Alation Launches Salesforce Connector to Enhance Data Trust

We are excited to announce a new strategic partnership with Salesforce. This partnership will bring data governance and deep insights around data lineage into Salesforce Data Cloud. With this bidirectional integration, Alation joins the Salesforce Data Governance alliance.

This partnership injects new velocity into core Salesforce use cases across Sales, Service, Marketing, and Commerce clouds. Joint customers can ensure their investments in curation, federated governance, and metadata signals in Alation are available within the Salesforce Data Cloud and continue to sustain data culture programs with Alation. Data Cloud customers will benefit from increased visibility into data intelligence for their most high-value data. 

Why integrate Alation and Salesforce?

First and foremost, Alation has heard, loud and clear, that our customers are also using Data Cloud and wish to ensure their investments in our product flow, seamlessly through to Data Cloud, and vice versa. Our upcoming Salesforce Data Cloud connector delivers this.

Salesforce Data Cloud users who do not have Alation still need to ensure that their customer data is fully governed and trusted. Alation can now meet this need.

Key metadata signals such as tags, policies, and data quality indicators from platforms like Snowflake and Databricks will also flow from Alation to Salesforce Data Cloud. This ensures consistent governance and definitions, eliminates the need for costly repeated investments, and helps businesses maintain a reliable data environment, supporting faster decision-making and AI development.  

How does It work? Understanding the Alation Data Cloud Connector

The Alation Data Cloud connector is engineered to integrate seamlessly with Salesforce Data Cloud, offering a frictionless experience that automates the ingestion of critical metadata. But how exactly does it work? Let’s dive into the specifics.

Automated metadata ingestion

The connector is built to automatically ingest various types of metadata, such as Data Lake Objects (DLOs), Data Model Objects (DMOs), and Calculated Insights (CIs). This continuous process ensures that any new or updated metadata is instantly synchronized with Salesforce Data Cloud. As an automated process, there’s no need for manual data entry or frequent updates, reducing the chances of errors and ensuring that the data available is always current and accurate.

The new connector grants Salesforce users full visibility into Alation metadata, including DLOs.

Enhanced data search with ALLIE AI

Once the metadata is ingested into Alation, ALLIE AI enhances the search and discovery experience. This AI-driven capability takes over the manual tasks traditionally associated with data stewardship. For users, this means that when they need to find specific datasets within Salesforce Data Cloud, the system is already optimized to provide the most relevant and trusted results. ALLIE AI intelligently curates and ranks data, so the most pertinent information surfaces first, speeding up decision-making processes and enabling users to act on insights more rapidly.

Integrated governance mechanisms

In tandem with search and discovery, Alation’s integration introduces a robust governance layer. Automated policies oversee everything from data classification to compliance checks. Users can interact with this system through an intuitive interface, where they can easily apply and manage policies across all data assets. Features like dynamic data masking are also accessible within Salesforce Data Cloud, providing an extra layer of security that adapts to the specific needs of the data and the organization.

Visibility into data lineage

To support informed usage, data users need to grasp the journey of data—where it originates, how it transforms, and where it’s headed. Alation’s connector automatically maps out data lineage within Salesforce Data Cloud. Users can visually track data from its source through various transformations and outputs. This capability is particularly useful for troubleshooting, as it allows users to quickly pinpoint where any discrepancies or errors might have occurred in the data flow. By embedding metadata like policy details and data quality indicators, Alation ensures that users have all the context they need to trust the data they’re working with.

User experience

The integration between Alation and Salesforce Data Cloud is designed with the user experience in mind. Whether a user is an advanced data professional or a business user, the interface remains intuitive and user-friendly. Automated processes run in the background, so users can focus on their primary tasks without being bogged down by technical complexities. The search and governance capabilities are integrated directly into the Salesforce environment, making it feel like a natural extension of the platform rather than an additional layer. This seamless experience ensures that all team members can confidently interact with data, regardless of their technical expertise.

What’s the result? Unleashing new business value through integration

The integration of Alation with Salesforce Data Cloud isn’t just about connecting systems—it's about unlocking new levels of trust in customer data, supporting use cases across the Salesforce ecosystem, and spurring next-generation AI-powered Apps. By combining the power of the Alation Data Intelligence Platform with Salesforce’s expansive Data Cloud, organizations can achieve transformative business outcomes that go far beyond technical enhancements: 

Accelerated decision making and time to market

Imagine reducing the time it takes to transform raw data into actionable insights, enabling decision-makers to respond to market opportunities faster than ever before. This speed is critical, particularly in industries where being first to market can mean the difference between leading and following. By leveraging this integration, businesses can drive AI innovation and bring new products to market with agility and confidence.

Enhanced customer experience and revenue growth

With accurate, trusted data at their fingertips, customer-facing teams can deliver more personalized and relevant experiences. For example, identifying cross- and up-sell opportunities becomes easier and more effective, leading to increased customer satisfaction, loyalty, and revenue growth. The integration supports these outcomes by ensuring data governance is consistently applied across the Salesforce ecosystem, building trust in every customer interaction.

Mitigating risk and ensuring compliance

As regulations around data privacy become more stringent, the ability to manage compliance proactively is a must. Managing bias and model drift, too, requires robust governance and a sustainable understanding of data lineage. The Alation-Salesforce integration empowers leaders to enforce data governance policies seamlessly, avoiding costly compliance violations (and the risk of losing the trust of customers and stakeholders). This proactive risk management strengthens organizational reputation and ensures long-term success.

Driving AI innovation with trusted data

AI’s true potential is unlocked only when it’s built on a foundation of high-quality, governed data. This integration ensures that AI models within Salesforce are trained on reliable data, resulting in more accurate predictions and better decision-making. As industries continue to be reshaped by AI, having a trusted data foundation will be a key differentiator for those aiming to stay ahead.

Achieving operational efficiency and cost savings

Automation of data governance processes reduces the need for manual intervention, allowing organizations to achieve greater operational efficiency. This translates into cost savings that can be reinvested into growth initiatives or other strategic areas.

Building a sustainable data culture

This integration isn’t just a technical enhancement—it’s a strategic move that supports the development of a sustainable data culture. By embedding governance into daily workflows, businesses ensure that data-driven decision-making becomes ingrained in their operations, empowering employees at all levels to contribute to the organization’s data strategy and innovation efforts.

Conclusion

This integration empowers developers and business users alike to trust and act on data. In the short term, this supports greater productivity on core clouds like Sales Cloud. In the long term, one could easily foresee how it could support next-gen AI apps on AppExchange, Salesforce's marketplace. Going forward, we are exploring how data intelligence can surface customer activity across product and service lines -- creating new cross- and up-sell opportunities.

Hungry for more?  We’d love to talk, and whether you are an established Data Cloud customer and would like to understand more about Alation, or you are an Alation customer starting our already on your Data Cloud journey, our team is ready to talk. Book a demo with us today.