Case Study: US Federal Government Agency achieves 98% faster logins and 95% faster analyst onboarding with Alation

Secure Browser Access to Backend Data Changes the Analytics Game

A US federal agency headquartered in Washington, D.C., that processes over 20 million financial documents annually faced slow, cumbersome analytics: analysts couldn’t access backend sources to write SQL, logging in often took more than five minutes due to remote desktop timeouts, and the team needed secure browser-based querying plus ways to protect sensitive data and capture/share knowledge for new users.

The agency deployed the Alation Data Catalog, connecting a browser-based interface to its Greenplum database on AWS S3 and using Alation’s Compose SQL editor, TrustCheck flags, and Alation University training. The change cut login/query time by 98% (from ~5 minutes to ~5 seconds), sped onboarding by 95% (users ready in under an hour), increased trust in data through TrustCheck warnings, and enabled rapid, secure analytics across departments.