AN ENHANCED VIEW OF EVERYTHING

Data Virtualization Unleashes Application Agility

The single, most-important determinant of the lifetime value of a modern, enterprise-wide application is its dexterity in adding or changing the data sources that drive the application. ‘Rock stars’ deliver solutions that provide value and benefits for years, adapting to new or evolving data sources quickly and easily.  And, now, there’s no excuse for not being a ‘rock star’.

As the forces (mobility, social, personal, cloud), sources, and use cases behind enterprise applications change, the agility with which you can adapt the flow of information hinges upon how quickly and easily you can provision the right information.  And that breakthrough begins with data virtualization. 

‘Rock Stars’ Play to the Audience

Investments in data warehouses and ‘data lakes’ provide the foundation for today’s data-driven ‘rock star’.  They’re like the stage and instruments for an application’s performance, offering the potential for analysis, discovery, and insight that distinguish a hit from a flop.  As they fill with information, finding what’s just right for the audience is the key.

Just as any hit song relies on the combination of drums, guitars (and bass), and vocals, creating an adaptable, reusable ‘virtual data mart’ for an application relies on effectively profiling, identifying, and unifying existing and new data sources – whether they are located in warehouses, marts, or lakes.  Automation and self-service/DIY design offer the potential for scalable deployment and support; incorporation of existing security and governance reduces the risk and expense of moving data; immediate, flexible provisioning breaks the traditional bottleneck in the data supply-chain.

With complete visibility into any and all information – provided by automated profiling, you’re ready to select the best information to meet the expectation s of your audience.  The ‘virtual data mart’ that results is like a song in your concert play-list – except you can delete ‘stale’ and add ’fresh’ information - inexpensively and on the fly - to keep your application a hit with the audience.  And using a ‘virtual data mart’ approach, you can publish and reuse information for applications at no incremental cost.

Going Platinum

Staying top-of-the-charts is the dream of every ‘rock star’.  Producing an application or a song with seemingly perpetual value usually involves two things – a subject with timeless appeal and artistry that sees the soul of that subject.  Similar elements – a universal, mission-critical use case and the ability to extract deeper insight from information – are also principal determinants of lifetime application value.

First, use cases– and the reason behind this post’s title.  To successfully implement their strategies, organizations need a view of key elements – e.g. customer, product, employee, competitor, and markets.  If these views are continually enhanced – using new information laden with potential insight – the result is quite literally, an enhanced view of everything.  Call it 360-degree, call it what you will – the key is that it evolves at the pace of information.

Second, consider information extraction – and amplifying my choice of  “Enhanced”.  Information is rarely transparent – displaying all of its insight-producing value.  Like DNA, or the lyrics to your favorite song, deeper meaning and value usually come from a careful analysis of the content.  From theme to tone, and phrasing to timing – content for your applications, when analyzed systematically, adds structure where it’s absent and supports the correlation that initiates insight.

Every great song tells a compelling story enriched by insightful lyrics; every great application addresses a compelling use case enriched by insightful information.  And if you want it to go platinum, it has to last.

Whether you’re an analyst, line-of-business manager, technology/data manager, or a data integration leader – virtualized data discovery delivers better information, accelerated insight, secure access, and flexibility in providing the right, governed views of information.  In short, it’s precisely what you need for a lasting, enhanced view of everything.

“So You Want To Be A Rock and Roll Star” … Well, Here’s Your Guitar

At Attivio, we’ve incorporated virtual data marts as the core deliverable in our new semantic data catalog offering .  By focusing on the data supply chain that connects analysts and data managers around data they need, we’re accelerating the conversion of information into insight.  Achieving that result requires precisely the kind of efficiency, simplicity, and manageability that logical, virtual views of data deliver.

Using virtualization, your entire enterprise will be more agile and responsive to information – achieving the ‘rock star’ level of data dexterity that distinguishes market leaders from followers.  When the data-provisioning bottleneck between IT and analysts is broken, you’ll be top-of-the-charts.