Starburst Enterprise Intelligence Platform
by Starburst Data
Federated Trino-based platform and AIDA assistant that let AI agents query governed enterprise data in place, without moving it
The Starburst Enterprise Intelligence Platform lets AI assistants and agents query governed data across clouds, lakes, warehouses and on-premises systems without copying it into one warehouse first. It is for data and AI leaders whose data is spread across many engines and who want AI on it without a multiyear centralization project.
Starburst Data, the company behind the commercial distribution of the Trino distributed SQL engine, launched the Starburst Enterprise Intelligence Platform on May 28, 2026 at its AI & Datanova event. The platform lets AI assistants and agents query governed data where it already lives (data lakes, warehouses, SaaS applications and operational databases across AWS, Azure, Google Cloud and on-premises) without first copying it into a single warehouse. Futurum describes four layers: a federated data foundation, an analytics engine that Starburst says runs up to 2x faster than open-source Trino, an enterprise context layer built on AI-Ready Data Products that bundle data, metadata and business definitions, and AIDA, the AI Data Assistant. AIDA was introduced in April 2026 and became generally available at launch on Starburst Galaxy and Starburst Enterprise Platform. It answers natural-language questions, generates visualizations, can trigger workflows, open tickets and update records, and supports the Model Context Protocol for connecting outside tools and unstructured content. The release also added Data Products as Code (declarative YAML definitions, in public preview), Icehouse Ingest and Icehouse LakeOps for managed Apache Iceberg tables, and a Bring Your Own Cloud option in preview with design partners. Galaxy pricing is published per compute credit, from $0.50 on Pro to $1.00 on Mission-Critical, with AIDA token usage billed separately. Starburst, founded in 2017, last disclosed a $250 million Series D at a $3.35 billion valuation in February 2022. TechTarget names Databricks, Snowflake and Dremio, which SAP is acquiring, as competitors.
A CDO or head of data platform at an enterprise with data spread across several clouds, warehouses and on-premises systems that wants agents and business users querying it under existing governance.
AI assistants and agents get governed access to distributed data in place, which avoids the cost and delay of consolidating it into one warehouse first.
At a Glance
- Category
- Data & Analytics
- Pricing
- Usage-based, Freemium, Contact for pricing
- Target Market
- CDOs, CIOs, Data Platform Teams, Data Engineers, Business Analysts
- Deployment
- Hybrid, Multi-cloud, Self-hosted
- Founded
- 2017
- Headquarters
- Boston, USA
- Team Size
- 500+
Key Features
- ✓AIDA (AI Data Assistant)
A natural-language assistant that reasons across governed data products, generates visualizations and can trigger workflows, open tickets and update records in connected systems.
- ✓Federated query engine
Trino-based engine that queries data in place across clouds, lakes, warehouses and SaaS apps; Starburst claims up to 2x open-source Trino performance.
- ✓AI-Ready Data Products
Bundles governed data, metadata and business definitions into reusable assets so AI answers use agreed definitions instead of guessing from raw tables.
- ✓Data Products as Code
Declarative YAML definitions let data engineers version and deploy governed data products like software; currently in public preview.
- ✓MCP support
Model Context Protocol support connects AIDA to external tools, unstructured content and third-party systems, extending agent reach without custom integrations.
- ✓Managed Icehouse
Icehouse Ingest loads batch and streaming files into Apache Iceberg tables and Icehouse LakeOps handles table optimization, query tuning and health monitoring.
- ✓Bring Your Own Cloud
Extends Starburst Galaxy into the customer's own cloud account so data and network control stay with the enterprise; in preview with design partners.
Capabilities
Use Cases
- •Self-service analytics for business users
Analysts ask AIDA questions in plain language across warehouse, lake and SaaS data, and get governed answers and charts without filing data-team tickets.
- •Governed internal data marketplace
Vizient is building a governed internal data marketplace with Starburst to work across distributed datasets while reducing unnecessary data duplication.
