Data virtualization: A standardized front door to company-wide data opens the way for (Digital) business success

Abstract

Marc Andreessen famously said that software was "eating the world," and today, this rings particularly true, as many companies, if not most, are transforming into softwareoriented companies. All major industries are going digital and are shifting their emphasis from hardware to software, from product to service, and from process to data and analytics. However, today's digitization initiatives face a number of problems. Complex IT landscapes have been built during the last 10 to 20 years, and although the architectures are in place and fulfill their current purposes they result in data silos from which data cannot easily be accessed, combined, or used for new (digital) initiatives. This chapter, supported by several real-world examples, describes how data virtualization provides access to complete, company-wide information across multiple data silos in an economically and technologically feasible way. Data virtualization helps to deliver quality data on time, while also offering enterprise features like security and auditing. Moreover, data virtualization enables companies to combine the best aspects of different technologies to build a solid, flexible, and maintainable data architecture for today and the future.