Oracle Data Integrator (ODI)

How easy is the product to use?

Oracle Data Integrator provides a declarative rules driven approach that greatly reduces the learning curve of the product and increases developer productivity while facilitating ongoing maintenance. The approach separates the definition of the processes from their actual implementation, and separates the declarative rules (the ‘what’) from the data flows (the ‘how’). Training is only 4 days, and developers tout about how easy it is to use.

Declarative rules

ODI seperates the logical design from the pyhsical implmentation allowing the ETL developer to develop on mapping for many physical implementations. ODI’s metadata is stored in an open relational repository which could be extracted and consumed by CWM compliant tool.  MITI provides bridges for ODI which are CWM compliant.

Debugging

Oracle Data Integrator provides a full debugger for development where the ELT steps can be run step by step. Oracle Data Integrator processes can be run row by row by using the row by row knowledge modules. Overall, records can be processed in row by row, in batch or near real time as required by the enterprise. For production systems it is recommended to process records in set processing mode for Oracle Data Integrator’s ELT architecture performance edge. Records from multiple and diverse sources can be processed simultaneously.

Data Quality

Oracle Data Integrator supports referential integrity and basic cleansing. Due to its architecture, the product can validate referential integrity before loading the data, as part of the loading process, providing clean data. This process provides analysis of the data quality based upon the validation of the usability of the data according to criteria defined by the end user. Some examples of data quality checks used to enforce data standardization include: simple reference (foreign key), complex references (based on data in other tables), mandatory (not null), data type, uniqueness (primary key/ unique key), etc.

Data cleansing in the name/address scrubbing, fuzzy logic sense can be done through the integration of Oracle Enterprise Data Quality, or other external products.

ODI helps improve productivity

An easy-to-use interface combined with a rich extensibility framework helps improve productivity and lower development costs. Oracle Data Integrator Enterprise Edition is fully integrated with Oracle Fusion Middleware, Oracle Database, and Exadata to put data at the center of your enterprise. In addition, Oracle Data Integrator Enterprise Edition is open and standards-based to work with 3rd party applications as well as Oracle’s applications.

Source: oracle.com.