How well you manage data is vital to any business. It’s the information you use to run departments, direct employees, assess your customers’ satisfaction, evaluate your business’s success, and much more. Effective data management gives you the ability to make informed decisions that will lead to positive outcomes. But depending on the size and scope of your business, the type of system you use to manage data can look very different.
What Is Data Integration?
Data integration is the method of taking the information important to your business from multiple sources and combining it into one view or dataset. You are streamlining the resources you use to create efficiency in your business, allowing it to optimize and grow. Let’s look at some different ways to achieve data integration and the benefits and drawbacks of each.
Manual Data Integration
This is the simplest method of data integration. The word manual is key here as no automation is used. A person will write the computer code or even manually input the data themselves to transfer it from its various sources into one location. While this is usually the most cost-efficient method of data integration, it’s also the one with the highest margin for error. It’s also more suited to a one-time process. If the business grows and there is a need to input more data in the future from added sources, it’s difficult to integrate manually.
Integration Middleware
Middleware is a type of software tool that takes the data from all the different applications, databases, and any other source of information your company uses and unifies it, bridging the gaps and giving you a clearer view of your business. It’s handy for combining data from newer and older systems your business may still be using. However, it does have its limits as it may not work as quickly as other integration techniques.
Application-Based Integration
With this method of integration, specialized software programs do all the work to find, retrieve, and combine a company’s data from completely different sources into a compatible system. It makes things much simpler for the business, but application-based integration systems can also be costly to develop and maintain.
Uniform Data Access
Data is collected from different sources, integrated, and displayed uniformly in this process. This uniformity makes the data easier to read for you and your customers. The difference with uniform access integration is that the data from each source is kept in its original location, eliminating the cost of copying and storing the data in another space. However, uniform data access is limited to similar sources or databases of the same type.
Common Storage Integration
Much like uniform data access, common storage integration combines data from different sources, but with common storage, the data is copied, moved to a central location, and stored in a new system. This process is also known as data warehousing. Because all the data is in one place, it’s accurate and more consistent. Common storage integration is one of the most advanced methods for managing data and is used by companies who value the complex analytics it allows them to run. It is also the most expensive method for storing and maintaining data.
Questions To Ask Before Choosing a Data Integration Solution
First, consider the size of your business and the amount of data you use to run your operations. If you only have one or two data sources, you can probably integrate them manually without investing in one of the more expensive integration tools. Suppose you are a larger business with both internal and external sources of data or use multiple methods to interact with your customers. In that case, you will most likely need an automated data integration system with more flexibility.
You should also determine how often your business needs to have its data updated. Suppose you rely on having real-time information to conduct your operations. In that case, you will require a data solution with enough power and storage to handle the automatic movement of your data to those who need it. Suppose your business isn’t dependent on speed, and your data can be moved at a slower pace without hurting operations. In that case, one of the more basic integration techniques could be more appropriate and cost-effective.
What is the Future of Data Integration?
As business adapts and changes with new technologies, so will the sources of data that businesses use. Finding the most efficient ways to collect and use that data is going to be crucial. As time goes on, older data integration techniques will become outdated, so consider choosing one that will serve your needs today but also has the ability to expand and adapt as your needs evolve.
