Enterprise data Integration

Enterprise data integration is the process of combining data from various resources for obtaining certain enterprise needs. This also includes the sharing of information among various business applications. Today, enterprise data integration is a widely practiced method by all companies and business groups, irrespective of their status, for managing their company resources. For Internet-linked marketers and service providers, these practices become much more important.

The advantages of enterprise data integration involves quick data delivery and data sharing; reduction in time expenditure in capturing data; elimination of data accumulation and duplicate data entry; saving of both time and capital needed for data entry, report preparing and printing; increased customer satisfaction through better customer data integration and customer contact; better product/service marketing; real time data availability; enhancement in sales force automation (SFA); and most of all simplification of all procedures.

Enterprise data integration solutions are data processing systems, which are capable of accessing multiple databases in tandem, providing real-time meaningful information and of producing accurate results on demand. These solutions put right information in right places like, data warehouses, data marts and consolidation repositories, with out any human help. These solutions are powered by data integration software programs and specific communication tools.

There are mainly five levels in an enterprise data integration solution as, enterprise portals or user interfaces, collaboration tools, business process management systems, enterprise applications integration level and lastly enterprise information integration level. The user interfaces may vary widely with companies such as point of sale systems, bookkeeping systems and payment processing solutions.

In today’s fiercely competitive environment, any business – small, medium or large – can succeed only if it maintains business continuity, which in turn, is mostly dependent on automated data handling systems. In the wake of recent natural and other calamities, companies have increased their investments in highly secure storage and retrieval systems for their data.

For companies whose core business is not IT, it makes better business sense to outsource the storage and maintenance of these systems. This strategy allows them to save time and money while harnessing the power of IT as a force multiplier for their core business.

A colocation (also known less popularly as ‘co-location’) data center is a facility where the servers and other computing equipment belonging to different companies share space. Each company’s equipment is physically secured in a wire cage or cabinet with high security locking systems.