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Why is an Operational Data Store Good for Your Business?

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It’s widely recognized that database sizes are growing significantly. Growth is happening for many reasons, such as companies needing more data to be available online for longer or more data to be digitized for storage.

It is becoming essential for organizations to have the type of Operational Data Store (ODS) that can cope with the new demands. Whether this is described as a new generation Operational Data Store or a Digital Integration Hub, it offers agility, speed, scalability and low latency – all very important factors in driving long term business growth. In order to use data effectively, there has to be a way to extract it from different sources and integrate it in order to analyze it effectively and gain the necessary business insights.

What is an Operational Data Store?

An Operational Data Store (ODS) is not a new concept. It is basically a central database that contains information integrated from various sources. Traditionally an ODS was refreshed on a daily basis and only stored data for a short window. However, ODSs have evolved and now offer many benefits that traditional ones could not deliver.

Why do organizations use an ODS?

The main benefit of an ODS is the integration of data from various systems of record for the purpose of reporting and analysis. This leads to being able to make more informed, strategic business decisions. When each data source offers a siloed view, reporting is limited. ODS reporting offers a more comprehensive view because the data is coming from many different sources.

An ODS also allows more people in an organization to have access to reporting as access to systems of record are usually restricted to a few people for security reasons.

Shortfalls of a traditional ODS

A traditional ODS can pose a number of challenges, especially when it comes to supporting digital transformation. It does not offer real-time API services, which is so important for the new digital requirements.

A traditional ODS is usually based on a relational database. This can be a problem when it comes to handling large amounts of data and requiring low latency at the same time.

Limited scalability also creates a challenge. When multiple users access the data store concurrently, performance is affected. The refresh rate of an ODS is fine for day-end reporting but is not good enough when it comes to digital applications that need real-time data.

How Operational Data Stores have evolved

Many organizations have introduced real-time digital applications and traditional ODSs have needed to evolve in order to cope.

New digital banks and insurance companies, for example, are always innovating and offering new online services as they become more agile and break the chains of legacy processes and infrastructure.

Industries such as healthcare, education, retail and transportation are still using legacy platforms and are being forced to make changes if they want to keep up. They want to know how they are able to do this without replacing the services of record. Is it really necessary for them to throw out everything they are using now and start from scratch?

A new generation of Operational Data Stores or a digital integration hub (DIH) provides a solution for them. Companies that already have a traditional ODS do not need to replace it. They can augment it with missing layers instead of ripping it out. It can evolve by adding event-driven architecture, a smart cache, analytics and microservices API.

Benefits of using a next-generation ODS

A next-generation ODS deals with all the limitations of a traditional ODS. It offers the speed, scale and agility necessary for new digital applications. There are so many benefits of technological advancements in business that remaining competitive depends on them. By gaining real-time information for many different systems, business owners can stay informed and act quickly and efficiently at all times.

Fast performance and low latency: When API calls have to be made to many data sources for every action, real-time processing is just not possible and this creates a number of limitations such as what customers experience in terms of response time.

A distributed in-memory core means that it does not matter if there is a high concurrency of users. Performance is not affected whether there are unplanned volumes or unexpected loads. Back-end systems no longer have to be burdened by high workloads and customers can benefit from quick response times.

Robust predictive modeling: Predictive modeling is possible because of the availability of real-time data. Better decisions are able to be made when they are based on meaningful insights from analyzing data. This can help in every area of business, from marketing and product development to improving customer service.

High availability: When managing multiple systems of record, the chances of one of them going down rises. When the API layer is decoupled from the systems of record, the applications can continue to work even when a system of record is unavailable. Customers today expect 24/7 availability from businesses.

Synchronization of remote data centers: Global organizations often have data centers in remote sites due to the need for adherence to regulations and high availability. Synchronisation of their data centers is possible in real-time.

Hybrid deployments: Many businesses today have data both on-premise and in the cloud. A next-generation ODS is able to deal with hybrid deployments with no impact on production performance.

Self-service options: Many businesses are offering customers self-service options and this not only helps to retain them but frees employers to engage in more productive activities than helping them to perform tasks they can do themselves.

Conclusion

Whether you prefer to call it a new generational Operational Data Store or a Digital Integration Hub, what it offers is a big improvement in availability, throughput and scalability. Modernizing architecture with the next generation ODS will help you to drive digital transformation in your company. This can offer more efficiency and productivity due to improved business processes, better customer service, and ultimately this helps you to stay competitive and be successful.