Unlocking the Power of Data: The Future-Ready Advantage of Business Intelligence
A semantic layer acts as a bridge between raw data and actionable business insights. It transforms complex data structures into understandable business terms, making data more accessible and valuable to business users without depending on data engineering teams. The layer encapsulates business definitions, logic, and relationships to present a unified view of an organization’s data. However, challenges arise when different departments develop their own isolated data definitions, resulting in data interpretation inconsistencies and reliance on technical resources.
A universal semantic layer provides a solution by offering a single, standardized view of data regardless of its origin, abstracting the complexities of various data structures and ensuring a cohesive data experience. Benefits of a universal semantic layer include:
- Enabling a self-serve BI ecosystem.
- Establishing trust in data by creating a single source of truth.
- Optimizing cloud costs and improving query performance.
- Centralizing data security, governance, and modelling.
- Ensuring scalability and high performance.
- Promoting collaboration for informed decision-making.
In essence, a universal semantic layer enhances modern BI systems by reducing costs, promoting data governance, and fostering a collaborative, data-driven culture. Ankit Khandelwal, senior director of engineering at Kyvos Insights, emphasizes that integrating a universal semantic layer into modern data structures is a strategic step for organizations to become future-ready in BI and analytics.
Source: Hampton, J. (2023, July 26). Why a Universal Semantic Layer is the Key to Unlock Value from Your Data. Datanami.
