Today Informatica announced the pre-release of its new data integration platform called Informatica Cloud 2012, which should be generally available in January 2012. Among its features is a contact validation service that verifies postal addresses and checks phone numbers against the U.S. Do Not Call Registry.

Informatica Cloud 2012 product also includes the Rapid Connectivity Framework for building integrations with software such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM, Zuora, Eloqua, Netsuite and SAP via the Informatica Marketplace Cloud Data Integration Mall. The product also includes bulk API support for Salesforce.com and Force.com.

Informatica also recently launched HPraser, a free data parser for Hadoop. Informatica EVP James Markarian joined us on theCube at Hadoop World 2011 to talk about big data integrations.

Integration is becoming a huge priority for enterprises adopting cloud services. Cloud consulting prices are now outpacing enterprise software prices and there’s a demand for tools that can simplify the process of integration. Informatica is coming up against companies like Talend and SnapLogic, which was co-founded by Informatica co-founder Gaurav Dhillon. Meanwhile, many cloud applications, such as Yammer, are building out of the box integrations with other cloud applications to route around the need for systems integrators where possible. Informatica continues to move aggressively into the cloud, mobile and big data spaces.