Enterprise Information Virtualization and the "Information Fabric"

I have to say, I am liking the new coinages from Mike Gilpen and Noel Yuhanna at Forrester: Enterprise Information Virtualization and the Information Fabric.

What's interesting is that last year they called it Enterprise Data Virtualization, but have correctly broadened the definition to include content, thus the switch to "information."  Here's how they described it in last year's report, which is the only publicly available summary:

Enterprises are facing the growing challenges of using disparate sources of data managed by different applications, including problems with data integration, security, performance, availability, and quality. Business users want fast, real-time, and reliable information to make business decisions, while IT wants to lower costs, minimize complexity, and improve operational efficiency. New technology is emerging that Forrester has coined "information fabric," a term defined as a virtualized data layer that integrates heterogeneous data and content repositories in real time. This technology is provided via middleware components that deliver quality information — "the truth" — when and where it's needed. (Here's a link to this year's EIV report - subscr. req.)

I like the idea of Enterprise Information Virtualization being the category, with Information Fabric being the catchy rubric for the concept.  That leaves the technologies for implementing EIV: query federation, virtual views, metadata and distributed caching, which fall in place nicely.  Forrester adds enterprise search to the list of technologies, which could make sense, depending on the application.

I've been talking about virtualization of data sources for quite a while in this blog, so it's nice to see Forrester's work. 

I think we still have a few loose ends to take care of, however.  Since EII and EIV are essentially the same thing (this is my take, not Forrester's), then what to do with the term EII? Also, Forrester also has Information as a Service (IaaS) in the mix, which I get, but to me sounds like something more like a hosted integration service.  Gartner talks about "data services" (which is about more than virtualization, and lacks content, hence the 'data') and the newer "Information Infrastructure."

Stepping back, I think it can be said that, despite the overabundance of terms, the analysts are converging on the idea that a new kind of infrastructure is needed that can deliver the right combinations of data and content to the right users on demand.  This infrastructure must, by its nature, be distributed.  Centralization is not an option.  It's also not about sticking information on a bus - this is for applications, not people.  Sounds like the perfect fit for a combination of query federation (structured and unstructured), virtual views, metadata and caching, which is exactly what Ipedo's got - no matter what you call it.

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