Data Virtualization on Cloud Pak for Data

Version: 3.0.0 Included IBM

Description

Data Virtualization enables access to physical data from various sources in a virtual manner, so that the data can be accessed, manipulated, and analyzed from one central location, without the need to know its physical format or location, and without having to move or copy it. Data Virtualization integrates with other Cloud Pak for Data services.

The following diagram illustrates how Data Virtualization centralizes the knowledge and governance of your data, without the need to move the data itself to any specific location. Data Virtualization also unifies access control and governance for all attached systems, simplifying complexity around data management. Diagram illustrating how Data Virtualization centralizes different data sources into one virtual layer while centralizing governance of your data, and attached systems.

Real-time data integration

Data Virtualization lets you capture diverse physical data sources (databases, data warehouses, and data lakes) as virtual tables and views, providing real-time integration of data. Data Virtualization supports many different relational and non-relational data sources so that you can bring real-time insightful results to decision-making applications or analysts more quickly and dependably than methods that don't use virtualization.

Integrated governance with IBM Knowledge Catalog

The IBM Knowledge Catalog service of the Cloud Pak for Data platform allows you to catalog, categorize, classify, and curate data. By using this service, you can create catalogs of curated assets that are supported by a governance framework. Data Virtualization enforces governance in real time by using these curated assets.

Security

Centralized authentication and authorization are enforced for platform users to access data sources in a trusted environment. The Data Virtualization Admin, Data Virtualization Engineer, Data Virtualization Steward, and Data Virtualization User roles provide granular access management to the virtualized assets. Cloud Pak for Data users that need to use Data Virtualization functions must be assigned specific Data Virtualization roles based on their job description.

All communication between the environment and the application is securely encrypted with robust IBM technology, and SSL/TLS encryption by using standard protocols.

Diverse platform support

Data Virtualization supports queries by using standard SQL through common interfaces such as R, Spark, Python, and Jupyter Notebooks. In addition, queries are also supported by the most common analytics application tools, including IBM Watson Studio and Cognos Analytics.

Use cases

The following table describes how Data Virtualization addresses critical needs of an organization:

Problem statement	What Data Virtualization enables	Value
Making use of a lot of data across different locations and formats is challenging and leads to a complex data pipeline.	A semantic layer that sits on top of the data sprawl that enables users to query across different data sources and formats in real time.	Empower data consumers to self-service.
Storing data across different cloud and on-premises locations with software and systems that do not work together seamlessly to create end-to-end data pipelines.	Data engineers can quickly fulfill ad hoc data integration requests to validate hypothesis or “what-if” scenarios with security and governance.	Accelerate the data lifecycle and reduce time to value for addressing business questions.
Inability to manage governance and enforce privacy regulations at scale.	Abstract data governance and enforce data policies across all your data sources through a single layer.	Increase compliance with data protection regulations while reducing overhead of managing access control at scale.

Required services

Table 1. Required services. The following services are required for this service.
Service	Capability
IBM Db2 Data Management Console	Administer, monitor, manage, and optimize the performance of your IBM Db2 databases.

Integrated services

Table 2. Related services. The following related services are often used with this service and provide complementary features, but they are not required.
Service	Capability
IBM Knowledge Catalog	Create catalogs of curated assets with this secure enterprise catalog management platform that is supported by a data governance framework.

Compatible data sources