Amit Walia, Informatica | Informatica World 2024
Summary
TLDRIn this interview at Informatica World, CEO Amit Walia discusses the company's focus on data readiness for AI, highlighting the importance of complete, high-quality, and governed data for AI models. He emphasizes Informatica's role in data management and their platform's ability to support AI-driven digital transformation, while also touching on the evolving role of Chief Data Officers in strategic decision-making.
Takeaways
- π The conference tagline 'everyone's ready for AI except your data' reflects a common concern among Informatica's customers, highlighting the need for data readiness for AI applications.
- π Informatica's focus is on data management, ensuring that AI models receive complete, high-quality, and governed data, which is crucial for effective AI operations.
- πΌ CEO Amit Walia emphasizes the complexity of enterprise data environments, which include numerous apps, data silos, and cloud platforms, and the importance of Informatica's role in managing this complexity.
- π Informatica has built a metadata system of record, similar to what Google did for the worldwide web, to manage enterprise data, which powers their IDMC platform.
- π The IDMC platform is scaling rapidly, handling 92 trillion transactions per month, demonstrating Informatica's commitment to supporting large-scale data management needs.
- π§ Informatica's pivot to an all-cloud strategy and the development of new products on the IDMC platform has positioned the company to support AI-driven digital transformations.
- π€ The company's AI engine, CLA, and its recent addition, CLA GPT, are designed to provide a holistic platform for digital transformation, including AI-driven initiatives.
- π Informatica prides itself on being the 'Switzerland of data,' supporting any data format, cloud, database, or application, and aims to maintain this neutrality in the AI and LLM space.
- π‘ Data quality and governance are highlighted as critical components in ensuring that AI systems provide accurate and reliable results, underlining the importance of Informatica's role in data management.
- π Informatica's approach to data management is seen as a strategic advantage, helping customers consolidate their data management tools and achieve a higher ROI on their data investments.
Q & A
What is the main theme of Informatica World this year?
-The main theme of Informatica World this year is 'everyone's ready for AI, except your data', highlighting the readiness of organizations for AI but the unpreparedness of their data.
What is the primary challenge organizations are facing in their AI initiatives according to Amit Walia?
-The primary challenge organizations are facing in their AI initiatives is the lack of readiness of their data. Amit Walia mentions that customers have expressed the need for complete, holistic, and high-quality data for their AI models.
How does Informatica address the complexity of enterprise data management?
-Informatica addresses the complexity of enterprise data management by building a metadata system of record, similar to what Google did for the worldwide web, but for enterprise data. This system powers the IDMC platform, helping enterprises manage their data effectively.
What is the significance of Informatica's pivot to an all-cloud strategy?
-Informatica's pivot to an all-cloud strategy was significant as it allowed the company to build a new platform, IDMC, which is scalable and capable of handling large volumes of transactions. This platform supports the company's AI and data management capabilities.
How does Informatica's IDMC platform scale?
-The IDMC platform is designed to handle a massive scale, running at 92 trillion transactions a month. Each time the scale doubles, the growth rate continues, demonstrating the platform's ability to support large enterprises.
What is the role of Informatica's AI engine, CLA, in the context of data management?
-CLA, Informatica's AI engine, is integrated into the IDMC platform to provide intelligent data management capabilities. It helps in managing and operationalizing AI models by ensuring the quality and governance of the data being used.
How does Informatica support its customers in their digital transformation journey?
-Informatica supports its customers in their digital transformation journey by providing a holistic platform that includes best-of-breed products, an AI engine, and a single consumption-based pricing model. This allows customers to use any product on the platform for their data-driven initiatives.
What is the role of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) in the context of AI and data management?
-The role of the CDO has evolved to become more strategic, focusing on data governance, quality, and compliance. CDOs are now seen as thought leaders and advisors, guiding organizations on how to manage their data effectively in the context of AI and digital transformation.
How does Informatica's approach to data management help in achieving a higher ROI on data?
-Informatica's approach to data management helps in achieving a higher ROI by consolidating fragmented data management tools into a single, scalable platform. This reduces the complexity and cost associated with managing multiple tools and ensures that data is of high quality and governed effectively.
What are some of the potential use cases for AI in enterprises that Informatica is seeing?
-Informatica is seeing a variety of AI use cases in enterprises, including customer service, supply chain management, real-time decision-making, reducing customer churn, and sentiment analysis. These use cases are driven by the need to improve operational efficiency and customer experience.
How does Informatica's partnership with other technology providers benefit its customers?
