Title
AWS re:Invent 2022 - Data integration at scale: Strategies to unlock SAP and mainframe (PRT248)
Summary
- Speakers: Dan Potter (Vice President of Product Marketing at Qlik) and Glenn Wilkins (Senior Architect at Vanguard).
- Main Topics: Data integration strategies, unlocking value from SAP and mainframes, Qlik Replicate, and scaling data engineering practices.
- Key Points:
- Qlik is an integration analytics vendor focused on moving and shaping data in an automated fashion.
- Data integration at scale involves considerations of system throughput, low latency, high availability, and non-disruptive operations.
- Scaling the data engineering team is crucial to support diverse business use cases and data architectures.
- Drivers for data integration include cloud application development, data warehouse modernization, and next-generation data lakes.
- Qlik supports a wide variety of sources and targets, with a focus on challenging sources like SAP and mainframes.
- Vanguard's data replication as a service platform is built on Qlik Replicate, enabling cloud modernization and microservices architecture.
- Glenn Wilkins shared Vanguard's journey from mainframe to AWS, emphasizing the importance of CDC (Change Data Capture) technology for efficient data migration.
- Qlik Replicate's log streaming feature significantly reduced MIPS consumption, making the replication process more scalable.
- Vanguard's replication platform is designed for DevOps, high availability, low latency, and high data quality.
- Reference architectures for replication to RDS Aurora, S3 for analytics, and DynamoDB for NoSQL use cases were discussed.
- Data quality assurance and multi-region architecture support are integral parts of Vanguard's replication strategy.
- SAP data integration challenges include proprietary data formats, metadata complexity, and licensing restrictions.
- Qlik's solution accelerators for SAP help automate data pipeline creation and transformation, offering predefined templates and models.
Insights
- Integration at Scale: The session highlighted the importance of efficient data integration at scale, particularly for large enterprises with complex systems like SAP and mainframes. The ability to move data in real-time with low latency and high availability is critical for operational and analytical tasks.
- CDC Technology: Change Data Capture (CDC) is a key technology for efficient data migration, as it allows for asynchronous data retrieval without impacting production applications. This is particularly important for systems with high transaction volumes, such as mainframes.
- Log Streaming: Qlik Replicate's log streaming feature was a game-changer for Vanguard, as it allowed for a single stream from the transaction log to the replication server, reducing MIPS consumption and enabling scalability.
- DevOps and Automation: Vanguard's approach to data replication as a service emphasizes DevOps capabilities and automation, allowing application teams to quickly adopt replication with minimal manual intervention.
- Multi-Region Support: The ability to support multi-region architectures is becoming increasingly important for organizations that operate across multiple geographic locations. This ensures high availability and disaster recovery capabilities.
- SAP Integration Challenges: SAP systems present unique challenges for data integration due to proprietary formats and licensing restrictions. Qlik's solution accelerators for SAP address these challenges by providing automated tools for data extraction and transformation.
- Cloud Modernization: The session underscored the trend of cloud modernization, with organizations moving away from monolithic architectures to distributed, cloud-based microservices. This transition requires robust data integration and replication strategies.
- Team Collaboration: The success of data integration projects often relies on collaboration between technology partners and internal teams. The shout-out to Vanguard's team members highlighted the human element behind the technology solutions.