Everything you need to know about the new Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics Governance

New Magic Quadrant alert!

The 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics is here and provides valuable insights on vendor selection for businesses pursuing data governance initiatives..

This marks the first time Gartner's Magic Quadrant series has addressed the topic of data and analytics governance. The report defines the market, outlines vendor evaluation criteria specific to this field, and highlights essential capabilities to guide your business toward successful implementation.

Join us as we break down this new category, its importance, and why we were selected as a participating vendor. 

What is the market definition of the Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics Governance?

Since this is a new category from Gartner, it's important to understand how they approach the industry, their perspective, and how they define the role vendors play. 

They cover all of this in the market definition:

"A data and analytics governance platform is a set of integrated business and technology capabilities that help business leaders and users to develop and deploy a diverse set of governance policies and monitor and enforce those policies across their organizations’ business systems. 

These platforms are unique from data management in that data management focuses on policy execution, whereas these platforms are used primarily by business roles — not only or even specifically IT roles."

The primary organizational role of data and analytics governance is policy setting and policy enforcement. Use cases span several governance policy categories applicable to many business scenarios. Vendors are then meant to bridge the gap between the use cases and the role, providing the technology to set and enforce policies specific to the business. 

What are the key capabilities evaluated in the Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics Governance?

Gartner's Magic Quadrant always defines must-haves and standard capabilities for their specific field to help businesses select well-equipped vendors. 

Here is a useful list of critical capabilities for the Data and Analytics Governance Magic Quadrant and their quick descriptions

Must-have capabilities

• Policy setting. Technology to support, operationalize, and automate the work of governance professionals in policy setting. 
• Policy enforcement. Technology for governance professionals to enforce their determined data and analytics governance policies. 

Industry-standard capabilities

• Access management. Support user access, limit privileges, and track interactions with data. 
• Active metadata. Actively assigned and automated metadata tagging to describe data sets, help with governance organization, and aid in analytics outputs. 
• Business glossary. A centralized repository for business terms. 
• Connectivity/integration. The ability to adjust and adapt to specific systems provides a wide range of compatibility across use cases. 
• Data catalog. A centralized storage and searchable database for all data assets containing information about their origin, quality, and relationships. 
• Data classification. The ability to sort data into multiple predetermined categories making it easier to locate, secure, and retrieve.  
• Data dictionary. A centralized repository of data terms and technical metadata definitions. 
• Data lineage. The ability to track the data's lifecycle from its inception to eventual use with all issues and interactions recorded along the way. 
• Impact analysis. Identify the impact of change on metadata and datasets, drilling down to the finest level of detail for the best result. 
• Information policy representation. A place to model, store, and access data and analytics governance policies with embedded links to relevant business rules.
• Matching, linking, and merging. Master data management capabilities for combining, completing, and eliminating duplicate data. 
• Model management. The ability to change and adapt policies flexibly over time. 
• Orchestration/automation. Augmented data management employs machine learning to automate various manual tasks and create a proactive approach to managing data. 
• Profiling. Scanning datasets and delivering information on their metadata. 
• Rule management. Implementation and adjustment of data quality rules. 
• Security. Security policies and procedures to ensure risk-free use of the platform. Also, enacting access protocols, audits, and monitoring to maintain a secure and compliant environment.  
• Tag management. The ability to tag datasets with relevant labels such as PII (personally identifiable information) and manage tags in the data catalog. 
• Task management. Set up and assign data-related tasks within the platform. 
• User interface. An adaptable and accessible interface that is useful to all governance roles (technical and non-technical) 
• Workflow management. Business process modeling, data flow modeling and documentation, and support for analytics KPIs. 

How does Gartner determine vendor positioning in the Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics Governance?

Gartner evaluates vendors for the Data and Analytics Governance Magic Quadrant based on several key factors:

• General availability. Does the platform stand alone with all of its capabilities integrated?
• Product or service capability. Does the platform have all of the must-have and industry-standard capabilities? 
• Performance. Does the platform have a regular base of satisfied and paying customers (at least 25)? 
• Impact. Does the platform rank among the top 20 organizations in the Customer Interest Indicator (CII)? 
• Geographic coverage. Does the platform service multiple countries (at least 5) and regions (at least 2)? 
• Customer references. Can the platform provide customer references (10 distinct) to participate in a product survey? 

Companies that meet these criteria are split into the classic Magic Quadrant categories:

• Challengers, 
• Niche Players
• Visionaries
• Leaders

Source

Where Ataccama fits in

Gartner's main focus for this Magic Quadrant was policies—platforms specifically designed to help with policy management and the business side of data handling.

The placement of Ataccama into this Magic Quadrant was a huge honor. As a "leader" in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Augmented Data Quality Solutions, we've always valued Gartner as an authority in all data management technologies. Our position shows, we are a rising force in data governance and there is plenty still to come in servicing our business clients in this category. 

Some of the highlights Gartner mentioned about our product for data and analytics governance include:

• Ataccama’ core data quality and MDM functions make the jobs of data stewards and business users easier by providing high-quality data and easy/automated ways to improve it. 
• Specific callouts to Ataccama’s advanced profiling and entity resolution capabilities, labelling them the strength of our product.
• Highlighted Ataccama master data governance capabilities in both operational and analytical use cases.
• Compliments to our master data governance capabilities in both operational and analytical use cases.
• Labelling Ataccama customer service as a premier supplement to the product with tiered customer engagement and service models that include platform onboarding and self-paced, instructor-led training for the platform. . 

Ataccama ONE provides a unified platform combining industry-leading data quality with comprehensive governance, empowering organizations with tools for end-to-end data trust and operational excellence.

Data governance alone isn't enough to achieve data trust

While data and analytics governance is essential, organizations must go further to achieve complete trust in their data. Without addressing data quality and usability, governance programs risk low adoption and limited impact. 

Data trust requires more than just cataloging assets; it demands clear insights into data quality and a framework for identifying valuable and reliable assets. Ataccama goes beyond conventional governance, offering data quality insights that empower teams to fully trust and leverage their data.

Why this Magic Quadrant matters

The creation of this Magic Quadrant signals the emergence of data governance as a standalone priority for businesses. As data complexity grows, siloed governance solutions no longer suffice. Gartner’s report emphasizes the need for platforms that provide seamless integration, scalability, and automation to meet modern governance demands.

Key trends shaping this space include:

• The rise of active metadata: Platforms leveraging AI and ML to detect anomalies, automate tasks, and optimize data pipelines.
• Convergence of governance tools: Combining cataloging, classification, and compliance into unified systems.
• Consumerization of governance: Designing tools accessible to technical and non-technical users alike.

Download the full report

The 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics Governance is a significant milestone, recognizing the critical role of data governance in today's data-driven world. 

Ataccama's inclusion underscores our commitment to providing a unified platform that seamlessly integrates data quality with comprehensive governance capabilities. This empowers organizations to establish end-to-end data trust, ensuring their data is not only well-governed but also high-quality, reliable, and ready to drive business value.

Download the entire 2025 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Data and Analytics Governance Platforms report today to learn more about the evolving landscape of data and analytics governance, or visit our data governance software page to begin improving your data.