-Informatica's partnerships with various technology providers, including cloud hyperscalers and system integrators, provide its customers with a diverse and robust set of solutions. This enables customers to choose the best tools and services that fit their specific needs and ensures that they can leverage the latest technologies in their data management and AI initiatives.
Outlines
π£οΈ CEO Amit Walia on Informatica's AI Readiness
In this segment, CEO of Informatica, Amit Walia, discusses the company's focus on AI readiness and data management. He emphasizes the importance of having complete, high-quality, and well-governed data to effectively utilize AI models. Walia highlights Informatica's role in building a metadata system to manage enterprise data, comparing it to Google's approach to the worldwide web. He also touches on the company's pivot to a cloud-first strategy and its commitment to supporting any data format, cloud platform, or application, positioning Informatica as a 'Switzerland of data' in the AI era.
πΌ Data Management and ROI in the AI Era
This paragraph delves into the strategic shift organizations are making towards AI and data-driven initiatives, despite budget constraints. Amit Walia explains how Informatica is helping customers achieve a higher return on investment by streamlining their data management tools and consolidating them onto Informatica's Intelligent Data Management Cloud (IDMC) platform. He also discusses the company's unique value proposition of offering best-of-breed products on a single platform with a holistic AI engine, and the importance of Informatica's role as a strategic advisor in the digital transformation journey.
π οΈ Building Centers of Excellence for AI Governance
The conversation shifts to the evolving role of Chief Data Officers (CDOs) and the creation of Centers of Excellence in response to AI and regulatory compliance needs. Walia describes how CDOs are becoming critical in managing the data estate holistically and how Informatica supports these efforts through its platform that integrates governance and quality. He also addresses the importance of legal involvement in ensuring responsible data usage and the boardroom's focus on data quality as a key driver of value.
π Informatica's AI Future and Customer Use Cases
Amit Walia expresses excitement about the future of AI at Informatica, particularly the potential for customers to experiment with and operationalize AI workloads using Informatica's IDMC platform. He anticipates that next year's Informatica World will feature customer testimonials on the operational benefits of AI and its impact on the bottom line. Walia also discusses the diverse use cases emerging across different sectors, such as customer service, supply chain optimization, and real-time decision-making, and emphasizes Informatica's position as a neutral partner in a fragmented ecosystem.
Mindmap
Keywords
π‘Informatica
π‘AI
π‘Data Management
π‘Enterprise
π‘Metadata System
π‘IDMC Platform
π‘Digital Transformation
π‘CLA
π‘Data Quality
π‘ROI
π‘CDIO
Highlights
Informatica World is focusing on AI readiness and the challenges organizations face with data readiness.
The tagline 'everyone's ready for AI, except your data' reflects a common concern among Informatica's customers.
Enterprises have complex, fragmented environments with numerous apps, data silos, and cloud platforms.
AI models require complete, holistic, and high-quality data to function effectively.
Informatica's role is in data management, ensuring data is ready for AI models.
Informatica has built a metadata system of record, similar to Google's approach to the worldwide web, for enterprise data.
The IDMC platform is running at 92 trillion transactions a month, showcasing Informatica's scale.
Informatica's pivot to an all-cloud strategy has been a strategic move to support AI and digital transformation.
Informatica's AI engine, CLA, and its recent launch of CLA GPT, aim to provide a holistic platform for digital transformation.
Informatica positions itself as the Switzerland of data, supporting any data format, cloud, database, or application.
Data quality is crucial for AI, and Informatica emphasizes the importance of good data governance.
Budgets are being allocated towards strategic, data-driven initiatives, which is beneficial for Informatica.
Customers are consolidating their data management tools to a single, best-of-breed platform like Informatica.
Informatica's platform supports all AI workloads, making it future-proof for customers.
The role of the Chief Data Officer (CDO) is evolving, becoming more strategic and important in the era of AI.
CDOs are becoming the drivers and champions of holistic data management within enterprises.
Informatica's partnerships with cloud hyperscalers, data clouds, and system integrators are crucial for supporting diverse customer landscapes.
Amitabh Chaudhary, CEO of Informatica, is excited about the potential of AI and its impact on enterprises in the coming year.
Informatica is expecting to see operational AI benefits and real-world use cases demonstrated at next year's Informatica World.
Different use cases for AI are emerging, including customer service, supply chain management, and real-time decision making.
