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Why Your Data Platform is Not Delivering on AI Promises
and How InterSystems is Aiming to Help
InterSystems offers a unified data strategy, emphasizing speed, security, and real-time insights for complex industries.
Key Highlights
- InterSystems is a private company that has been a leader in data management, integration, and analytics for
over 48 years, with $1.13 billion in revenue in 2024. - InterSystems IRIS is architected to provide a comprehensive data platform for diverse needs, including generative
AI and machine learning. - The company offers specialized solutions like InterSystems IRIS for Health and InterSystems Supply Chain Orchestrator, targeting
the intricate demands of the healthcare and supply chain. - InterSystems' approach aims to bring processing closer to data, designed to enhance performance, bolster security, and lower operational costs.
- Their value proposition focuses on ease of use, integration, rapid time to value through industry-specific bundles, and robust
customer support.
Analyst Take
Our interactions with InterSystems recently, during the company’s Analyst Relations Summit, reveal a company focused on its foundational “timeless design” and firmly rooted in delivering robust data management and healthcare information systems. InterSystems, a private and consistently profitable company since 1979, has established itself as a global leader in data management, integration, and analytics, with impressive performance, scalability, interoperability, and reliability. The company’s foundational offering, InterSystems IRIS, appears to be a central pillar in its strategy, aiming to provide a unified data platform. We are observing that this platform is designed to handle a broad spectrum of functionalities, from traditional database management to more contemporary demands like generative AI, machine learning, and advanced analytics. This broad capability set aims to position IRIS as a versatile solution for enterprises navigating complex data landscapes.
One of the more compelling aspects of InterSystems’ approach is its emphasis on bringing processing closer to the data. This architectural choice is engineered to deliver benefits such as faster processing, enhanced security, and potentially reduced costs. In an era where data volumes are exploding and real-time insights are paramount, such an architecture could be a significant differentiator. It suggests a thoughtful design intended to mitigate some of the common bottlenecks associated with data movement and distributed processing. The company's strength lies in servicing mission-critical applications where performance and reliability are paramount. It appears InterSystems often becomes the solution when existing systems can no longer meet business demands, offering significant improvements
in processing times.
The company also places a considerable focus on industry-specific solutions, particularly within healthcare. Their HealthShare, TrakCare, and InterSystems IntelliCare offerings highlight a deep understanding of the unique challenges faced by healthcare providers and organizations. This specialization is a smart move; healthcare is an incredibly data-intensive and compliance-driven industry, where off-the-shelf generic solutions often fall short. By providing tailored electronic health records and information exchange platforms, InterSystems aims to address critical pain points in this vital sector. Similarly, their presence in financial services and supply chain indicates a broader strategy to apply their data management expertise to other complex industries.
We find their commitment to making data AI-ready particularly noteworthy. With the growing adoption of AI across various business functions, the ability to reliably access and utilize real-time data is crucial. InterSystems’ focus on ensuring data readiness for AI and machine learning initiatives underscores their understanding of current market demands. Their emphasis on ease of learning and use, coupled with a promise of fast time to value through industry-specific solution bundles, also resonates well with the need for agile deployments in today's fast-paced environment. Furthermore, their claim of industry-leading support suggests a long-term commitment to customer success, which is a key factor for enterprise clients. Our perspective is that InterSystems aims to be a dependable partner for organizations wrestling with complex data and integration challenges while seeking to leverage their data for better decision-making.
Double-click on Smart Data Fabric
InterSystems Smart Data Fabric is an advanced enterprise architecture that simplifies and accelerates access to data assets by accessing, transforming, and harmonizing information from multiple sources on demand. The Smart Data Fabric is positioned ‘standalone’ and also underpins InterSystems industry-focused applications. The approach embeds a broad spectrum of analytics capabilities, including Generative AI, data exploration, business intelligence, natural language processing, and machine learning, to enhance data usability without disrupting existing systems. The fabric provides organizations with consistent, real-time views of enterprise data, enabling better decision-making, improved customer experiences, and operational efficiency. In data management, it addresses silos by unifying disparate data sources, making it essential for modernizing access and integration in complex environments.
