Arcion brings change data capture platform to the cloud
Getting data out of one system and into another in the right format as quickly as possible is a challenge the Arcion Cloud service is aiming to address for organizations.
Arcion is aiming to make it easier for organizations to connect one data source to another in the cloud with the general availability today of its Arcion Cloud change data capture service.
Based in San Mateo, Calif., Arcion has previously had on-premises as well as self-managed virtual private cloud editions of its platform available.
Arcion was known as Blitzz until it changed its name on Feb. 17 as part of the vendor's $13 million series A funding round. Alongside the name change, the vendor brought in new president and CEO Gary Hagmueller, who has had a long career in data management, including serving as CEO of graph database vendor Dgraph.
With the Arcion Cloud service, the vendor is now providing users with a managed SaaS edition to help with change data capture (CDC) operations.
Arcion's platform enables organizations to replicate data from sources that are on premises or in the cloud, such as relational database management systems (RDBMS), into other data targets, such as data warehouses or cloud applications.
CDC is an approach that monitors for data changes in a source location and then shares those changes with a target location. The Arcion Cloud platform combines CDC with elements of extract, transform and load technology as well, providing transformations to adjust the data format and schema to meet user requirements.
The Arcion Cloud platform enables change data capture to replicate data across different target locations.
There is a growing need for CDC capabilities, according to analyst Paige Bartley of S&P Global Market Intelligence's 451 Research. Bartley noted that hybrid architectures remain common, especially for large and data-intensive organizations.
"The ability to integrate data from historical business-critical systems such as RDBMS with newer data repositories such as cloud-native SaaS applications is a critical capability, yet the differing architecture of these data systems can create complications," Bartley said.
The ability to integrate data from historical business-critical systems such as RDBMS with newer data repositories such as cloud-native SaaS applications is a critical capability, yet the differing architecture of these data systems can create complications.
Paige BartleySenior research analyst, S&P Global Market Intelligence's 451 Research
The challenges of change data capture
But CDC technology presents a number of difficulties.
Bartley noted that 451 Research survey data has identified the volume of data and speed as key concerns in enabling real-time data integration. Change data capture can play an important role in ensuring the ongoing availability and near real-time relevance of data, she said.
Beyond the volume of data and need for real-time updates, Hagmueller said he also sees data formats as being a key challenge of CDC -- one that the vendor's platform seeks to address. Arcion's technology understands the rules and structure of data sources, which helps provide the right structure to users building data pipelines into target destinations, he said.
"It's really an effort to make sure that the data structures are understood so you don't have to go and poke around in the dark while you figure out what are the important bits," Hagmueller said.
How the Arcion Cloud CDC technology works
With the Arcion Cloud service, the vendor has taken a low-code approach to enabling CDC for users.
Arcion uses a technology it calls an "extractor," which is particular to each type of database. It extracts data with an understanding of the data's schema and structure.
Once the data is extracted, the Arcion platform's middle tier organizes the data and provides governance capabilities. On the other side is what Hagmueller referred to as an "applier" -- technology that understands the requirements of the target destination for the data and ensures that it is transferred in the correct structure and format.
Looking forward, Hagmueller said Arcion will be building out platform partnerships with other vendors in the data area, including one with data lakehouse vendor Databricks set to roll out at the end of April. The vendor's main goal is to continue to enable users to more easily connect data sources, he said.
"We call it data mobility. Other people may call it other things, but it really is this concept of taking the data out of all of these different enterprise systems and making it available as a service to the people who would consume it on whatever platform they have," Hagmueller said.
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