While some propose radical centralization as the answer to the inaccessibility of disparate information sources in the enterprise, Alation Inc. is offering a much simpler – and practical – approach to the challenge. The startup exited stealth on Tuesday with a new cataloging service that takes the user to the data.

The idea behind the technology is similar to one that another emerging player called Tamr Inc. has implemented in its own recently updated discovery software. Metadata is collected from different systems on the corporate network using machine learning algorithms to map out what is stored where and thus spare workers the hassle of digging for specific details on their own.

Information scattered across different systems is also grouped in the process to assemble a complete picture of important subjects such as customers and revenue. But Alation takes that concept several steps further and layers business intelligence features directly over the core cataloging technology to help put the data to use.

The platform provides a native development environment for creating queries that are automatically logged and analyzed for patterns that can help improve collaboration across an organization. After enough information has been gathered, Alation starts pointing out the most important data objects to new employees and translates natural-language input into regular requests.

Given sufficient time, its machine learning engine can even put together a profile of each individual user based on his or her areas of focus. That allows workers  to quickly find the person who are most qualified to provide clarification on a particular snippet of information or issue. The resulting interactions are then recorded for future reference to complement the wiki and forum applications that are also included the package.

That poses a sharp contrast to Tamr, which relegates most of the business intelligence and collaboration functionality to third-party tools, an approach that is potentially more accommodating to traditional organizations with existing software investments. This is reflected in the fact many of Alation’s early customers are tech firms, notably Square Inc., eBay, Inc. and Invoice2Go of Australia.

Only time will tell which startup’s strategy is best alligned with the market. But what’s clear is that the emerging data cataloging segment is already gearing up for some serious competition, which highlights its strategic importance to the analytics movement as a whole.