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Overview
Data Integration is the problem of
combining data residing at different sources and providing the
user with a unified view of these data. This important problem
emerges in a variety of situations both commercial (when two
similar companies need to merge their databases) and
scientific. Data integration appears with increasing frequency
as the volume and the need to Share existing data increases.
Data integration allows an organization to consolidate the
current data contained in its many operational or production
systems and combine it with historical values. And the
creation of a data warehouse (or, on a more limited scale, a
single-subject data mart) facilitates access to his data.
Collecting and consolidating the data needed to populate a
data warehouse or data mart and periodically augmenting its
content with new values while retaining the old is a practical
application of data integration.
The benefits of Data Integration
- By integrating data across disparate operational systems,
an organization can increase the effectiveness of its data
access and its capabilities.
- Integrating data from multiple systems creates an
environment where the whole is worth far more than the sum of
the individual parts.
- Minimize communication errors by ensuring that every
department speaks the same business language and uses the
same data definitions.
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