Seven Data Virtualization Keys

Consider applying seven secrets practiced by your enterprise counterparts to make your own advanced data virtualization projects and architectures successful.

Last week, I confessed to finding data virtualization confusing. I think this frustrated Robert Eve, because in a recent piece the co-author of “Data Virtualization: Going Beyond Traditional Data Integration to Achieve Business Agility” points out he’s written over 60 articles on the topic.

 

“Yet with all this abundance, perhaps readers would value one article that answers the call, ‘What’s it all about?’” he writes.

 

Sorry, Mr. Eve. But yes, we would.

 

And that’s exactly what his recent piece, “Data Virtualization QA: What’s It All About” accomplishes — to a point. After all, Eve is the EVP of marketing at Composite Software, so he’s writing from a vendor’s perspective. That means you won’t find an answer to my favorite question, “When would you NOT use this approach.”

 

But still, there’s a lot of good information in this lengthy piece, which answers questions such as:

• What are the benefits of data virtualization?
• Who uses it?
• How does it work?
• What are some use cases?
• What’s the business case?
• How do you deploy it?

 

He also provides links so you can find case studies and further discussion on all these topics.

 

What I found most useful is his explanation of how data virtualization works. I think when you read things like it can solve integration problems in days, rather than months, you have to wonder how that works and whether your IT team could support it.

 

Data virtualization tools use business views, according to Eve. These are basically built by IT using the data analysis, design and development tools of the solution. Then when the business runs a report or refreshes the dashboard, the data virtualization’s high-performance query engine taps into the data sources and delivers what’s requested.

 

That means you’re getting the freshest data available.

 

“Data virtualization’s business views provide the information your information consumers require, in a rationalized form they can easily understand and use,” Eve writes. “These views shield your business users from IT’s complexity.”

 

And as my confusion over data virtualization illustrates, that’s always a good thing.