Data Federation Vs Data Integration Approaches

Today, large enterprises require a huge amount of data that need to be stored and analyzed. This data can be obtained from varied sources and requires different systems to produce and store, which may lead to inefficiencies in the process, which in turn, can lead to the loss of critical data. Let’s understand how much Data Federation is important among Data Integration approaches.

Data Integration

Data Integration is an integral aspect of any industry and holds a prominent position in an organization’s data warehousing strategy. It is a technical process that involves combining data from different sources and provide users, meaningful and valuable information, in a unified view. It is a challenging and significant process in sectors such as commercial and scientific domains.

It has helped the industries in significant ways by cutting down the time to prepare and analyze the data through automation, thereby increasing efficiency in the whole process. It has also enabled the industries to provide more valuable data by reducing errors to a great extent, by integrating the data into a centralized system. As big industries work with data of massive volumes, it requires a sophisticated data integration system for a non-stop influx of data process. This clearly shows the need for effective data integration systems in organizations, to leverage a chunk of data and work effectively.

As data integration is a complex procedure, it requires a complete set of systems to carry out such a complex procedure, without any glitches. Many companies have shifted to the data federation approach to carry out the data integration process in an effective manner.

Data Federation

Data federation refers to the creation of the virtual database, by mapping multiple database systems into a single,  federated database. The databases remain autonomous and are connected via a computer network. It provides the organization with the ability to aggregate data from various sources into a single database which can be used for various data analytics techniques and business intelligence. The virtual database has the ability to store information about the actual data and its location (metadata).

Database federation has allowed the users to resolve a query, by assessing multiple data from varied sources, aggregating and analyzing data as required. This process has also eliminated the loopholes that were present in the research process, by building an appropriate data model for the same. It has the ability to access current and transactional data that is stored in multiple sources and present them as a single unit.

The data sharing process has also been simplified through the use of data federation, by allowing the data to remain in its primary source until it is required for specific needs. It has become an important component in the field of data management practice as it has the ability to support the increasingly complex process of data integration. The data federation tools are way more powerful than the traditional techniques, making them a significant aspect of the industries.

Data federation techniques are being used in a variety of applications such as data warehousing, portals, data management, reporting, etc. as these areas require unified access of data through multiple systems. It has also simplified the process of query-based applications, by enabling the industries to access current data from multiple systems. It has enabled the industries to get faster solutions to queries. Also, this technique doesn’t require huge infrastructure and staff, which minimizes the need to allocate more resources, thereby cutting costs.

This technique has drastically reduced the risks and time involved in query-based solutions as it doesn’t need a lot of coding and additional database to store multiple data. The industries are able to resolve complex processes through data federation as it has solved the accessibility and latency issues to a great extent. Data federation has enabled the standardization of representations through data abstraction that has reduced the complexity issues. Apart from this, it has also allowed industries to incorporate data transformations into various layers of abstractions.

Data federation has hugely influenced data integration technologies by bringing the data together into an integrated version and making the data more comprehensive. This technology has allowed the industries to analyze and present data in new ways by using such innovative applications.

Data Federation has provided the industries with a virtual data warehouse, which has eliminated the need to move the data from the original location to data warehouses. It has drastically reduced the maintenance and implementation costs of warehousing.

One of the crucial reasons, why industries have shifted towards the use of data federation, is its ability to combine data from various sources into a single SQL statement. This has enabled the industries to rewrite a user’s query into a semantically equivalent form, which in turn, has enabled efficient execution of the whole process.

Earlier, with the use of existing applications, the stored data was neither moved, nor modified which restricted the industries to operate by using the limited data that is already stored. Data federation has the ability to add new data as and when required and to meet the changing needs of the industries and accommodate a broad range of data sources and store data in the heterogeneous collection using various applications.

Data federation has allowed the industries to perform statistical analyses and take different actions on the basis of what data is retrieved. This has transformed the way industries perform data integration process, making the operations way more efficient than they were before, by making the data integration process more sophisticated.

This technique has benefited the enterprises by offering a number of advantages such as it has enabled software caching in real-time. It has also optimized queries by answering them efficiently through the use of varied applications and tools.

The industries are focusing on making their data integration process more agile without compromising on the security and efficiency of the process. Data federation has made things easy for these industries by simplifying data integration. The industries are rapidly adopting data federation, looking at the advantages, this technique possesses. This technique is providing the right approach to the businesses for faster solutions and effective strategies. Looking at the potential it has, data federation can rightly be said as the future of data integration.