Gartner: 35% of Enterprise to Adopt Data Virtualization by 2020

In Gartner’s recent Market Guide for Data Virtualization, the technology research giant goes into detail describing what kind of an impact Data Virtualization will have on the enterprise in the years to come. Virtualization tools offer data and analytics professionals a Data Integration strategy to limit data silos and address new analytical opportunities through enhancements in data access. As a strategic planning assumption, Gartner projects that by 2020, 35 percent of enterprise organizations will implement Data Virtualization in some form as a more forward-thinking option for Data Integration.

In explaining the current trajectory of Data Virtualization software, Gartner says: “As an increasingly important part of a comprehensive data integration strategy, data virtualization is attracting renewed interest as organizations recognize its potential for a growing range of use cases. A variety of ways exist in which data virtualization technology can add value as part of the data integration and sharing capabilities of information infrastructure. Most of these opportunities involve augmenting the physically integrated data structures and providing consistent service-oriented approaches for applications and business services to access data. In rendering data resources useful regardless of how they are deployed or where they reside, this technology reads data in place.”

According to Gartner, Data Virtualization is just beginning an upward trajectory toward maturity, and in this way, three distinct branches of the product are beginning to form. These include:

1. Connectivity to more diverse data sources: “The most basic level of maturity is attributed to “broad access strategies” with access to more data types, more DBMSs and file systems and the use of native drivers/connectors.”
2. Distributed and optimized semantic tier processes: “The major catalyst for broader adoption of data virtualization tools has been its maturity along the second axis — that of distributed and optimized semantic tier processes.”
3. Maturity of development and administrative interfaces: “The third axis of maturity has been along the development and administrative/control interfaces, which have matured beyond simple developer tools to introduce more “citizen integrator”-friendly design interfaces with built-in wizards and advisors.”

As vendor integration tools continue to evolve as the markets shift toward a more big data-centric path, virtualization software has become a technology of interest for traditional DBMS, Data Integration, and Application tool providers. As a result, different provider models have emerged to offer Data Virtualization tools, and both traditional Data Integration tool vendors and DBMS providers have jumped on board.

Read the full report.

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