The Smart Data Fabric’s integration with AI technologies allows for the direct embedding of predictive, prescriptive, and generative AI tools, facilitating intelligent applications like AI-enabled advisors and scenario planning. In the emerging AI stack, InterSystems Smart Data Fabric serves as a foundational layer that supplies unified, high-quality data to fuel AI models, accelerating decision intelligence and supporting real-time analytics in AI-driven workflows. Real world applications include financial services for risk management and compliance, as well as supply chain orchestration for prescriptive insights and agile operations.
We came away impressed by the breadth and depth of the Smart Data Fabric, and the two case studies highlighted at the Analyst Summit, where a global retailer and an innovative healthcare provider outlined their adoption of Smart Data Fabric, painted a holistic approach. InterSystems certainly has the bona fides and track record to operate in this space, at scale. The question remains, however: will they be invited to the AI party? The company certainly has the technical solutions to be a viable player in the re-architected AI data stack, but will its brand permission mean that it struggles to be asked to ‘the cool kids table’ when senior IT executives are looking to build a roster of trusted suppliers to underpin their AI journey?
Looking Ahead
Based on what we are observing and fueled by the discussions this week, InterSystems is positioning itself as a comprehensive data solutions provider, with a strong lean into specialized industry applications, particularly healthcare. The key trend that we are going to be tracking is how effectively their "processing closer to data" architecture truly translates into tangible, measurable benefits for their clients in real-world scenarios. While the theoretical advantages are clear, the actual implementation and impact on large-scale, diverse enterprise environments will be key. Put simply, we came away from the event, impressed by the almost 50-year commitment to innovation from InterSystems and the sheer footprint of the business.
When we look at the market as a whole, the positioning from InterSystems is not a seismic shift, but rather a reinforcement of their established strategy: deep expertise in data management applied to specific, high-value industries. Compared to broader data platform providers like Databricks or Snowflake, InterSystems appears to take a more vertically integrated and specialized approach, especially within healthcare. While Databricks and Snowflake offer more generalized data lakehouse and cloud data warehousing solutions, InterSystems aims to deliver more comprehensive, industry-specific bundles, especially with their healthcare offerings like TrakCare and HealthShare. InterSystems’ data integration capabilities also shine, especially in organizations with multiple types of data stores that cannot be migrated to a single technology. Our perspective is that their specialization and integration capabilities allow them to address nuanced industry requirements that more generalized platforms might overlook.
One critical aspect for InterSystems is where it intends to directly compete with the hyperscalers and cloud-native data platforms, given their significant marketing and R&D budgets, and how it can collaborate well with the same players. Our perspective is that InterSystems is well-positioned for organizations demanding extreme reliability, real-time performance, and complex interoperability in their core operations. The challenge will be to clearly articulate these distinctions beyond technical specifications and demonstrate tangible business outcomes, especially as AI adoption broadens. InterSystems must showcase concrete examples of AI-powered solutions delivering measurable improvements in efficiency, cost reduction, and new product innovation in demanding sectors.
The HyperFRAME Research team was in Boston last week, attending various analyst events focused on ETL and data integration, and the consistent message across the board is the increasing demand for real-time, integrated data for AI initiatives. InterSystems' strategy aligns well with this broader market trend, especially their emphasis on "AI-ready" data and on reducing the ETL burden by bringing processing closer to the source. HyperFRAME will be tracking how InterSystems continues to differentiate itself in an increasingly crowded data platform market, and specifically, how its AI readiness claims translate into widespread adoption and measurable business outcomes for its clients in future quarters.
Stephanie Walter | Analyst In Residence - AI Tech Stack
Stephanie Walter is a results-driven technology executive and analyst in residence with over 20 years leading innovation in Cloud, SaaS, Middleware, Data, and AI. She has guided product life cycles from concept to go-to-market in both senior roles at IBM and fractional executive capacities, blending engineering expertise with business strategy and market insights. From software engineering and architecture to executive product management, Stephanie has driven large-scale transformations, developed technical talent, and solved complex challenges across startup, growth-stage, and enterprise environments.
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Steven Dickens | CEO HyperFRAME Research
Regarded as a luminary at the intersection of technology and business transformation, Steven Dickens is the CEO and Principal Analyst at HyperFRAME Research.
Ranked consistently among the Top 10 Analysts by AR Insights and a contributor to Forbes, Steven's expert perspectives are sought after by tier one media outlets such as The Wall Street Journal and CNBC, and he is a regular on TV networks including the Schwab Network and Bloomberg.