An independent economic validation study by Enterprise Strategy Group found that organizations using Starburst’s data and artificial intelligence platform reduced data platform costs and generated measurable returns by simplifying data access across distributed environments.

The Potomac Officers Club’s 2026 Artificial Intelligence Summit on March 18 brings together government and industry leaders to discuss AI initiatives. Cameron Stanley, chief digital and artificial intelligence officer
for the Department of War, is the keynote speaker. Register now!
What Did the ESG Analysis Evaluate?
The study assessed the economic impact of adopting Starburst’s data and AI platform using customer interviews and ESG’s financial modeling, Starburst said in a press release sent to ExecutiveBiz.
ESG developed a financial model for a data-driven software-as-a-service organization generating $210 million in annual revenue. The study found that use of the platform resulted in a 45 percent lower total cost of ownership compared with alternative data platforms and specialized tools, and estimated a three-year return on investment of 414 percent, driven by infrastructure savings, productivity improvements and reduced operational disruption.
ESG also reported improvements in query performance and faster onboarding of new data sources, enabling organizations to scale analytics and AI workloads without proportional increases in staffing or infrastructure.
What Starburst Architectural Factors Did ESG Highlight?
According to the analysis, Starburst’s federated data architecture allows organizations to query data where it resides across on-premises systems, cloud environments and data lakes. The study found this approach reduced the need for data migration while supporting governance and security controls.
“Enterprises are under enormous pressure to scale AI and analytics without ballooning costs or adding complexity,” said Starburst CEO Justin Borgman.
“This independent ESG validation confirms what our customers tell us every day: when organizations unify access to all their data—across on-premises, hybrid, and cloud environments—and eliminate unnecessary data movement, they can simplify architectures and reduce tooling, lower total cost of ownership at scale and ultimately move faster towards AI,” Borgman added.


