The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise ETL, Q2 2007

Forrester evaluated leading enterprise extract, transform, and load (ETL) vendors across 68 criteria and found that IBM and Informatica maintain leadership positions in enterprise ETL thanks to their ability to scale and perform batch and operational data integration (DI) in complex environments, as well as to maintain a consistent focus on providing robust data management capabilities. Business Objects and Oracle have also emerged as Leaders with significant usability and scalability improvements, but they are still primarily used in data warehousing environments and have not been widely adopted for operational DI needs. SAS is a Strong Performer, but it remains most attractive as an integrated piece of a SAS BI platform. Ab Initio offers a highly scalable and configurable data processing platform, but its secretive corporate culture limits prospective customers' visibility into its strategy. iWay Software, Microsoft, Pervasive, and Sunopsis (acquired by Oracle) round out the Strong Performers best suited for a more targeted subset of DI professionals. As a new player in enterprise ETL, Sybase has some of the raw materials needed to develop a competitive solution, but it must integrate the tools it has acquired into a DI suite with a clear differentiation strategy to gain traction in this crowded market.