Data management has become the classic 21st-century dilemma for most enterprises as some are still transforming to more modern technologies. Other organizations just have complex data management requirements that require specialized technology applications. One of the most common problems in data management is API access layers to insights.
Digital Integration Hubs help resolve this problem using its advanced architecture that boosts the application’s API strategy. There is a lot involved in making this possible and there are plenty of benefits that come by implementing Digital Integration Hubs. Learn more about this data management technology as well as its applications and benefits to boosting API performance.
Digital Integration Hub overview
Digital Integration Hubs (DIH) are highly advanced data management systems that use protocols that help expedite the process of accessing insights. A complete Data Integration Hub helps streamline the access to data sourced from various storage locations. This is why a DIH is more suitable when merging disparate data sources to facilitate migration from on-premise servers to cloud solutions.
Alternatively, a DIH can be used as a long-term solution to run a hybrid data storage system. DIHs have been designed to be customizable solutions, especially when it comes to data input. This allows application developers that aren’t data scientists to easily set up their hub. Since it is also available as a SaaS, organizations do not have to worry about maintaining this system.
DIH architecture
DIH systems have a different type of architecture than traditional data management solutions. The dynamic of digital integration hub architecture is based on layered data access, which helps streamline processing insights. Data is collected from disparate sources using an event-based integration layer and those insights are stored in an in-memory data grid.
The insights are first passed on to a high-performance data store that has multiple data access layers. One of those layers accesses the data to cache it in the in-memory data grid for rapid access to the insights. From then on, the last layer accesses the data from the cached in-memory data grid and then passes it on to the front-end applications.
Unifying APIs used to develop applications
Front-end applications like websites, web apps, mobile native applications, and computer programs make use of API technology. Without APIs, it would be near impossible to develop a fully-fledged and functional app. This technology is the glue between other important integrations and the app itself. Unfortunately, using APIs when developing applications can be a complex process and might impact the time it takes for pages to load.
If too many APIs are involved, this impacts speed and increases the risk of bugs and other inefficiencies when running the app. To solve that problem, through the DIHs application, developers can simply use one API when accessing data. This helps minimize the time it takes for an app to load and also makes using the data access layers flexible to be reused in other applications.
API call management and reduction through DIH
The ultimate goal when implementing a DIH with consistent goals to have a simplified API system is reducing and managing data queries directly from the source. This strategy helps boost cyber security in a remote setup, amongst other things, since direct access to data sources is more protected. However, more than anything, the API calls to directly access the data are reduced since all relevant insights are stored in a high-performance data store.
That data store caches the insights for quicker access and streamlined API call management. The API calls are filtered through one API layer instead of having disparate APIs to cater to each data source. Unifying all data sources into one DIH boosts API strategies and improves overall application management.
Implementing this technology
Enterprises can implement this technology in almost any type of data management system. The main purpose of a DIH is to integrate multiple data sources and unify the insights while storing them in one data store. Therefore, when implementing this technology, the aim should be consistent with the main purpose of this technology.
If you do not have multiple data sources, DIHs might not be the best solution. When integrating multiple data sources, you can easily get “off-shelf” solutions as SaaS products. These types of DIH systems require minimal customization to integrate the various data sources. From then, everything is done pretty much autonomously.
Real-life use scenarios
There are various scenarios that paint a mental picture of the real-life use cases of DIH systems. One of these scenarios is when a company is gradually migrating to cloud data storage solutions from on-premise servers. To avoid having downtime in the services offered by the front-end application, using a DIH can help with consistent data availability.
Alternatively, a business might be gleaning data from multiple affiliate sources which might be different from each other. The data can be aggregated on one data grid and then passed on using a unified API strategy to front-end applications. DIHs can also be used on analytical BI tools depending on the type of data being collected and stored in the grid.
Overall benefits of using a Digital Integration Hub
A Digital Integration Hub has many different benefits and one of the most prominent ones is simplified API structure. You do not need to individually integrate each data source since a DIH collects all relevant insights and caches them.
Additionally, DIH systems also expedite the waiting times for apps to load while improving BI tool performance by rapid access to data. Depending on your application of this technology, there are much more application-specific benefits to reap.
In conclusion
A DIH is a highly functional strategy to simplify API usage since it minimizes the waiting period caused by complex direct data source queries. Instead, the API call management is reduced and simplified to a great extent when using DIH systems.
