Salesforce Acquires Informatica: What’s Next for MuleSoft, Data Cloud, and ETL?

Salesforce has officially acquired Informatica, making a bold move that reshapes the landscape of enterprise data integration, governance, and AI activation.

This acquisition marks a strategic evolution in Salesforce’s platform capabilities—one that consolidates ETL, MDM, and data governance into its growing data-first, AI-powered vision. With Salesforce already owning MuleSoft and building aggressively on Data Cloud, the big question is: How will these technologies evolve? Which tools will remain, and which will fade into the background?

Let’s break it down.

🧠 Why Did Salesforce Acquire Informatica?

Informatica is a long-standing leader in:

• Enterprise-grade ETL and data integration
• Master Data Management (MDM)
• Data governance, lineage, and quality
• Cloud-native data pipelines

Salesforce is doubling down on becoming the AI + Data + CRM powerhouse. Informatica plugs the biggest gap in Salesforce's offering: deep data infrastructure and governance at scale.

This makes Salesforce the single vendor capable of owning the full lifecycle of customer data—from source system ingestion, to harmonization, to AI-powered activation.

🔗 What Happens to MuleSoft?

MuleSoft is here to stay, but its role will evolve.

What stays:

• Real-time integration & API management: MuleSoft remains Salesforce’s go-to tool for API-led connectivity across internal and external systems.
• Orchestration layer: It will serve as the bridge between operational systems and the enriched data foundation powered by Informatica.

What changes:

• MuleSoft Composer and low-code ETL features will likely be deprecated or merged into Informatica’s more mature tooling.
• Positioning will shift: MuleSoft = real-time & orchestration; Informatica = deep data prep, transformation, and governance.

🌐 What’s the Future of Data Cloud?

Data Cloud becomes the central nervous system for customer data activation in Salesforce.

Now supercharged by Informatica, Data Cloud can:

• Ingest batch and streaming data at scale using Informatica’s connectors and pipelines.
• Use MDM to unify and deduplicate customer identities more accurately.
• Ensure governance, quality, and compliance with Informatica’s lineage and catalog tools.

In short, Data Cloud will become the unified AI-ready data hub, powered behind the scenes by Informatica’s mature data engine.

🔄 What Gets Sunset?

Salesforce has had various data ingestion tools in the mix—many of which will now be consolidated:

Existing tools likely outcome: MuleSoft Composer - replaced by Informatica pipelines Salesforce Data Pipelines - Merged into Informatica-powered Data Cloud Einstein Data Prep (in Tableau) - Potentially replaced by Informatica prep tools 3rd-party ETL solutions - Phased out in favor of native stack

The result? One cohesive data platform, aligned with Salesforce’s CRM and AI strategy.

🧬 How the Stack Now Looks

Integration/API - MuleSoftReal-time APIs, event-driven orchestration ETL & Governance - Informatica (now Salesforce) Data prep, pipelines, MDM, governance AI Activation - Data Cloud, real-time profiles, Einstein integration

✅ What This Means for Salesforce Customers

• Simplified architecture: One vendor for CRM, AI, integration, and data engineering.
• Faster time to insights: Unified identity, governance, and real-time analytics under one roof.
• Lower costs and tighter integration: No more juggling ETL vendors—Salesforce owns the whole data stack.
• Better AI and personalization: Clean, governed data powers better predictions and customer experiences.

🧭 Final Thought

With Informatica now part of the Salesforce family, we’re seeing the emergence of a true enterprise data platform inside a CRM ecosystem—something the market has never seen before.

This move will push Salesforce beyond being just a customer platform. It’s becoming the data infrastructure for the enterprise, capable of powering AI-driven decisions across marketing, sales, service, and beyond.

The race to data-driven business just got a lot more interesting—and Salesforce is in the lead.

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