Data for Everyone? Self-service Data Integration
Summary
This version of self-service DI gained impetus from the Salesforce ecosystem of data integration services, many of which targeted "everyday" business users. Of course, it will take very sophisticated technology behind the scenes to keep it simple in the UIs that give everyday business users access to data integration capabilities. To ensure that everyday business users do the work correctly and avoid serious missteps, self-service data integration has to be narrowly defined, with guidance at every step. These are not trivial undertakings, and require sophisticated technologies to produce the usable data sets greatly needed for many business activities. The vendors behind these self-service offerings are clearly interested in extending the variety of roles, both business and technical, that can take advantage of data prep platforms.