Transcripts
good afternoon everyone and welcome back
to the cubes live coverage of
Informatica World here at the Mandalay
Bay Convention Center I'm your host
Rebecca night sitting alongside my
co-host and analyst Rob stretche Rob
we've been waiting for this one yeah
absolutely this is right from the top I
mean this is doesn't get any better in
looking at the direction that
Informatica is going in for the next
year and I I think again was set really
well with the Keynotes but I'm really
excited about this indeed so let's
welcome to the cube AMT wallia he is the
CEO of Informatica thank you so much for
coming on Rebecca great to be here hello
Rob so Rob I mean sorry Amit the the
tagline for this conference is
everyone's ready for for AI for AI
except your data Y
and that that that is the message that
is really coming across but we'd like to
hear from the horse's mouth how do you
describe that as as what you see as sort
of the the overarching issue right now
that organizations across the board are
grappling with well you know the the
funny thing about this tagline is that
we didn't come up with it as I've been
talking to hundreds of customers they
exactly what they've been saying that to
me like for the last 12 months I've been
hearing them say you know what we all
want to get ready for AI but my data is
not ready I'm like that's such an
obvious thing to say that's what our
customers are telling us so let's just
tell it back to them so it's h it's it's
pretty verbatim from our customers look
if you kind of step back here is the
reality of an Enterprise it's a very
complex fragmented environment uh you
know there's there's like hundreds of
apps running around hundreds of data
silos running around hundreds of and you
know many Cloud platforms people are
building their own apps and let's not
forget as much as we think the world is
100% Cloud there's a lot of stuff
running from the old Legacy stuff
running around as well and when when you
think about AI in particular the biggest
thing is that you want to give your AI
model an AI model by itself is not
intelligent but you got to give it first
of all complete holistic data so you
want to bring data from all over those
places you want to give it good quality
data you want to have governance on top
of that data so for the as a model can
do something and you operationalize that
all of that stuff is data management and
at the end of the day that's what we do
for a living and the other thing is
fundamentally is that searching for all
this data is a complex thing and what
we've done very uniquely is build this
metadata system of record which is what
Google did to the worldwide web we did
to the Enterprise data and that's
powering this idmc platform we have
helping Enterprises in this gen world to
get stuff done yeah and I I think what
it also has done is accelerated the pace
at which yourself and your customers but
in particular yourself I mean again like
you said you're in the you're probably
like in the vortex of the storm right in
the eye there of why data management is
important like you said garbage in
garbage out especially with AI how has
that changed Informatica that just the
AI and accelerating the the pace of
everything look fundamentally the first
pivot the company did a couple of years
ago was was pivoting to all Cloud
everything what we did was we we built a
whole new informatic under the covers
brand new products even if there was an
old Legacy product we left it behind all
on one platform idmc and to give you a
sense of scale that platform is running
at 92 trillion transactions a month
that's a usage of the platform by our
customers and each time the scale
doubles growth rate has continued like
that so it's it's a that scale we're
operating so that has already happened
and now what that what that has allowed
us to do is in the world of gen actually
provide those capabilities for customers
to use that platform to run the geni
workloads but also provide our gen in
the context of a clar co-pilot CLA is
our AI engine and clear GPT which which
went live a couple of weeks ago so our
goal is to give our customers a holistic
platform to do any kind of digital
transformation including gen driven
digital transformation and the one other
thing is that very unique for us is that
we've always been the Switzerland of
data we support any data format support
any Cloud any database any application
and in the world of gen we're going to
be the Switzerland of gen any llm any
Vector database any of that stuff that's
very important for our customers to have
that choice yeah I mean we were even
talking with gav about how you're using
different models for different pieces
underneath CLA GPT and how it actually
again to give the right not only the
right answer but how to say no when it
doesn't know which I loved I mean that
that answer was probably the best AI
answer because having used other AI
things and it gives me an answer and I'm
like yeah that's completely wrong and
then you lose faith in it I mean so from
an Informatica perspective the thread
we've been seeing throughout this week
has been data quality give the right
answers get get the best data in govern
it really well make sure that you're
bringing it all together and I think the
special sauce that I've seen in the you
know 13 years or so that I've known
Informatica is that really it's about
the metadata and how that all gets
across like you were saying all of those
silos no matter if it's on Prem or in
the cloud are you seeing the customers
when you're I mean you're have to be in
in data with customer meetings this week
to put it
mildly they're saying here's I mean like
uh teada who was on stage and went from
8 to two different data management
systems that has to be one of the major
goals because again uh geni tends to
steal from other places from a budgetary
perspective it's not like there's
infinite money everywhere within it are
you seeing that at your customers where
they're looking to Informatica to
actually help you get a higher Roi on
