SnapLogic unveils machine-learning-driven integration assistant

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SnapLogic unveils machine-learning-
driven integration assistant
MATT ASLETT
20 APR 2017
The company’s recommendation engine, SnapLogic Integration Assistant, is the first deliverable based on its new Iris
artificial intelligence engine, and represents the initial step toward automated integration.
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SnapLogic has announced the addition of artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities to its cloud-based data
and application integration platform. The launch of the Iris AI engine and SnapLogic Integration As-
sistant – the first Iris-based deliverable – strengthens the focus of the integration-platform-as-a-service
(iPaaS) provider on self-service integration.
THE 451 TAKE
451 Research anticipates that much of the value from machine learning will come from the data-driven
applications that automate the delivery of intelligence to end users (both employees and customers)
in the form of recommended content, offers and decisions. Consumer digital-assistant technologies
such as Apple Siri or Amazon Alexa have given users a taste of AI-driven digital experiences that they
are eager to see reflected in their enterprise applications. We therefore expect rapid adoption of Snap-
Logic Integration Assistant by the company’s customers, and await further Iris-based enhancements
with interest.
CO NTEXT
Earlier this year, we reported that SnapLogic was strengthening its focus on self-service integration with a view
to capturing the potential opportunity driven by so-called ‘citizen integrators’ – knowledge workers that require
access to data on-demand using simplified self-service means. As we noted at the time, however, self-service
integration, while improving, still requires more than just basic knowledge of integration and data-quality man-
agement techniques.
The latest development from the company is specifically designed to address that. SnapLogic has announced Iris,
an AI engine designed to apply machine learning to enterprise integration, increasing automation and lowering
the barriers to adoption. Iris, named after the Greek goddess of the rainbow and the messenger of the gods, was
developed over two years by SnapLogic Labs – led by Greg Benson, SnapLogic’s chief scientist and professor at
the University of San Francisco.
Iris is designed to take advantage of SnapLogic’s cloud-based architecture, which gives it access to millions of
data flows, integration paths and patterns generated by the company’s 700-plus customers for training machine-
learning models based on the company’s own algorithms, and generates recommendations for those customers
to help improve their integration processes.
The first functionality based on Iris is SnapLogic Integration Assistant, a recommendation engine designed to help
users by recommending the next likely steps (such as potential integrations, transformations, aggregations, pro-
cessing engines and targets) in the creation of data pipelines. In doing so, it reduces the time and cost associated
with building data-integration pipelines and potentially lowers the barriers to adoption for citizen integrators.
In early testing, the company has seen 80-90% accuracy on recommendations driven by SnapLogic Integration
Assistant, and that figure can be expected to improve as the functionality is exposed to more users. The product
will be available next month, at no extra charge, built into the forthcoming SnapLogic Spring 2017 Release.
SnapLogic Integration Assistant is just the first of a number of Iris-based enhancements that the company is plan-
ning to add to its Enterprise Integration Cloud over the next two to three years.The company is not sharing further
details for its plans at this stage, but chairman and CEO Gaurav Dhillon noted that SnapLogic Integration Assistant
is to automated integration what navigation assistants are to autonomous vehicles: a first and necessary step on
the path to full automation.
As noted above, both Iris and SnapLogic Integration Assistant reinforce the company’s focus on self service, which
it has been particularly keen to highlight since it expanded its executive team and raised a $40m series F funding
round in 2016. Since our previous update, the company has also enhanced its offering via the Winter 2017 release
of the SnapLogic Enterprise Integration Cloud, which added new and enhanced Snaps (connectors) for Workday,
NetSuite and Amazon Redshift, as well as Confluent’s distribution of Apache Kafka, MongoDB and Teradata.

CO MPETITION
SnapLogic’s strategy is to provide a single iPaaS to be used by enterprises to integrate data, applications and de-
vices for digital business, in lieu of multiple platforms currently used by enterprises for integration, including ESB
(enterprise service bus) and ETL (extract transform load) products. As such, the company continues to compete
with both ESB providers and ETL vendors, as well as more directly comparable iPaaS offerings.
Many of its closest competitors – IBM, Informatica, Dell Boomi, Talend, TIBCO and MuleSoft, for example – also
offer a broad range of functionality, however. And it faces competition from iPaaS specialists such as Jitterbit and
Scribe Software, as well as data integration providers including Actian, Pentaho (a Hitachi company), Syncsort
and Diyotta.
While many of SnapLogic’s rivals, including IBM, have interests in machine learning and artificial intelligence, and
machine learning techniques are being employed for self-service data preparation, it is a pioneer in terms of the
addition of machine learning to iPaaS. Others will likely follow.
SWOT ANALYSIS
STRENGTHS
SnapLogic’s attentiveness to the success of
its customers’ use of its technology and ser-
vices should go a long way to helping it main-
tain a good reputation among the emerging
self-service integration market.
WEAKNESSES
The company’s portfolio lacks the breadth of
some of its rivals, which also have interests in
areas such as data governance, data quality
and master data management, as well as the
use and management of APIs.
OPPORTUNITIES
The company has already shifted its focus to
highlight its self-service strengths, and the
addition of automated intelligence based on
Iris will further enhance its attractiveness to
so-called ‘citizen integrators.’
THREATS
The company faces multiple competitors in-
cluding traditional data integration provid-
ers, which boast installed bases of users, as
well as a growing band of cloud-based iPaaS
providers.

SnapLogic unveils machine-learning-driven integration assistant

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