Data Virtualization 101: 5 Key Factors to Getting it Right 

The Global Data Virtualization Market is expected to grow at a compounded annual growth rate of 20.9% from USD 1.84 Billion in 2020 to USD 8.39 Billion by 2028. One of the greatest advantages of data virtualization is that it creates a logical extraction layer to provide a unified view of enterprise data. Users can work with this data without knowing the technical details such as how the source data is formatted or where it is stored.

Data Virtualization service provides a unified view of all data, structured and unstructured, without replicating or storing it. It enables centralized security and governance with data having to be moved physically. It uses pointers to direct users to the blocks requiring a smaller storage footprint, improving the speed of access to stored data in real-time. Businesses can run predictive, visual, and streaming analytics on real-time data relevant to their needs.

Benefits of Data Virtualization

Data virtualization improves the agility of businesses to face the increasingly competitive and fast-changing environment. While they have access to large volumes of internal and external data, traditional Extract Transform Load (ETL) systems or data warehouse approaches are insufficient to meet the data management needs of companies. With data virtualization, business users can access and consume production-quality data without the intervention of database administrators. This provides them with access to data in real-time to be able to respond quickly, make informed decisions, and improve productivity.

Some of the benefits of data virtualization include:

● Derive value from data

● Take faster decisions

● Improve customer satisfaction

● Reduce risks

● Accelerate speed of solution development

● Enhance productivity

● Scale-up quickly

However, some underlying criteria must be met to ensure that data virtualization helps businesses meet their goals.

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5 Critical Factors to Get Data Virtualization Right

Data virtualization promises much but also requires the following five key factors to be
fulfilled to deliver on its promise. These include:

1. Setting Data Virtualization Goals: Understanding the business need for setting
up data virtualization is a critical step. This will impact the design of the data
virtualization architecture, identify the relevant data sources, and create a
reusable view.

2. Set Performance Benchmarks: To assess the effectiveness of the data
virtualization endeavor, it is important to establish performance benchmarks.
This will help measure performance and monitor progress, enabling mid-course
correction where needed.

3. Define Scope and Set Boundaries: Limit the scope of the pilot to a few sources
or sets of views and align them clearly to the objectives and taking cognizance of
the complexity of the end target.

4. Ready the Pilot: Have clear-cut source connections, develop the base and
derived view, facilitate access to sufficient cache, publish services, and measure
against the KPIs.

5. Document: Documenting the key observations and learnings is essential as it can
guide the implementation for greater success.

Denodo Advantage

Denodo is a leader in the data virtualization market as it provides unique capabilities
that can transform a business to become data-driven. Some of the key features of
Denodo data virtualization platform include:

● Dynamic query optimizer

● Advanced caching

● Self-Service Data Discovery

Business users can search for any data or meta data in a self-service manner without
depending on the IT team. This speeds up analytics and delivers faster results. It
integrates data from cloud and on-prem systems to provide a single source of truth for
reporting, operational, and analytical needs of the business users without being
impacted by the underlying complexity.
This results in benefits such as:

● 30% reduction in resources

● 50-70% savings compared to traditional approaches

● 10x faster data delivery

● 300% increase in end-user productivity

Indium Approach

Indium Software is a Denodo partner with expertise and experience in data
management, data virtualization, and Denodo platform. Our comprehensive range of
Denodo services can help your organization leverage data for several use cases across
functions.

We evaluate the source data for its relevance to the organizational goals, set metrics for
ROI and performance, assess the intended use of data and its complexity, and evaluate
the challenges to the project.

Rapid prototyping and feasibility testing are 50% faster than the traditional approach on
the Indium pilot framework. We also meet industry standards, comply with regulations,
and deliver on promise.
Our Denodo capabilities include:

● Data Modelling with Virtual Sandbox: Providing a single view of data from multiple sources in real-time view without moving the data into a new repository

● Self Service BI: Empowering business users with secure access to data using a virtualized layer

● Enterprise Business Data Glossary: Harmonizing and cataloging data in the virtual layer independent of the named convention in the source system for downstream applications

● Unified Data Governance: Allowing downstream applications access to data without a trace of the physical location or the source of the data

● Virtual MDM: Using the virtual layer as the master data to build master data harmonization

●Enterprise Data Services: Providing downstream applications with data access using virtualized data as the central gateway

Our team of experts work closely with our customers to understand their objectives and
design the architecture to maximize benefits.