Alation Data Catalog Reviews and Ratings

Rating: 8.3 out of 10

Score

8.3 out of 10

Community insights

TrustRadius Insights for Alation Data Catalog are summaries of user sentiment data from TrustRadius reviews and, when necessary, third party data sources.

Pros

Increased Data Collaboration: Users have appreciated the platform for facilitating increased data collaboration and knowledge transfer among teams, leading to improved decision-making processes and overall efficiency within the organization. This enhanced collaboration has resulted in a more cohesive approach to data management, with users leveraging diverse expertise to generate insights that drive business growth.

Search Capabilities: Reviewers have highlighted the Business Glossary feature and search capabilities as beneficial for enhancing data access and search functionalities, allowing users to quickly find relevant information and understand complex datasets more effectively. The robust search functionality has empowered users to locate critical data assets efficiently, promoting better-informed decisions across various projects.

Integration with Other Programs: The integration with SQL Server and Tableau has been seen positively by users, allowing for seamless connectivity between different tools, streamlining workflows, and promoting better insights through combined data analysis. By enabling smooth interoperability with popular programs like SQL Server and Tableau, the platform enhances productivity by simplifying data exchange processes and ensuring consistency in analytics outputs.

Reviews

17 Reviews

Intuitive, Easy to Use, Quick to Implement Data Catalog

Rating: 10 out of 10

February 6, 2025

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Alation is used in our organization as a way to enable users to find trusted data. Like any other organization, many data objects can have similar names so a data catalog is needed to make metadata easy to curate and simple to find and understand. The scope of our use case is any consumable data...raw form direct from data sources, prepared reports and dashboards.

Pros

Bulk curation- Alation makes it easy for a data steward to quickly upload a data dictionary. It's also super simple to find dozens of data objects which the steward wants to associate themselves to.
Implementation- Like any other solution, an investment of time is required to configure the product and your environment. What Alation Data Catalog does well is allowing different admin roles to easily configure the catalog and even customize fields needed by our consumers. Getting to value is super fast with Alation.

Cons

Lineage- only table level lineage is included as standard. To view column level lineage, you have to pay extra to unlock. I felt this could have been communicated better earlier in the process.
Conversations- this is one of the best selling points of the tool but what is lacking is a quick and easy way for an admin to monitor conversations. Sure you can run custom queries to see which questions haven't been addressed but I feel this should be part of the built-in reporting.

Likelihood to Recommend

Alation is well suited to helping a user find a column or even a query using a business term search. In this regard Alation is excellent because it's easy to not only associate these items with each other, but there are also many ways to link the column and/or query to that business term/concept.

Verified User

Professional in Information Technology (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

5 years of experience

Alation - A Good Choice for Data Cataloguing

Rating: 7 out of 10

Incentivized

November 15, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

For data and analytics. Alation is our data

catalogue tool used primarily to collaborate and index data. Alation is being

used by the team to share and transfer knowledge, search for and understand

data, and overall to improve the analyst experience and way of work.

Pros

Increased data collaboration and knowledge transfer among data workers
Improved data access and data searching capabilities

Cons

Data mapping can be confusing
Support service needs improvement

Likelihood to Recommend

Alation Data Catalog offers effective

cataloguing and surfacing/availability of various datasets for easy,

self-service access by Analysts and other key data & analytics roles across

the organization

Verified User

Account Manager (501-1000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Alation makes the data catalog easier

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

March 31, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Alation for visibility into the tables, views, and dashboards across our data platforms, adding metadata to help users find the best data for their needs. We also use the Business Glossary capability to provide a centralized, searchable place that promotes a common business language. It includes definitions, business rules, some concept diagrams, and links to additional context. And we use articles to provide additional context, best practices, and links to training.

Pros

Ability to link objects using the @ symbol. It allows us to easily provide a way to get more information or context. So if the business concept is part of a hierarchy, we can link to the other terms in that hierarchy.
The customization is really helpful. Most object types have robust customization options. Others are less so, but it is improving. We've created multiple custom fields to support our data governance framework.
The search feature with filtering is helpful in narrowing down what you're looking for.

Cons

Term tables are not yet in the Alation Analytics area. This makes it difficult to manage the creation of terms in the various business glossaries.
We've had some issues with the connectors, but Alation has been helpful in trying to get them to work.
The BI area is not as robust as the rdbms area. Tableau dashboards are listed as folders which can be confusing for users.

