Alation

Alation is a US company founded in 2012 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, providing a data catalog and governance platform that helps enterprises make their data assets accurate, discoverable and trustworthy for both human analysts and AI agents.

The platform, marketed as the Alation Intelligence Operating System, combines metadata management, data lineage, conversational analytics and agentic governance controls so that AI applications read verified context rather than raw or mislabeled data. Global enterprises including Cisco, Nasdaq and Japan Airlines use it to govern data across analytics and AI initiatives.

1. Data catalog: indexes and documents data assets across the enterprise.

2. Data lineage: traces data flow from source systems to reports and models.

3. Agentic data governance: enforces access and quality policies for AI agent consumption.

4. Conversational analytics: lets business users query governed data in natural language.

5. Agent Studio: builds and manages custom data-aware automation agents.

6. Compliance controls: supports audit and regulatory reporting across data domains.