”, “Democratisation of data”, “Self-service of information”, “Monetisation of data or Infonomics” and an increase in the capabilities of non-technical profiles when working with data mean that data management has to be understood from a non-technical point of view and with a clear objective of generating value for the business.
• The need for agile and flexible procedures supported by clear and concise policies that are understood and adopted by all those involved in the organization makes it necessary to have technological tools that help with the operationalisation and automation of these procedures, involving the different actors identified.
• The emergence of new regulations and standards both at sectoral and governmental levels makes organizations decide to invest more in technological tools to ensure data governance and auditing of their processes.
• Organizations are beginning to perceive the value of data governance in terms of increased efficiency, cost reduction and better management of the risks inherent in the use of data, with the result that investment in this type of solutions is beginning to grow, but above all with a focus on achieving the automation of common technical processes. In this context, tools that are disconnected from the rest of the data ecosystem and that do not rely on the collaboration of different profiles to achieve these objectives are no longer an option.
• It has been demonstrated that a Big-Bang approach is not suitable for this type of transformational initiatives, so solutions that are very complex to implement are also discarded in favour of models that are much more iterative, incremental and scalable. In addition, given the need to adapt and customise solutions to the operational reality of each organization, tools with out-of-the-box models that are not very flexible and extensible are no longer considered relevant.
• The explosion in the use of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning and the low profitability obtained from this type of initiatives despite the large investments made forces organizations to rethink their management and governance models for the raw material that feeds the algorithms, the data. This means that, once again, the ability to adapt and customise a data governance solution is key to being able to cover these scenarios.

On the other hand, if we think from a more technological point of view and from the point of view of fitting in with the technical architectures of organizations:

• The maturity reached by key technologies such as IoT, Big Data and Cloud makes it possible for organizations to have at their disposal a multitude of data and capabilities to obtain value from their exploitation at a much lower cost than in the past. This means that huge amounts of data (structured, semi-structured and unstructured), in a multitude of different formats (tables, views, files, documents, images, audio, videos, events, etc.), and with different generation frequencies (streaming, real-time, near real-time, batch, etc.), now have to be managed and governed, with all that this entails from a technical point of view.
• There is a flood of new technologies specialised in solving specific problems in the different phases of the data lifecycle, coinciding with a low acceptance of technological standards, which makes the variability of formats and types of data and processes to be managed and governed literally unmanageable. This situation is exacerbated by the fact that many legacy systems or customised developments are still being maintained using obsolete technologies and black boxes, the guts of which are not easily accessible or interpretable. Technology that offers value-added features is therefore required to manage these types of integrations or even native integrations between solutions from different vendors as well as company acquisitions and integrations are becoming more common.
• The vast majority of organizations that want to become data-driven or that are born with this vision are beginning to position themselves clearly towards the consolidation of hybrid, multi-cloud, scalable architectures, without black boxes, interoperable and based on integrated solutions made up of different pieces. The search is no longer for a large all-in-one platform with on-premise deployment, vendor lock-in is being avoided, open-source is losing ground (examples such as Hadoop-Cloudera, Kafka-Confluent, Spark-Databricks, etc.), open solutions are being sought with internal data repositories available for exploitation, which are easily integrated into any technological architecture (API-first) and, above all, Cloud-first solutions are being prioritised.
• Cloud providers are gaining so much weight in the current ecosystem that the use of their native services managed by any technology is becoming almost essential for architecture and infrastructure teams in order to facilitate deployments, operation and maintenance of technical platforms. It is also becoming very important to have different deployment alternatives and service models, seeking automation in CI/CD circuits and giving a lot of weight to the presence of solutions in the different marketplaces of Cloud providers as Cloud-native applications.
• New concepts of data architecture and technical architecture such as Data Lakehouse, Data Fabric, Data Mesh, Data Marketplace and DataOps are beginning to gain momentum in the market, promoted both by the main analysts and gurus and by the vendors themselves. Organizations trying to adopt this type of models require technological tools capable of operationalising them and taking them from paper to day-to-day reality, which requires flexibility and adaptability capabilities that were not necessary until now.

