Talend Boosts Data Sharing Capabilities With Acquisition Of API Technology Developer Restlet

Data preparation and integration software vendor Talend has acquired Restlet, a developer of a cloud-based API design and testing system that Talend will add to its data integration lineup and, ultimately, to its Data Fabric platform.

The acquisition will provide a range of application development and data monetization opportunities for Talend's solution provider partners, according to a company executive.

Talend spent about $10 million to acquire 100 percent of Restlet SAS' stock. Restlet is based in Nantes, France. Talend, based in Redwood City, Calif., was originally founded in Paris, France and still has a major presence in Europe.

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Restlet founder and CTO Jerome Louvel, along with the company's 16 employees, are all joining Talend, according to the company.

"We have a vision for what we're calling 'data-as-a-service,'" said Ashley Stirrup, Talend's chief marketing officer, in an interview with CRN. "That's just a term that means monetizing the growing value of data."

Businesses today often wrestle with the best way to transform and securely share data with external applications, such as those run by customers and business partners.

Talend said the addition of the Restlet API to its platform would make it possible for businesses to share data more pervasively and securely across applications. Stirrup used the example of Decision Resources Group, a provider of healthcare analytics and a Talend customer, which provides its customers with access to a healthcare clinical and insurance claims database.

Talend will initially deploy the Restlet API creation and testing technology as part of the company's Talend Integration Cloud, which also supports open-source projects such as Swagger and RAML. Later next year Talend will incorporate more of the Restlet technology within the broader Talend Data Fabric integration platform.

The vision is to leverage the Restlet API technology as part of a broader data-as-a-service micro services architecture, Stirrup said.

The Restlet API technology also provides a way to build security into shared data to help comply with data governance regulations.

Talend sees the acquisition generating opportunities for its channel partners who build data integration solutions and applications based on the Talend Data Fabric.

"A lot of our partners collect a lot of data themselves and this will help them monetize that," Stirrup said. "We also think there will be a lot of opportunities in the IoT space" to collect data and package it for resale, he said.