by Angela Guess
Robert Eve recently wrote about why data discovery and virtualization are crucial components of effective business intelligence. He writes, “It has been said that the ability to see patterns is a sign of intelligence. Certainly the goal of business intelligence (BI) solutions is to provide some level of intelligence or insight from the patterns of data these tools analyze. But can these BI applications figure out the patterns hidden in a typical enterprise’s data schemas and structures? They cannot! That is why humans must intervene and build data models that rationalize diverse sources into consistent structures that BI can use.”
Eve continues, “Data discovery is a solution that helps IT see patterns amongst diverse source data. It enables IT analysts and architects to examine data, locate key entities and reveal hidden connections in data scattered throughout an organization. They can use that knowledge to quickly create and implement the rationalized schemas BI tools require using data virtualization platforms. These rapidly built schemas make it easier to validate and test business requirements with end users early in the BI solution development process, improving both time to solution and solution quality.”
photo credit: Jorge Franganillo