And finally, if we take into account variables more linked to economic aspects:

• It is no longer common to bet on tools that imply a high initial investment, since the budgets of the organizations are very tight and it is starting to be required internally to demonstrate a positive ROI in the short/medium term to convince senior management that the investment in this type of technology is worthwhile in the long term.
• Following the model offered by Cloud providers, there is a move away from the custom of acquiring perpetual licences for a specific software version towards the search for much more flexible pricing models oriented towards pay-per-use, without excessive permanence commitments and which include a series of value-added services (constant updates, support included, access to development resources, training and communities of interest, etc.).
• Organizations seek models that do not compromise their scalability in such a way that, while they demand licensing models linked to pay-per-use, they also request special conditions for high volumes of use (users, concurrency, use cases, storage, processing, etc.) and heavily penalise hidden or indirect costs based on variables over which they have no control (connectors, fonts, professional services, customised developments, expert support, etc.). All this has a direct impact on key aspects such as time-to-value, time-to-market and Total Cost Of Ownership.
• Invoicing through Cloud providers (via Marketplaces) is becoming more and more common and organizations value it positively because they are able to reduce suppliers, centralise IT costs, improve their management and also obtain special conditions and discounts because Cloud providers themselves are pushing both vendors and customers to adapt to this new scenario.

 In short, Gartner states the following regarding the needs that solutions focused on this market have to meet: “The needs associated with data and analytics governance have never been centralised and consolidated, yet time and again, siloed solutions were the only tools employed. If the level of data and analytics governance support does not reflect the realities of digital business, critical business operations will function suboptimally or fail, causing significant and lasting damage to the organization. This is evidenced by a recent data and analytics governance survey, which shows organizations falling well short of reaching their governance objectives. Even when they don’t fail outright, business operations will limp along meekly and gradually decline in performance, leading to ever-greater malaise. If, however, the level of data and analytics governance is overbearing, complex or overengineered, or continues to be fragmented, the time to value of the initiative will be impacted, and less business value will be delivered at a higher cost.

And with all this, the logical question that arises is: How does Anjana Data position itself in this market and what is our value proposition? Well, if you are still reading this article and you still don’t know what Anjana Data offers compared to other solutions, apart from covering the functionalities already identified, I will summarise them for you in these lines:

• It provides a collaborative approach with a business vision but with a global reach at all levels of any type of organization, serving as a meeting point for both business and technical profiles thanks to the personalisation and customisation capabilities of the operating model.
• It allows the creation and maintenance of a common language for the entire data ecosystem, fully customisable and adapted to the organization without the need to be subject to technological evolutions thanks to the implementation of a metamodel “TECHNOLOGY AGNOSTIC METADATA CENTRIC”.
• The possibility of creating a one-stop shop for different data stakeholders, integrated with demand management, covering their different needs in a personalised way thanks to a carefully designed UX&UI that is particularly intuitive and with a manageable learning curve.
• Native bi-directional integration with a multitude of technologies of different nature, with varied characteristics and serving multiple purposes related to data management.
• Capabilities for the implementation of “PROACTIVE AND PREVENTIVE GOVERNANCE” so that an organization can build Data Marketplace, Data Fabric and DataOps ecosystems based on the automation of common technical processes and on the Governance-first and Governance-by-design principles fully integrated with its data platforms.
• A state-of-the-art functional and technical architecture, based on the basic principles of modularisation, scalability, interoperability, flexibility and adaptability and supporting complex hybrid, multi-environment and multi-cloud scenarios.
• Without black boxes and with multiple alternatives for the extension of the solution’s own capabilities as well as for the development of new connectors, and the possibility of launching customised actions or ad-hoc developments through the use of interceptors or the configuration of tasks in the steps of the natively integrated BPM workflows.
• Leverage, take advantage of and complement all the capabilities of native Cloud technologies, both those with a greater focus on governance (identity management, data access permissions management, data catalogues, data structure management, audit log monitoring, etc.) and those oriented towards data processing (ingestion, storage, processing and exploitation).
• Native use of the services managed by the Cloud providers themselves to facilitate everything related to the management, operation and maintenance of the infrastructure (provision of machines, deployment of services, installation, configuration of connections, application of security policies, monitoring, back-ups, high availability, etc.).
• Availability of the solution in the Marketplaces of the main Clouds in different modalities adapted to the needs of the clients (from transactional native application with IaaS/PaaS deployments to SaaS and BYOL modalities).
• Pricing model adapted to the changing needs of organizations to reduce initial investment as well as time-to-market, time-to-value and TCO while maximising the ROI linked to the implementation and use of the solution.