- •Agent access to enterprise data
AI agents query governed data products through MCP, so they work from approved definitions and access controls instead of direct database credentials.
- •Avoiding a centralization project
A multi-cloud enterprise runs AI and BI on data in place instead of migrating it, cutting egress and replatforming costs Futurum highlights in its analysis.
Ideal For
Best For
- ✓Natural-language analytics for business users over data that lives in several clouds and on-premises systems
- ✓Giving AI agents governed data access through MCP without building per-source pipelines
- ✓Packaging reusable, governed data products with business definitions for AI and BI teams
- ✓Running and maintaining Apache Iceberg lakehouses with managed ingest and table optimization
Not Ideal For
- ✗Smaller organizations with one warehouse and few sources; a PeerSpot reviewer suggested Dremio may suit smaller organizations better, and Starburst needs significant infrastructure investment
- ✗Teams that need built-in AI model observability and explainability, which an Omdia analyst said the platform still lacks
- ✗Buyers who want proven results at scale today: analysts note the new AI layers have no independent benchmarks or published customer outcomes yet
Deployment
Market Analysis
Pros
- ✓Avoids costly data migration by running AI and analytics on distributed data in place
- ✓Scalable and fast across many catalogs, with usage analytics and role management (PeerSpot reviewers)
- ✓Open standards and MCP support hedge against vendor lock-in
- ✓Published per-credit pricing, a free tier and a 30-day trial with $500 in credits
Cons
- ✗Analysts say its AI differentiation depends on execution and is unproven at enterprise scale, with no independent benchmarks or customer results published
- ✗No explicit AI model observability, explainability or cost-optimization tooling for distributed AI workloads (Omdia)
- ✗Kubernetes setup has a learning curve and adding a catalog can need backend configuration and a cluster restart (PeerSpot)
- ✗Data products, which AIDA depends on, have long been hard for organizations to adopt, and treating them as code changes data engineering workflows (Futurum)
Pricing
Galaxy Free
$0
- ✓Up to 3 clusters
- ✓Standard execution mode for ad hoc queries
Galaxy Pro
From $0.50/credit
- ✓Flexible cluster execution modes
- ✓Streaming ingest
- ✓Advanced cluster management
Galaxy Enterprise
From $0.75/credit
- ✓AIDA (tokens billed separately)
- ✓Advanced autoscaling
- ✓ABAC and SCIM
- ✓AWS PrivateLink
- ✓Early access to private previews
Galaxy Mission-Critical
From $1.00/credit
- ✓AIDA (tokens billed separately)
- ✓Elite support
- ✓Advanced governance integrations
- ✓Highest uptime guarantees
Starburst Enterprise Platform (self-managed)
Contact for pricing
- ✓Self-managed deployment anywhere
- ✓AIDA generally available
Galaxy is metered in compute credits: a credit costs the same in compute across tiers, but the price per credit rises from $0.50 (Pro) to $0.75 (Enterprise) to $1.00 (Mission-Critical) and varies by cloud and region. AIDA is available only on Enterprise and Mission-Critical, with token usage billed on top. A 30-day trial includes $500 in credits. The self-managed Starburst Enterprise Platform has no published price. Prices checked on starburst.io/pricing on October 27, 2026.
Security & Compliance
Sources
This page was written from 8 sources, 5 on domains other than starburst.io.
- 1.starburst.io — starburst unveils enterprise intelligence platform giving envendor
- 2.starburst.io — pricingvendor
- 3.starburst.io — starburst galaxyvendor
- 4.techtarget.com — New Starburst platform extends AI to distributed data
- 5.futurumgroup.com — starbursts intelligence platform sets out to tame the multi
- 6.nucleusresearch.com — starburst extends ai context and governance at ai and datano
- 7.peerspot.com — starburst enterprise reviews
- 8.siliconangle.com — starburst 250m funding round boosts valuation 3 35b
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