Likelihood to Recommend

Alation is pretty easy to implement. We were able to do it ourselves with Alation's help, no 3rd party needed. We are currently migrating to Snowflake, and it has been helpful with prioritizing what gets migrated. It's great for searching for tables and views. I even use it when I'm trying to find fields in a large table. If I'm not sure if the field is called first_name, firstname, or fname, I can use Alation's table page, filter for fields with "name", and easily find it.

Miriam Barberena

Data Governance Analyst in Information Technology at NI (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile

Alation Data Catalog

Rating: 10 out of 10

Incentivized

March 29, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our Data Catalog team has used Alation Data Catalog to create technical and business metadata for Snowflake data. Essentially, we are creating a repository of data sets used in our organization. We have now completed the initial round of metadata curation, and it is time to roll out the data catalog to the entire Account Processing business unit. In addition to rolling out one business unit, there is a high chance that the use of Alations Data Catalog becomes multi-business functional with hopes of going enterprise wide in the near future.

Pros

The User Interface is very easy to navigate making it user-friendly for all users.
The built in connectors allows for easy connection to important data sources and other tools.
Customization tools are a plus when it comes to combining different business units.
They have a bunch of learning material and documentation, especially Alation Community where you can find solutions to problems you are facing.

Cons

Adding Connectors is a little bit difficult. If they were able to make it a little more user friendly, that would be helpful.

Likelihood to Recommend

Our business units goal was to have a data catalog used as a repository for data and definitions that are widely used within our organization. Alation has been perfect for making this goal come to life.

Verified User

Analyst in Information Technology (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Release your data catalog from it's spreadsheet shackles and let it breathe the sweet air of Alation

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

March 29, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Our leadership once said "Uncataloged data is useless to us." We use Alation to catalog our data, track lineage, and explain our business.

Pros

Entering and editing content. The UI is easy to use and understand.
Browsing and searching for content is intuitive and detailed.
Adding data sources is easy to do through the UI without having to fiddle with configuration files.

Cons

The lineage UI is not ready for primetime. I would not recommend this feature for my users at this time because it's too complex to understand and is visually difficult to track down specific paths.
The underlying infrastructure of the on-premise version of the software is fragile and unnecessarily complicated, using too many modules and technologies.
The license model of the on-premise version contains too many add-ons. I would like to pay one price and get all of the features.

Likelihood to Recommend

Alation has a very intuitive UI that is great for content authors (i.e., Stewards) to write documentation for their data. It is easy to browse through and search for your data. It's easy to keep in sync with your data sources so you're always working on the latest version.

I would not recommend it for tracking lineage as that feature is immature and difficult to use.

Allen Goldschmidt

Director of Data Management in Engineering at Fiserv (10,001+ employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

A data catalog is a must

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

March 29, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Alation to house our business glossaries and as a map of our data sources on prem. The use of Alation is helping our different departments use terms and metrics in a consistent manner. Alation also in invaluable as a resource to our analysts on finding out the where and what of our data elements.

Pros

integrating with other programs (SQL Server, Tableau)
the ability to link terms to data elements and queries
searchability

Cons

the ability to enforce uniqueness of term names is missing
need more customization options on glossaries
better home page customization options (less scripting required)

Likelihood to Recommend

A data catalog is a necessity for any business that has and uses data. Alation is a top competitor in the industry and has an consistently evolving roadmap. The only reason that I gave a 9 instead of a 10 is because I have not used any other catalog products to compare to Alation.

Jamie Hughes

Strategist, Data Literacy and Analytics at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital - ALSAC (1001-5000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

View profile

Alation Data Catalog

Rating: 10 out of 10

March 29, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use Alation to support our decentralised data architecture. It acts as our discovery layer for users to find the information and/or data source for their use case

Pros

Business Glossary
Search feature
Data source management

Cons

Lineage connections between different data sources
Glossary links (from one glossary to another)

Likelihood to Recommend

Alation is perfect for managing data ownership and stewardship, acting as the 'front door' or 'window' to data, glossary terms, domain homepages. It is great for consumers to find out about the update schedule on their current data sources or ones they will potentially use in future.