Finally, regarding the future of the market, Gartner states the following: “The points above refer to and focus on the capabilities organizations need to meet their D&A governance needs. This does not dictate how vendors will behave. Some will partner and integrate solutions to form interoperable platforms. Some will acquire others to attempt the same. Some will remain focused on niche or stand-alone segment needs. The next few years will be marked with ongoing and increased acquisitions and developments, even as other markets such as data management, analytics, BI and data science develop capabilities in this lucrative and growing market.

We are therefore faced with a tremendous opportunity but also with the unpredictability of the market, although what is clear is that the adoption of solutions in this segment will experience exponential growth in the coming years and will surely tend to stabilise and achieve the necessary maturity for organizations to obtain the value they need through the management and governance of their data.

Last Tuesday, 22 September 2021, AWS has organized for some of its main customers an event focused on open innovation, defined as “the use of internal and external knowledge flows to accelerate internal innovation and expand markets for the external use of such innovation”. In this event, Anjana Data was one of the invited companies and we had the opportunity to present our innovative, differential and disruptive solution.

The online event ‘AWS Open Innovation Days’ promoted by AWS was held with the aim of boosting innovation in large companies with the help of the most disruptive startups and software vendors (ISVs) in the region. The event was also attended by Mattia Gamberoni, FSI Leader in South EMEA (AWS), who led the introduction to the session, highlighting the importance of not stopping innovating even when you are a leader in innovation.

On behalf of Anjana Data, Mario de Francisco Ruiz, CEO of the company, was responsible for presenting the company and its solution, focusing on how Anjana Data can help organizations that use AWS to implement a proactive and preventive Data Governance.

Anjana Data CEO’s presentation started with two questions addressed to all attendees: How many of you want your organization to become DATA-DRIVEN? How many of you think that your organization is really DATA-DRIVEN (or is close to it)? You can imagine the answers…

To become DATA-DRIVEN you need Data Governance at the service of Data Management as a strategic asset of the organization. Hence our motto: “Anjana Data is not just a Data Governance tool, it is the implementation of a philosophy as a result of extensive experience in data related projects”.

Mario then shared with the audience the 3 differential pillars of Anjana Data: Vision, Architecture and Pricing; and reviewed some of the most relevant use cases that his clients are implementing thanks to his solution, which include organizations of different geographies, sectors, sizes and degrees of maturity in terms of data management.

Finally, he stressed how important it is for a software product-oriented company such as Anjana Data, its ecosystem of partners, among which are some of the most relevant Cloud providers, software manufacturers, business consultants, technology integrators and associations in the field of Data worldwide.

This type of joint action demonstrates the commitment of companies like AWS and Anjana Data to collaborate to help organizations in their digital transformation thanks to a better use of data.

Anjana Data launches two new levels of its Official and Public Certification, with the aim of continuing to offer training on the most innovative and disruptive solution for Data Governance. The new training modules offered by Anajana Data are the following:

Advanced (functional path): Aimed at more advanced profiles within data management such as Data Office teams, architects, functional and technical stewards and data governance consultants who have to functionally define the configuration of the solution (governance model, metamodel and metadata attribute templates).

Configuration Administrator (technical path): Aimed at hybrid profiles (functional/technical) with knowledge of SQL, BPM management, identity management (IAM, AD, LDAP…) and YAML files. This certification enables the person who takes it to configure the solution according to the defined functional requirements. Although it is not necessary, it is recommended to have completed the Advanced level to be able to functionally understand all the configuration that is carried out in Anjana Data.

The functioning of the Anjana Data Official Certification is divided into two clearly differentiated areas: functional and technical. The first (functional) refers to Advanced and Expert levels of the certification, which are aimed at the practical use of the solution and the knowledge of all the configuration and adaptability capabilities. The second (technical) level encompasses two clearly differentiated paths between Administrator, which is divided into Configuration Administrator and Platform Administrator, and Developer.

In order to gain access to any of these levels, the student must have previously completed the User level, and, preferably, the Advanced level of Anjana Data’s Official Certification. Additionally, the levels of the certification are progressive according to the area of work that the student wishes to study and can also combine levels from both areas in order to have a more complete vision of the solution.

All certificates are valid for a certain period of time, have certain exam rules and a different pass percentage. Therefore, from Anjana Data we recommend reading the general information of each of the levels that is available on our website and in Formación Hadoop.

Anjana Data is the innovative and disruptive enterprise solution for Data Governance; designed to help organizations in the implementation of their data strategy. The training offered by the Anjana Data certification aims to enable the student to help the entity in its data-driven journey with a more general vision of what it means to implement a Data Governance programme in an organization thanks to Anjana Data.