Data Virtualization Reaches Critical Mass According to New Forrester Research Report

On June 15, 2011, an exciting new analyst report on Data Virtualization was published by a research team led by Brian Hopkins of Forrester Research.

The report, entitled, Data Virtualization Reaches Critical Mass: Technology Advancements, New Patterns, And Customer Successes Make This Enterprise Technology Both A Short- And Long-Term Solution by Brian Hopkins with Alex Cullen, Mike Gilpin, Boris Evelson, Gene Leganza, and Mackenzie Cahill, is the first research report by one of the mega analyst firms that was 100 percent focused on data virtualization adoption in large enterprises.

Data Virtualization Drivers Are Many

In the style typical of these reports, Hopkins and team open with an executive summary, then outline several key findings and close with tangible recommendations.

Their findings regarding what is driving demand for data virtualization were insightful.  In particular they point out shortcomings in ETL-based data integration approaches cause degradation of data quality and delayed information.  Further they describe how traditional approaches that consolidate multiple databases into a single warehouse are too slow, expensive and risky in today’s dynamic business environment.

Data Virtualization – A Solution Whose Time Has Come

Forrester has been of the vanguard of the data virtualization adoption trend with earlier seminal research on Information-as-a-Service (IaaS).   In this report they make the following distinction between data virtualization and Iaas:

“Data virtualization is a technology that abstracts, transforms, federates, and delivers data taken from a variety of heterogeneous information sources. It allows consuming applications or users to access data from these various sources via a request to a single access point.”

“Forrester differentiates data virtualization from the notion of data fabric and information-as-a-service, even though these terms are often used synonymously. Data virtualization refers to the core technology stack, and data fabric is used to indicate an enterprise deployment of data virtualization and supporting technologies, whereas IaaS refers to a broadly scoped data services deployment that includes data fabric and other SOA technologies such as ESBs.”

Based in their research, Forrester estimates less than 20% data virtualization adoption overall.  And even within the early adopters, usage levels have significant room to expand.  They expect this to change significantly in the coming 18-30 months.

Composite Software Data Virtualization Customers Profiled

Qualcomm, Pfizer and Deutsche Bank were cited by Forrester as successful data virtualization adopters. For more on these cases, check out Bob Reary’s Business Value Blog entry entitled Qualcomm and Pfizer Successes Profiled In Analyst Report on Data Virtualization.