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A DATA INTEGRATION APPROACH TO MAXIMIZE YOUR ROI

The data Integration approach adopted by many data integration projects relies on a set of premium tools leading to cash burnout with RoI less than the standard.

To overcome this and to maximize the RoI, we lay down a data integration approach that makes use of open-source tools over the premium to deliver better results and an even more confident return on the investment.  

Adopt a two-stage data integration approach:

Part 1 explains the process of setting up technicals and part 2 covers the execution approach involving challenges faced and solutions to the same.

Part 1: Setting Up

The following are the widely relied data sources:

REST API Source with standard NoSQL JSON (with nested datasets)

REST API Source with full data schema in JSON

CSV Files in AWS S3

Relational Tables from Postgres DB

There are 2 different JSON types above in which the former is conventional, and the latter is here

Along with the data movement, it is necessary to facilitate Plug-n-Play architecture, Notifications, Audit data for Reporting, Un-burdened Intelligent scheduling, and setting up all the necessary instances.

The landing Data warehouse chosen was AWS Redshift which is a one-stop for the operational data stores (ODS) as well as facts & dimensions. As said, we completely relied on open-source tools over the tools from tech giants like Oracle, Microsoft, Informatica, Talend, etc.,  

The data integration was successful by leveraging Python, SQL, and Apache Airflow to do all the work. Use Python for Extraction; SQL to Load & Transform the data and Airflow to orchestrate the loads via python-based scheduler code. Below is the data flow architecture.

Data Flow Architecture

Part 2: Execution

The above data flow architecture gives a fair idea of how the data was integrated. The execution is explained in parallel with the challenges faced and how they were solved.

Challenges:

Plug-n-Play Model.  

Dealing with the nested data in JSON.

Intelligent Scheduling.

Code Maintainability for future enhancements.  

1. Plug-n-Play Model

To meet the changing business needs, the addition of columns or a datastore is obvious and if the business is doing great, expansion to different regions is apparent. The following aspects were made sure to ensure a continuous integration process.

A new column will not break the process.

A new data store should be added with minimal work by a non-technical user.

To bring down the time consumed for any new store addition(expansion) integration from days to hours.  

The same is achieved by using:

config table which is the heart of the process holding all the jobs needed to be executed, their last extract dates, and parameters for making the REST API call/extract data from RDBMS.

Re-usable python templates which are read-modified-executed based on the parameters from the config table.

Audit table for logging all the crucial events happening whilst integration.

Control table for mailing and Tableau report refreshes after the ELT process

By creating state-of-art DAGs which can generate DAGs(jobs) with configuration decided in the config table for that particular job.

Any new table which is being planned for the extraction or any new store being added as part of business expansion needs its entries into the config table.

The DAG Generator DAG run will build jobs for you in a snap which will be available in Airflow UI on the subsequent refresh within seconds, and the new jobs are executed on the next schedule along with existing jobs.

2. Dealing with the nested data in JSON.

It is a fact that No-SQL JSONS hold a great advantage from a storage and data redundancy perspective but add a lot of pain while reading the nested data out of the inner arrays.

The following approach is adopted to conquer the above problem:

Configured AWS Redshift Spectrum, with IAM Role and IAM Policy as needed to access AWS Glue Catalog and associating the same with AWS Redshift database cluster

Created external database, external schema & external tables in AWS Redshift database

Created AWS Redshift procedures with specific syntax to read data in the inner array

AWS Redshift was leveraged to parse the data directly from JSON residing in AWS S3 onto an external table (no loading is involved) in AWS Redshift which was further transformed to rows and columns as needed by relational tables.

3. Intelligent Scheduling

There were multiple scenarios in orchestration needs:

Time-based – Batch scheduling; MicroELTs ran to time & again within a day for short intervals.

Event-based – File drop in S3

For the batch scheduling, neither the jobs were run all in series (since it is going to be an underutilization of resources and a time-consuming process) nor in parallel as the workers in airflow will be overwhelmed.  

A certain number of jobs were automated to keep running asynchronously until all the processes were completed. By using a python routine to do intelligent scheduling. The code reads the set of jobs being executed as part of the current batch into a job execution/job config table and keeps running those four jobs until all the jobs are in a completed/failed state as per the below logical flow diagram.