their data yeah so uh that's a great
head of questions I think what we are
seeing is three things one is absolutely
you're right it budgets are not
increasing exponentially but what
customers are doing is that routing
budgets towards critical strategic
initiatives and data driven gen driven
initiatives are definitely getting the
budget allocation so that's a good thing
for us because that's a Tailwind then
comes a second thing customers have come
to this realization that good Lord am I
in the business of stitching hundreds of
data management tools and by the way
some of them are so small that they
cannot even scale to Enterprises
operational scale and then if one thing
fails my whole flow changes or I get to
a
Consolidated best to breed player like
Informatica and have them do that for me
and with us they get two things see we
talk about a platform intelligent data
management Cloud but what people forget
is that we also have the best of breed
products on that platform all products
from us are number one in our category
whether you look at the magic quadrants
whether you look at the Forester waves
so they're getting a twof for they're
getting the best products one platform a
AI engine and lastly one single
consumption based pricing for the entire
platform so you can use any product when
buy even one ipu and lastly all of those
products and all of that platform if
they've already started using it
currently for their data driven disal
transformation as we shared on stage
fully seamlessly support all gen
workloads so they don't have to
re-engineer anything if they were doing
a current workload on some data platform
they can now do llms and Vector
databases so they are future proof they
don't have to spend a lot more money to
do genni initiatives that's the three
things that I'm seeing that's
consolidating a lot all of this
fragmentation to
idmc when you had the the CDO of of of
Takata on yesterday you asked tea sorry
you asked her about her the how the role
of the cdio has changed over the years
and I I thought it was a really
insightful question I'm a journalist and
so a good question and it occurred to me
that there's there's so the sea Suite is
really undergoing such a transformation
in in this new era of gen how you're a
tech veteran you've been in Informatica
for a long time too how would you say
your job as a leader has changed in this
new
era you know um I think the one thing
that has changed a lot especially For
What customers are asking us and I see
that when I get talked to customers by
the way both bar and Rafi was on stage
uh they are looking to players like us
who are you know leaders in our space at
scale for Thought leadership and advice
so my first conversation with both of
them were look I'm undergoing this kind
of a transformation can I just talk to
you as to how to even think about it am
I making a mistake over there should I
do this it's not about the technology
first the conversation is a lot more
strategic and the scale and the breadth
and the depth and the place we have in
the industry because we've seen so much
they are looking to us for advice
guidance thought leadership which I
think is a great thing because it
elevates a conversation about having one
product for one use case to a platform
and a holistic conversation that's a big
change that's happening all
conversations for me begin with can you
tell me how am I thinking about it the
right way uh and and by the way the cdos
coming to them look they are a very big
persona for us we have thousands of cdos
in our Network in fact we run a cdio
council every month we meet we only have
a chat about what's happening in that
world and their role has changed and
they're becoming very strategic and and
I really see their role growing very
significantly yeah it it seems to be one
of those roles that seems to get other
letters like c a d o and like things
like this it's crazy to see that and I
mean having been in that world with
people that are looking out and saying
as a CDO do I own AI to is the CIO own
AI where does this all and oh by the way
then we got to partner up with the the
legal council and governance and how do
you see from your level in those
strategic conversations that are
happening about here's how we're
building our Center of Excellence how
are customers really looking to build a
center of excellence that's centralizing
kind of governance and privacy and all
that because there's other regulations
coming down you know the AI Act was the
first kind of volley in Europe there's
going to be stuff coming to uh you know
a state near you or a country near you
how do you see that evolving that kind
of center of excellent at your customers
yeah and I think and it is evolving
that's the right word to put it I think
what I'm seeing is a couple of things of
course legal is involved because there
is Regulatory Compliance there's always
the nervousness of about if we do
something silly so legal is always
involved in terms of looking at are we
doing the right things same in our
company our legal council looking at are
we approaching it the right way are
using customers data the right way are
we using our own employees data the
right way which is the right thing to do
I think what has happened is that what
will H what is happening is that clearly
that's it's one interesting thing that's
happened at the boardroom level topics
like governance quality have become very
because people realize oh without good
quality stuff it's not nothing will come
out of value so the cdos are becoming
more more important that hey we need to
get the data estate in order and you
cannot look at the data estate in a silo
that that function and that business
unit over there so the cdus are becoming
that glue to say hey if I have to put my
data state in order I got to do it
holistically so they are definitely
becoming the owners or the drivers and
the champions of that now clearly the
users of AI will be functional right you
know I'm in sales I can use salesforce's
AI I'm in marketing I can use adobe's AI
I'm in cm I can use workday's AI that