I'm less inclined to use the 'direct connection' via Alation to data sources, mainly for decoupling dependencies for any production supporting applications with Alation (if Alation goes down, we don't want it to take the connection down). But it is a great tool for putting the producers and consumers in touch with each other to arrange the connection.

Karla Kirton

Data Architect in Information Technology at Blockdaemon (201-500 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Early days, all on track.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

March 29, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We're at the tail end of our right-start implementation. The objective is creating a single source of information for consumers of data as well as discovery and consolidation of assets that live in silos within the organisation. Our practice is at an early stage so will be related to a data maturity / governance programme that is about to start.

Pros

Right Start
University and supportive training materials
Intuitive interface

Cons

Support for Microsoft legacy products such as SSIS would be great
Physical presence in New Zealand would be great, virtual contact is okay but may add time to task completion / consolidation of learning
Simple statements on systems / environments / protocols supported by connectors would be great up-front to inform decision making.

Likelihood to Recommend

At an early stage:

<ul><li>Discovery of data is great</li><li>Notations work well</li><li>Implementation support gives a lot of confidence to the user group</li></ul>However, support for legacy environments where SRSS and SSIS are used (a lot of public sector in NZ) could be stronger.

Alan Sheppard

National Data Governance and Compliance Manager in Information Technology at Hato Hone St John (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

Alation is built for Startup Governance Programs

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

March 28, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Comparison of business problem to Alation value add:

* People say different words but mean the same thing > Centralized Business Glossary for reference translation

* I dont know what data exists > Automated metadata extraction provides real time look at what data assets are out there

* I dont know what the nuances/meaning of data is > Curation of Data dictionary allows data teams to add definitions, calculations and more

* I dont know who the owners of a report are to request a change or get more context > Alation allows you to document and assign ownership for data assets

* I dont know what Data Assets are classified as sensitive data or subject to applicable to legal regulations > Alation allows for cataloging of data assets using rule sets, for ease of classification

Pros

User friendly interface
Customer and Sales Support
API

Cons

Filtering in Search
Customization in Documentation Display
Per User / Connector Licensing

Likelihood to Recommend

More appropriate:

<ul><li>Startup governance programs</li><li>Less technical user base</li><li>High focus on curation abilities</li><li>vetting/approval workflows in business signoff</li><li>Non microsoft stack</li></ul>Less Appropriate:

<ul><li>Complex governance structure</li><li>Advanced user base</li><li>Heavy reliance on ACTION based workflows </li></ul>

Verified User

Team Lead in Information Technology (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

2 years of experience

Alation Data Catalog Review

Rating: 8 out of 10

Incentivized

March 23, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

We use it as a single source of truth for our organization to find and understand data. The core use case that the tool is solving for is that single source of truth, we don't currently have a central repository for all of our different server types. Our scope is Enterprise wide.

Pros

Organization
Customization
Ease of use

Cons

The PowerBI connector could be easier to use
Data Profiling
Data Quality

Likelihood to Recommend

We are still in the set up phase but the sheer ease-of-use has led to a pretty smooth implementation so far. We are receiving outstanding customer service from the Alation team and feel confident we will have a working, customized, robust implementation for our data. We would have like to see some data quality present inside the tool, we have had to find different solutions to help our teams with those checks.

Verified User

Administrator in Legal (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

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Reviews and Ratings

Alation makes the data catalog easier

Rating: 9 out of 10

Incentivized

March 31, 2023

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

Pros

Ability to link objects using the @ symbol. It allows us to easily provide a way to get more information or context. So if the business concept is part of a hierarchy, we can link to the other terms in that hierarchy.
The customization is really helpful. Most object types have robust customization options. Others are less so, but it is improving. We've created multiple custom fields to support our data governance framework.
The search feature with filtering is helpful in narrowing down what you're looking for.

Cons

Term tables are not yet in the Alation Analytics area. This makes it difficult to manage the creation of terms in the various business glossaries.
We've had some issues with the connectors, but Alation has been helpful in trying to get them to work.
The BI area is not as robust as the rdbms area. Tableau dashboards are listed as folders which can be confusing for users.

Likelihood to Recommend

Miriam Barberena

Data Governance Analyst in Information Technology at NI (5001-10,000 employees)

Vetted Review

1 year of experience

View profile