{"id":22826,"date":"2024-01-29T10:18:54","date_gmt":"2024-01-29T09:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.huwise.com\/?post_type=glossary&#038;p=22826"},"modified":"2024-02-19T17:57:10","modified_gmt":"2024-02-19T16:57:10","slug":"data-virtualization","status":"publish","type":"glossary","link":"https:\/\/www.huwise.com\/en\/glossary\/data-virtualization\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Virtualization"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What is data virtualization?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data virtualization brings together data from multiple, disparate sources across the organization, in real-time, in a single, virtual location. Data is not physically moved from its source location but instead displayed through data virtualization middleware, which acts as a virtual data layer (or semantic layer). This means that users are able to consume data without needing to be aware of its type or storage location.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data virtualization therefore enables faster, cheaper access to up-to-date data, particularly for applications such as analytics. Thanks to integrated <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huwise.com\/en\/blog\/what-is-data-governance-and-why-is-it-an-essential-foundation-for-data-democratization\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">governance<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and security features, data virtualization ensures that the data shared with business users is consistent, high quality, and protected.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>How does data virtualization work?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data virtualization follows a three step process:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Connect<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: connecting to any data source (either on-premise or cloud), such as databases, applications, cloud storage or <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huwise.com\/en\/glossary\/data-warehouse\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">data warehouses<\/span><\/a><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Combine<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: combining all types of data, including structured and unstructured<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Consume<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">: enabling business users to consume data through reports, dashboards, portals, and applications.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is data virtualization used for?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Data virtualization is primarily used for:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huwise.com\/en\/glossary\/business-intelligence\/\"><b>Business intelligence<\/b><\/a><b> and analytics<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; bringing data together from across the business in real-time to enable querying and reporting, no matter how complex the underlying data architecture is.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Self-service data access<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; enabling business users to quickly access virtualized data in order to run reports and measure performance.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Application development<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; reducing the coding required to create new applications by simplifying the process of connecting to data sources.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Real-time data backups<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; enabling faster data\/system recovery.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2>What is the difference between data virtualization and data integration?<\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Both data virtualization and data integration combine disparate sources of data and make them available to users through a single perspective.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The major difference is that data integration does this by <\/span><b>physically <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">taking all data, changing its format and then loading it into a single location, while data virtualization achieves this <\/span><b>virtually<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, without moving the underlying data.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2>What are the benefits and drawbacks of data virtualization?<\/h2>\n<h3>The benefits of data virtualization<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Speed <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; as data is accessed wherever it is stored, access is much faster and simpler, with data potentially available in real-time.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Efficiency <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; as data is not moved to separate systems, it reduces costs in terms of hardware, software, governance, and time. It is much cheaper than creating and populating a separate repository for all of an organization\u2019s data.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Security and governance<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; data virtualization provides a centralized approach to data security and governance across the organization. It reduces the risk of errors as data remains within its original source system.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Self-service access<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; data can be accessed by any data consumer, without requiring technical skills.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Scalability<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; new data sources can be quickly added without the need for time-consuming <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.huwise.com\/en\/glossary\/extract-transform-load-etl\/\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">ETL processes<\/span><\/a><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">.<\/span><\/li>\n<li aria-level=\"1\"><b>Quality<\/b> &#8211; data virtualization eliminates redundant or duplicate data, increasing reliability and efficiency.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<h3>What are the disadvantages of data virtualization?<\/h3>\n<ol>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Limited to simple data processing <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; while data virtualization brings data together, it does this through simple processing rules. It cannot handle complex data transformations, which require data integration\/ETL.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>No support for batch data movement<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; data remains virtualized and is not moved\/transformed to new systems, such as data warehouses.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Poor performance for operational data<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; data virtualization works well for analytics queries. However, it performs less well around moving or virtualizing large volumes of operational data where latency can be a major issue.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>No historical analysis of data<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; as queries are carried out on the fly, there is no record of historical queries for comparative or repeat analysis.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Relies on source systems <\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">&#8211; unlike in a data warehouse, where data is physically moved, data virtualization relies on source systems to be online\/operational to be able to access their data.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><b>Single point of failure<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> &#8211; if the virtualization server has an issue, it prevents any data being made available to other systems, increasing risk by acting as a single point of failure.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><!--HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><span id=\"hs-cta-wrapper-fdaf5495-17fa-41fc-b32f-8bfe5b1696ad\" class=\"hs-cta-wrapper\"><span id=\"hs-cta-fdaf5495-17fa-41fc-b32f-8bfe5b1696ad\" class=\"hs-cta-node hs-cta-fdaf5495-17fa-41fc-b32f-8bfe5b1696ad\"><!-- [if lte IE 8]>\n\n\n<div id=\"hs-cta-ie-element\"><\/div>\n\n\n<![endif]--><a href=\"https:\/\/cta-redirect.hubspot.com\/cta\/redirect\/2041226\/fdaf5495-17fa-41fc-b32f-8bfe5b1696ad\" rel=\"nofollow noopener noreferrer\"><img decoding=\"async\" id=\"hs-cta-img-fdaf5495-17fa-41fc-b32f-8bfe5b1696ad\" class=\"hs-cta-img aligncenter\" style=\"border-width: 0px;\" src=\"https:\/\/no-cache.hubspot.com\/cta\/default\/2041226\/fdaf5495-17fa-41fc-b32f-8bfe5b1696ad.png\" alt=\"Want to learn more about our data democratization platform? Contact one of our experts!\" \/><\/a><\/span><script charset=\"utf-8\" src=\"https:\/\/js.hscta.net\/cta\/current.js\"><\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\"> hbspt.cta.load(2041226, 'fdaf5495-17fa-41fc-b32f-8bfe5b1696ad', {\"useNewLoader\":\"true\",\"region\":\"na1\"}); <\/script><\/span><!-- end HubSpot Call-to-Action Code --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false},"tags":[230],"letter":[351],"class_list":["post-22826","glossary","type-glossary","status-publish","hentry","tag-culture","letter-d"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Data Virtualization - Huwise<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Data virtualization brings together data from multiple, disparate sources across the organization in real-time, in a single, virtual location.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.huwise.com\/en\/glossary\/data-virtualization\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Data Virtualization - 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