The data leader’s new mandate with Oleksandr Khirnyi

The cloud data integration market is no longer defined by simple ETL, but by a chaotic mix of real-time streams, disparate clouds, and AI’s rapid, practical application. The biggest bottleneck isn’t technology, but the sheer complexity of tool and data sprawl, leading to fragmented insights and ballooning costs.

This landscape now requires a perspective that goes beyond the technical specifications. In this exclusive interview, we speak with Oleksandr Khirnyi, Chief Product Officer at Skyvia, a company at the forefront of no-code data integration. Khirnyi has a clear vision for what comes next, one that cuts through the industry’s buzzwords with a core philosophy: “Obsess over the business metric, not the pipeline.”

He argues that the future of data integration isn’t about better plumbing, but about delivering immediate, tangible value. We discuss how that vision informs Skyvia’s strategy, the role of AI in empowering a new class of users, and the emerging trends that will define the next three to five years.

From your unique vantage point as a product leader in cloud data solutions, what are the most significant emerging data trends that you believe will profoundly impact businesses and the data integration landscape over the next 3 to 5 years?

1. Distributed-first architectures. A data fabric exposes edge streams, SaaS APIs, and on-prem systems through one semantic layer — no giant central warehouse required. (Domain ownership baked in.)
2. Always-on data in motion. Sub-second CDC and event routing push fresh data everywhere; “data at rest becomes a lagging copy.
3. AI-augmented integration. LLMs suggest schemas, generate transforms, and fix broken pipelines, moving humans from plumbing to design.
4. Unified observability. Quality metrics, SLA dashboards, and impact analysis surface waste fast.
5. Regulation-driven governance. Privacy and AI rules force policy-as-code and fine-grained access into every workflow.

How is the increasing demand for real-time data and event-driven architectures reshaping the market for data integration platforms, and what new capabilities are becoming critical to address this shift effectively?

Real-time is table-stakes. Platforms need:

• Autoscaling streaming connectors for row-level change capture.
• Exactly-once semantics and automatic schema-evolution handling.
• In-flight analytics — lightweight transforms and alerts while data is still on the wire.
• Low-code event orchestration exposed via webhooks and declarative APIs.

How we responded: We layered Skyvia Connect — Real-Time Connectivity on our ELT stack and exposed the same engine through webhooks and a Public API.

Looking at current market dynamics, how do you foresee the ongoing evolution of AI and machine learning influencing the development and adoption of data integration solutions, particularly in the no-code space?

• Semantic mapping & entity resolution (LLMs) — already in pilot with design partners.
• Generative transforms: “Clean, standardize, and geocode these addresses” is emitted as executable SQL.
• Self-healing pipelines: Upstream schema drift auto-triggers redeploy after a confidence threshold.
• Citizen enablement: Business users state intent; the platform writes logic and tests.

What are the biggest market-driven challenges organizations currently face in their data integration strategies, and how do you envision the next generation of cloud data integration platforms providing solutions to these evolving complexities?

Good governance is finally a feature buyers ask for, not a box we tick.

Challenge Consequence Platform response Tool & data sprawl Fragmented data; rising spend Connector marketplace + serverless, pay-per-row runtimes Schema drift / data quality Broken dashboards; ML decay Observability (quality metrics, SLA dashboards, impact analysis) + automated remediation Security & compliance load Fines; trust erosion Policy-as-code, token auth, end-to-end lineage Cost-to-value pressure CFO scrutiny Usage transparency + kill idle jobs quickly

With the continued proliferation of data sources and diverse cloud environments, what market insights guide your strategy for ensuring robust data governance, security, and compliance within modern integration solutions?

1. Policy-as-code — masking, retention, ACLs defined in pipeline config.
2. End-to-end lineage & audit replay for every field, every run.
3. Token-based API access — no stored credentials.
4. Federated ownership — domains hold data context; central platform enforces horizontal controls.

As a product leader, what is your long-term vision for the future of cloud data integration? How do you anticipate these platforms will continue to evolve to meet the ever-growing demands for data accessibility, automation, and intelligent insights, shaping the data landscape for businesses globally?

• Composable data products — subscribe to Customer 360 or Product telemetry via API, not export scripts.
• Autonomic integration — pipelines sense drift or latency and remediate without a Jira ticket.
• Natural-language data desk—ask for a business outcome; the platform assembles ingestion, modeling, and governance.
• Open ecosystem — our Public API (beta) is step one toward a marketplace for third-party connectors, transforms, and AI agents.

Anything you would like to add?

Obsess over the business metric, not the pipeline. Integration wins when it feels less like plumbing and more like collaborative problem-solving — secure, automated, and ready for insight the instant you need it.