Executive Insights and Trends

Why Your Data Strategy Needs to Be Open, Now More Than Ever

Headshot of blog author Mike Capone, CEO of Qlik. He is wearing a dark suit jacket and light-colored shirt, smiling with a neutral background.

Mike Capone

3 minutes

Why Your Data Strategy Needs to Be Open, Now More Than Ever

I’ve been on both sides of the table, as a CIO shaping enterprise strategy and now as a CEO delivering outcomes for thousands of customers. And one belief has never changed: your data should serve your business, not someone else’s agenda.

That belief matters now more than ever.

Salesforce’s intent to acquire Informatica is the latest signal of a growing trend: consolidation over choice. While these moves promise efficiency, they often come with real costs: less flexibility, more risk, slower innovation, and rising long-term cost.

These risks, from roadmap uncertainty to integration delays and tighter vendor lock-in, aren’t hypotheticals, they’re issues many of you have already experienced:

  • A once-neutral platform could become aligned to a CRM-first strategy

  • Past Salesforce acquisitions like Tableau and MuleSoft were hampered by overlapping tools, slow integrations, and shifting focus

  • Most critically, customer needs often take a back seat to internal realignment

We’ve chosen a different path. Our path puts you in control of your data, your infrastructure, and your outcomes. It’s not just about architecture. It’s about ensuring innovation is guided by your needs, not dictated by someone else’s stack.

As we move into the era of agentic AI, where systems don’t just analyze but act, trust and transparency are everything. You need the freedom to design your data strategy around your business priorities, not around a CRM provider’s end game.

Tens of thousands of organizations globally already trust us to help them do just that. We’re not here to push CRM. We’re here to help you solve real problems with an open, interoperable platform designed for impact.

If you’re using Informatica, or watching what’s unfolding, my advice is simple. Don’t wait. Choose flexibility. Choose a partner that’s ready today and committed to your future.

Because your business deserves nothing less.

If the Salesforce takeover of Informatica, has you wondering if it’s time to move on, you are not alone. Join us for an On-Demand briefing that will show you how easy it is — whether you're on premises, hybrid, or cloud — to keep your data initiatives moving forward with Qlik Talend Data Integration. Register here.

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