The Boomi acquisition of privately-held Unifi Software gives the cloud-based integration unit of Dell new data integration and management capabilities. Financial terms of the acquisition have not been publicly disclosed.
Unifi's portfolio includes both data catalog and data platform products that will now complement the existing Boomi suite of data management tools. Boomi itself was acquired by Dell in 2010 and has steadily grown its own data integration feature set.
Analysts see the Boomi acquisition of Unifi, revealed Jan. 10, as a big boost to Boomi's position in the market as it seeks to define its positioning in an increasingly competitive industry.
"Dell Boomi's acquisition of Unifi significantly ups the ante for data integration capabilities in the integration platform as a service [iPaaS] market," said Gene Leganza, vice president and research director at Forrester.
Data integration has long been among the key features of iPaaS systems, but up to now it has been a matter of making required data available to the various applications that need it in the context of process and application integration.
With the Dell Boomi acquisition of Unifi, Boomi is positioning itself to incorporate leading big data era data integration self-service capabilities, Leganza said.
"While Unifi's technical capabilities are significant, a key point of this acquisition is that the combination of Boomi's orientation towards low-code development and Unifi's enabling of self-service data exploration potentially puts a new level of power in the hands of business user citizen integrators," Leganza said.
Why Boomi chose Unifi
Several factors appear to be at play in Boomi's acquisition of Unifi, as opposed to another vendor in the data management market.
While Unifi's technical capabilities are significant, a key point of this acquisition is that the combination of Boomi's orientation towards low-code development and Unifi's enabling of self-service data exploration potentially puts a new level of power in the hands of business user citizen integrators.
Gene LeganzaVice president and research director, Forrester
Unifi's product vision and culture closely align with Boomi, said Ed Macosky, senior vice president of product and solutions at Boomi. From Boomi's perspective, Unifi was the only vendor with both data catalog and data preparation functionality in one platform, which is key to enabling customer data to drive business insights.
"Unifi's capabilities expand Boomi's data integration platform to help customers prepare, catalog and manage incredibly vast amounts of enterprise data more quickly and easily," Macosky said.
Data integration market consolidation continues
IDC analyst Stewart Bond also said he sees the Boomi acquisition of Unifi as a positive step for Boomi. He noted that Unifi brings self-service data preparation and data cataloging features, helping broaden the Boomi portfolio.
"It is a good move for Unifi because it can now go to market inside a broader platform portfolio," Bond said.
The acquisition also echoes what has been seen in the market as software vendors are assembling data integration and data intelligence systems into broader portfolios to help customers solve more data problems, Bond noted.
Bond cited comparable market examples in the last 12 to 18 months, including:
That market consolidation will likely continue in 2020, Bond said.
"The market isn't done yet," he said. "We expect to see more throughout 2020 as the investment in data solutions continues to grow as more companies transform to compete in the digital economy."