will be there but the data State can has
to be only managed in one place I think
I'm seeing a lot of that happen now in
large companies there can be multiple
cdos there can be a global CDI but the
cdos are becoming critically
important so this has really been a
terrific show and it's it's showcased
not only a lot of Innovations and
refinements that Informatica is putting
out but it also the the thought
leadership as you were saying and just
how your approach informatica's
Evolution as a company and as a brand
what are some of the things that are
most exciting to you going back go
thinking thinking about the future and
about next year's Informatica World boy
I think look I am definitely excited
it's look it while gen is one of those
things it's going to be a cliche but I'm
super excited about that and the reason
for that is that look let's not forget
non gen transformation digital
transformation is still very much
underway and has to underway it won't go
away I I give the example that I think
will continue for the next 5 years too
but the reality is that gen is an
exponential driver and customers have to
start somewhere Enterprises are not
necessarily in operational mode yet
let's be very honest but they all have
they all building a road map this is the
first use case what I'm excited about is
that our customers with currently
deployed idmc can actually start
experimenting the geni workloads can
start operationalize that and what I
really and I'm going to I'm I fully
expect that when we come to next year on
stage there will be two customers who
will be talking about their operational
gen benefits and what they did just like
had Barb and Rafi on stage talking about
digital TR that's what I think will
happen next year and how it's really
impacting the bottom line and by the way
we're seeing it today like you know I
think you had SSM Health uh but they
using clear GPT and they were able to
discover very quickly you know where the
different critical resources were where
critical equipment were and they can
route it within their Hospital Network
imagine that imagine how much patient
care gets elevated if you can get the
right resource and the right equipment
quickly from point A to point B if one
thing is understaffed and the other one
is over staffed so we seeing that
already and I fully expect next year we
will be seeing actual demonstrated uh
use cases where people will be talking
about yeah I I think to me that that's
the most exciting thing is because we we
even have we were're partnered up with
the company ETR and in that data 80% of
companies are still in the evaluation
phase around what is the use case that
they're going to do in in production and
we we agree and I think there's a lot of
talk about silicon and all of this other
stuff that's way underneath where the
actual apps are and I know informatic
has been in what I'll call traditional
AI or ml for a long time and building
models and being able to you know hey
recommendations engines for customer 360
and things of that nature where do you
see the customers initially jumping in
and and is it customer service is it you
know generation of content is it code
generation where do you see them coming
to you and saying hey we want use our
data in this way in this use case as as
we start to evaluate those use cases you
know interestingly what we saw is many
use cases not just one because like I
gave you this example of SSM Health that
is nothing to it is customer service but
think about this way it's also a little
bit of a supply chain thing how do I get
the right people and the Right medical
care equipment at the right place so
it's a bit of a supply chain
conversation which results in higher
patient care and customer service so now
depends upon how you want to categorize
that we saw another customer think of it
in the context of a great campaign
Effectiveness which results in higher
Revenue generation which is in context
of serving the customers so we are
seeing very different use cases emerge
the beauty is here's what I tell
everyone data impacts your entire value
chain of an Enterprise from front end to
back end whether it's increasing Revenue
reducing cost increasing productivity
and we seen customers attempt all of
those things but you're right I see
customer service I see supply chain I
see discovery of data make real-time
decisions help reduce customers churn
better understand your customer
sentiment analysis those are the kind of
places I'm seeing uh a lot of use cases
emerge another thing I think I want to I
want to emphasize is that one of the
unique things hopefully you you getting
to see here is that are we have this
unique place in this ecosystem where we
the Switzerland working with everybody I
mean you heard Scott on stage shridar on
stage from Snowflake and and our
Partnerships are deep with all the cloud
hyperscalers the data clouds and all the
system integrators who have informatic
practices it's very important for our
customers because our customers have a
very fragmented diverse set of
landscape we have a very high bar
working with all of them so our
customers can benefit by having that
choice and that's another thing that as
you as customers walk around as you guys
walk around you'll see everybody present
here signifying our strong partnership
ethos yeah no we that's definitely come
through to put it mildly we've had the
vast majority of ecosystem on in fact we
have more more to come after this
afternoon as well but it's been
fantastic seeing that because like you
said they are so fragmented and it's it
is that layer up above where you're
building your data products that has
data from all over the place yes yeah
yes well Amit thank you so much for
coming on the cube a really great
conversation always a pleasure thank you
Rebecca thanks Rob I'm Rebecca Knight
for Rob stretch a stay tuned for more of
the cubes live coverage of Informatica
World you're watching the cube the
leader in Enterprise news and Analysis
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