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App Development
6 minutes read

Big Data Integration: Everything You Need to Know

By Jose Gomez
By Jose Gomez
App Development
6 minutes read

Modern organizations generate and collect data at an unprecedented rate, outpacing traditional data integration techniques and leading to data processing inefficiencies. As a result, organizations must utilize big data integration solutions

Using big data analytics tools is not enough to unlock the full value of your organization’s big data. Integrating big data sources into a unified view is the most effective way to harness the full capacity of your organization’s multiple data sources. 

This post will help your organization understand the value of big data integration by exploring the challenges and benefits of big data integration. 

What Is Big Data Integration? 

Big data integration combines and synchronizes big data from various internal and external data sources. The big data integration process ultimately creates a unified view of all organizational big data to effectively support big data analysis.

The ultimate goal of big data integration is to ensure all the data sets are transformed, formatted, and consolidated into a single version. Unfortunately, organizations today have giant data sets that are not always full of structured data. 

Many organizations have data warehouses full of unstructured data that they cannot use because they don’t have the data scientists or tools to reformat it. An effective big data integration solution will combine data sources and transform them from unstructured data to promote data quality. 

Big data integration ensures organizations deliver the right data at the right place and time. This ensures that businesses take proactive measures and make better decisions based on the insights delivered by big data analytics. 

The Challenges of Big Data Integration (BDI)

While big data integration is beneficial to business processes and Business Intelligence tools, there are challenges associated with BDI that must be overcome to fully leverage the power of a big data integration system. 

The right big data integration tools can reduce the common challenges that arise when you integrate data from your organization’s big data ecosystem. The primary challenges associated with BDI include the following:

  • Data variety 
  • Data complexity 
  • Data quality 
  • Data security 
  • Real-time integration 

Data Variety 

Big data comes in several different varieties, from structured to semi or unstructured data sets. Integrating and loading data stored in different formats presents a unique challenge. In addition, making thousands of varying data sets work with one another requires serious data warehousing and BDI tools and skills. 

Data Complexity 

The sheer volume of big data makes it complex. Therefore, organizations must try to simplify the big data integration process while handling the complexity and volume of their data. Data sets from a single data warehouse can present enough complexity to keep data engineers busy for months or even years, which is why automated BDI tools are valuable. 

Data Quality 

One of the most significant big data integration challenges is data quality. When you pull data from several sources, there is a good chance there will be inconsistencies, errors, and duplicate information. All of these quality issues must be addressed during the big data integration process to ensure your systems use clean data for analysis. This is especially relevant when it comes to collecting personal information directly from the individuals it relates to. If you can integrate this in a way that encourages people to pass on their private details willingly, and even in an anonymized form, you will sidestep the potential pitfalls of quality.

Data Security 

When data is in motion, there is a greater opportunity for security issues to arise. Throughout the entire BDI process, data security should be a priority to ensure that no data is lost during integration. Data security should always be a concern, even when handling data internally. 

Real-Time Integration 

Real-time data integration empowers leaders to make critical decisions in today’s fast-paced business environment. However, updating data in real-time with accuracy and speed is difficult, but it is not impossible to accomplish. Therefore, supporting real-time data integration is a challenge that must be faced during BDI. 

The Benefits of Big Data Integration 

Yes, BDI poses some challenges for organizations, but these challenges are well worth it when compared to the potential benefits of big data integration, including the following:

  • Improved decision-making 
  • Increased insight 
  • Greater agility 
  • Improved customer experience 

Improved Decision-Making 

The most significant benefit of big data integration is improved decision-making. Making more accurate and informed decisions produces better outcomes for your business, employees, and customers. 

BDI enables better decision-making by presenting leaders and critical stakeholders with a comprehensive view of the organization’s data, which drives more informed and accurate decisions. 

Increased Insight 

Big data is valuable because it can help your organization make connections and identify trends it would have otherwise missed. Your business can discover new insights about customers, operations, and more through big data integration. 

With new insights into your business, you can optimize processes, improve product and service offerings, and drive innovation. BDI can give your organization a fresh perspective and new insight into critical aspects of business operations. 

Greater Agility  

Big data integration allows organizations to respond to changing conditions faster. By enabling organizations to operate with greater agility, BDI drives operational efficiency. Sometimes the first business to bring an idea to market is the most successful.

Don’t underestimate the value of agility when it comes to business operations. 

Improved Customer Experience 

Modern customers are looking for personalized experiences and products. With big data integration, businesses can enhance the customer experience. In addition, big data integration can be used to better understand customer needs, preferences, and behavior. 

Happy customers are one of the most valuable assets your business can have. There is a wealth of customer data out there, but many businesses fail to bring all of this data together in an actionable way. BDI tools can help your business draw actionable insights into customer desires. 

Final Thoughts 

Big data integration is valuable to organizations, but it has challenges. The best way to circumvent the common challenges associated with BDI is to use robust integration tools and hire skilled data engineers. 

If you want to learn more about big data integration and how it can benefit your organization, contact an experienced and skilled big data partner like Koombea.

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