Tony Baer, Principal Analyst, Software – Enterprise Solutions

Informatica, which pioneered the current data integration tooling market, is seeking to reboot growth by targeting midmarket prospects who have traditionally perceived its solutions as too complex and expensive. The technology linchpin of this strategy is “Vibe,” a service-oriented architecture to deconstruct and make Informatica’s technologies more easily embeddable into third-party tools and/or cloud-based services.

This is not the first time that Informatica has promoted an OEM technology and go-to-market strategy for its products. But Vibe marks the first time that Informatica is enabling OEM partners to embed pieces of its capabilities, rather than entire Informatica products, opening the possibility of competing head-on with low-cost/no-cost rivals who have staked out the entry level of the ETL and data quality markets.

Technology is only the first step; to capitalize on Vibe, Informatica must adapt its sales and go-to-market model so it …