Qlik unveils roadmap for analytics, data integration tools

Qlik unveiled the 2023 roadmap for its analytics and data integration platforms, including added support for SaaS applications as the vendor expands the capabilities of its new enterprise integration platform as a service.

Founded in 1993 and based in King of Prussia, Pa., Qlik has historically focused on analytics. Starting in 2018, however, the vendor began adding data integration capabilities with the acquisitions of Podium Data and Attunity.

On Jan. 5, Qlik revealed that it reached an agreement to acquire Talend in a move that would add still more data integration tools to Qlik’s suite. That includes capabilities addressing a data fabric approach to architecture and governance.

On Jan. 9, Qlik chief product officer James Fisher published a blog post outlining the vendor’s plans for the year ahead.

Fisher divided Qlik’s roadmap into three parts: data integration, analytics and foundational services. In November 2022, Qlik launched Cloud Data Integration, a new enterprise integration platform as a service (eiPaaS) aimed at the data engineers who cultivate and prepare their organization’s data.

In the year ahead, Qlik will make its eiPaaS platform a priority with enhanced extract, transform and load capabilities as well as expanded cloud connectivity, according to Fisher. That expanded cloud connectivity will be of particular benefit to users, according to Doug Henschen, an analyst at Constellation Research.

Qlik, which has historically enabled customers to replicate data from on-premises sources with change data capture tools, plans to increase support for SaaS applications and cloud-based data sources such as Salesforce and Google Analyticsso users can connect to a broader array of data sources. “I particularly took note of Fisher’s promise to ‘significantly expand support for SaaS applications,'” Henschen said. “That’s a promise to develop more application integration capabilities.” He noted that Qlik offered some application integration capabilities through its 2020 acquisition of Blendr.io.

But its primary data integration capabilities — added through the acquisition of Attunity — address movement of data from on premises to the cloud. “It’s a sign that Qlik is really serious about all forms of integration,” Henschen said, noting that competitors Boomi and MuleSoft already focus on application integration.

Similarly, David Menninger, an analyst at Ventana Research, noted that increased connectivity to cloud-based applications would be significant for Qlik customers. “Accessing and preparing data for analysis is still the place where people spend the most time in their analytics processes,” he said. “So expanded cloud connectivity will certainly be important.” A sample dashboard from Qlik shows the sales performance of various retail outlets.

Regarding Qlik’s analytics platform, one area of focus in 2023 will be automated machine learning (autoML) and other augmented analytics capabilities, according to Fisher. He noted that the vendor has now integrated Qlik AutoML into Qlik Cloud. One of the enhancements planned for this year will be to improve Insight Advisor, a natural language processing tool that enables users to ask questions of their data without code.

In addition, Qlik plans to add new visualization, add advanced authoring and enterprise reporting capabilities, and address large enterprises’ increasing needs for greater scale as the number of data sources they collect data from and the amount of data they manage increase, according to Fisher. But the most significant planned additions to Qlik’s analytics platform are providing new APIs and automation capabilities for administrators. These let them easily embed data products into the workflows of business users, according to Menninger.