As the need to pull together the growing volumes of data that’s generated and collected by organizations has increased, several types of data integration software have emerged to help IT teams simplify and manage the process. But with so many products to choose from, what’s the best approach to selecting the right data integration tool for your enterprise? It isn’t about picking the product with the most features, but rather the one that best matches your integration requirements and enterprise profile.

Before you start evaluating data integration platforms, ask some questions inside your organization to help guide the technology selection process. Your inquiries should cover the following topics:

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(This is the final article in a four-part series on data integration tools. The first article laid the groundwork by identifying the types of tools and how they’re used. Article No. 2 examined specific use cases for buying a data integration tool. The third article helped you determine which features are most important to your organization. Here we examine the leading commercial data integration platforms, comparing and contrasting their features.)

(Learn more about data integration and all things BI in my Business Intelligence Guidebook – From Data Integration to Analytics. Chapter 11 is on data integration design and development and chapter 12 is on data integration processes. )