UNIFi thinks users should extract their own data; backers agree to tune of $4.45M
UNIFi Software Inc. has picked up $4.45 million in seed financing in its quest to flip the data analytics model on its head by making users responsible for handling their own data extraction tasks, thereby speeding time-to-decision.
UNIFi is addressing the delays inherent in the typical analytics scenario in which IT departments manually connect end-user analysis platforms to back-end data sources via complicated connectors or brittle hard-coded extract, transfer and load (ETL) routines. User have to wait for the scaffolding to be put in place before they can start digging into their information.
Data integration providers such as Syncsort Inc. and Talend Inc. have transformed the undertaking from an almost entirely manual processing into visual representations, with Hadoop serving as the focal point. But bringing together multiple data sources still requires an ETL process or a tool like MapReduce, often with a fair amount of scripting on top.
UNIFi wants to put the responsibility of integrating data into the hands of the people who need it, abstracting the complexity of the disconnected systems dotting the enterprise into a straightforward graphical interface with a built-in search box. The startup promises to enable users to query different silos for specific data, bring that information into their Hadoop clusters and harmonize the different metrics into a complete picture without any scripting or special action on the IT side.
This allows organizations to react much faster to new information, according to UNIFi, while also taking out most of the hassle currently involved in the integration process. That pitch has apparently hit a sweet note in the industry: six Fortune 500 companies, including The Walt Disney Company and AT Kearney Ltd., having signed up for the startup’s early access program. The new seed funding from Canaan Partners and Omaha Capital LLC will help support the initiative, which will see UNIFi tweak its software for specific customer requirements before launching it into general availability. The startup also plans to hire more engineers to accelerate the roadmap.
Photo via Pixabay
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