Thinking outside the box: the next chapter in data virtualisation

But whilst logical data warehouses are both powerful and flexible, it’s time that businesses started realising the benefits of data virtualisation beyond them.

Tried and tested

Since the concept of the logical data warehouse was first conceived over ten years ago, it’s been widely used to represent the natural evolution of analytical systems. Data virtualisation became a key part of this.

But the power of data virtualisation goes much further. This type of technology has the potential to act as a ‘unified data delivery platform’ bringing together not only the data stored within logical data warehouses but also across data lakes, data marketplaces and any other data delivery system.

Data virtualisation is like a chain; tying data across a business and tearing down any silos. It enables teams across an organisation to access data quickly and from anywhere – and the knowledge that they glean from this often informs business decisions and helps to increase productivity.

Moreover, data virtualisation allows IT stakeholders to work at their own pace to provision data on various platforms, while consumers are provided access to the data wherever it resides through a logical layer. This enables end users to access data using the applications of their choice, be they reporting tools, data science tools, enterprise applications, mobile or web apps.

There’s no doubt about it, for many businesses, data virtualisation has become the fundamental element which supports the modernisation of the data landscape behind it. Over the years, it’s a method that has been tried, tested and proved to work effectively. But, whilst it’s true this is a task these technologies are perfect for, many organisations are failing to think outside the box and – as a result – are missing out on the other potential benefits of data virtualisation.

There’s a bigger world out there

The power of data virtualisation can extend beyond the traditional logical data warehouses. As a unified data delivery platform, it can add real value in other areas and to other architectures within an organisation.

It can help businesses to:

·       Enable data service layers – This results in better visibility of and, therefore, access to data across an organisation. By publishing certified data services, data vitualisation can stop project teams from creating their own siloed data sets or using non-certified data sources. Instead, consistent data sets are published and made discoverable which enables developers throughout an organisation to access and reuse the data. This ultimately means that data can be accessed in a simple, agile and easy-to-use way to inform decision making, but that this data is also still effectively secured and governed within an organisation.

·       Accelerate cloud modernisation – For many businesses, a modern digital strategy includes cloud in some way or another. But the journey to cloud is not always smooth sailing. Migrating legacy applications takes time and during the process data will often become fragmented. Some will migrate to cloud, but some will also be left behind in on-premise storage. Enter data virtualisation! With its abstraction capabilities, it can facilitate the migration of legacy architecture to cloud, then the evolution of this migrated architecture to more modern cloud analytics platforms, offering simplified access to data in hybrid architectures.

·       Simplify big data adoption – Data virtualisation opens up the world of big data – even to those without any experience of it – through allowing the data residing in big data platforms to be easily accessed and exploited. It also supports big data initiatives by enabling data scientists to focus on analytics rather than data integration.

For years, businesses have only used data virutalisation to seek value from the data stored within their logical data warehouses. But it’s time for organisations to start thinking about the bigger picture. By using data virtualisation as part of their wider environments, businesses can derive real value from their data – regardless of where it resides – enabling them to transform knowledge into power.