7. Data Virtualization

Traditional analytical systems provide intelligence and insight for organizations by integrating disparate sources into a single system, moving and isolating the analytical workload from the operational workload. In this chapter, you are going to learn about a different approach to data integration—data virtualization. You will start by immersing yourself in the challenges faced when performing data integration projects so that you can differentiate data virtualization use cases from more established data movement patterns. Once you have understood the kinds of problems you can solve with this approach, you will then explore the underlying technology in SQL Server 2019 before being walked through a concrete, end-to-end solution in Azure.