Datadog acquires Metaplane to boost AI-ready data monitoring

Datadog has acquired Metaplane, a data observability platform, to expand its offerings to data teams and provide advanced monitoring across the full data lifecycle.

Metaplane delivers end-to-end data observability using machine learning-powered monitoring and column-level lineage features intended to prevent, detect and resolve data quality issues within an organisation's data infrastructure.

This move comes as artificial intelligence becomes more prominent and businesses increasingly adopt cloud platforms such as Snowflake and Databricks, making the integrity and reliability of data a key consideration for companies.

According to Datadog, the integration of Metaplane's capabilities will accelerate its expansion in the data observability market, enhancing its existing products, such as Data Jobs Monitoring and Data Streams Monitoring.

Traditional data observability solutions, Datadog states, are primarily focused on monitoring data once it arrives within data lakes or warehouses, which can leave gaps in visibility for data teams. Datadog plans to address this challenge by ensuring coverage across the entire data lifecycle, encompassing production, transformation and consumption stages.

With broader data observability, Datadog aims to support data teams as they take on greater responsibilities, including the development of artificial intelligence applications and data products, areas in which complete insight across the data stack is increasingly critical.

Michael Whetten, Vice President of Product at Datadog, commented: "Observability is no longer just for developers and IT teams; it's now an essential part of data teams' day-to-day responsibilities as they manage increasingly complex and business-critical workflows. This complexity will become even more pronounced as more businesses deploy AI applications. By unifying observability across applications and data, Datadog will help organizations build reliable AI systems."

Metaplane's co-founder and Chief Executive Officer, Kevin Hu, said: "Our mission at Metaplane is to help companies ensure trust in the data that powers their business. Joining forces with Datadog enables us to bring data observability to tens of thousands more companies, while bringing data teams and software teams closer together."

Following the acquisition, Metaplane will continue to support its existing customers and will operate as Metaplane by Datadog, welcoming new customers as part of the expanded group.

Data observability tools are designed to monitor a company's data stack, alerting teams to changes and potential failures by continuously tracking the properties and movement of data. Visibility across the full range of processes, from the origins in software systems through to transformation and consumption, provides additional assurance for data quality and reliability.

By pursuing greater integration between its unified monitoring platform and Metaplane's focus on data observability, Datadog plans to enable organisations to better identify and act on data insights, supporting broader strategic initiatives around digital transformation and the development of AI-powered products.