Introducing data virtualization

Data virtualization is the name given to any approach that enables you to query across disparate systems from a single source without having to know where that data physically resides.

Queries can be executed against a wide variety of relational and non-relational datasets, some of which may have their own compute engines, while others may not. When a remote compute engine exists, data virtualization technology enables you to push down computation to that data source. Advanced data virtualization engines also provide additional transparent caching of data to reduce the impact on the source system. These capabilities achieve a number of important benefits, which are summarized here for you:

• Consolidate query processing at the source, reducing spend on resources.
• Manage a single, semantic, and logical view of your data, avoiding duplication.
• Address data issues at the source, improving data quality.
• Query disparate data in real...