Logical Flow Diagram

For Event-based triggering, a file would be dropped in S3 by an application, and the integration process will be triggered by reading this event and starts the loading process to a data warehouse.

The configuration is as follows:

CloudWatch event which will trigger a Lambda function which in turn makes an API call to trigger Airflow DAG

4. Code Maintainability for future enhancements

A Data Integration project is always collaborative work and maintaining the correct source code is of dire importance. Also, if a deployment goes wrong, the capability to roll back to the original version is necessary.

For projects which involve programming, it is necessary to have a version control mechanism. To have that version control mechanism, configure the GIT repository to hold the DAG files in Airflow with Kubernetes executor.

Take away:

This data integration approach is successful in completely removing the premium costs while decreasing the course of the project. All because of the reliance on open-source tech and utilizing them to the fullest.

By leveraging any ETL tool in the market, the project duration would be beyond 6 months as it requires building a job for each operational data store. The best-recommended option is using scripting in conjunction with any ETL tool to repetitively build jobs that would more or less fall/overlap with the way it is now executed.  

Talk to our Data Integration experts:

Looking for a one-stop location for all your integration needs? Our data integration experts can help you align your strategy or offer you a consultation to draw a roadmap that quickly turns your business data into actionable insights with a robust Data Integration approach and a framework tailored for your specs.

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STEP UP YOUR DIGITAL TRANSFORMATION JOURNEY WITH OFFICE 365 CONSULTING SERVICES

Office 365 and Office 365 consulting services have outshined in the digital workplace sphere to become the top solutions to all your remote workplace woes. Are you contemplating upon opting for the Microsoft Office 365 services? Read on.

The Rise of a Professional Emergency: O365 to the Rescue

With millions of people resorting to Remote Work in a jiffy, Covid-19 brought about a sudden but technologically advanced change to the professional world as a whole. This in turn has aided in the formulation of flexible work from home policies that meets the basic requirements of the employees while keeping the organizational interests intact as well. This transition started as a forceful defense strategy against the coronavirus but has paved its way to the good books of many organizations now. The reduced capital charges such as office premise rent, zero charges for electricity and other essentials, etc. makes the option to go permanently remote a smart choice.

While Work from Home is quite effective to tackle the problems such as restricted commute and ensures much safety, it poses a multitude of adversities on the running of these IT firms as well, if not handled well. These effects range from simply missing out one on one interaction between the team members to missing out on important client meetings that might lead to irreversible losses if not handled properly. O365 and office 365 consulting services proved to be a great aid to the organizations during this profession crisis.

The COVID-19 Aftermath: Office 365 to Aid Permanent Remote culture

While going back to the office possesses the same excitement level, many would like to resort to permanent remote too. Adapting to this new work culture might be a bit unclear but surely has great potential.

The organizations can utilize this great opportunity to come up with highly effective plans by leveraging powerful business tools to help in normalizing this work culture. A permanent work from anywhere can literally bring in a great variety in the workforce with talents around the world.

Remote Workplace Resolve: Literally Work From Anywhere

Irrespective of an organization’s decision to remain entirely remote or optionally remote after the pandemic, here are some of the Office 365 services that can be leveraged upon to take up your digital transformation journey to absolute success.

Microsoft Office 365 Consulting Services

Microsoft Office 365 can prove to be a major aid to enhance your digital transformation journey experience.

Microsoft has designed Office 365 specifically to tackle all the business requirements in mind. It can be wisely leveraged to enable remote collaboration and communication to its best. Adapting to Microsoft Office 365 or choosing a reliable partner for Office 365 consulting services empowers you to leverage the best remote access facilities and boost collaboration in your organization.

With its advanced security features, you can securely engage your customers and empower your employees effortlessly within a single communication network.

SHAREPOINT MIGRATION SERVICES

Working in office since ages had kept the compulsion of moving from on-premise to cloud adjustably variable. But with the whole workforce scattered to different parts of the country and world as well, on-premise loses its importance as a whole. If you wish to keep your business moving, moving to online platforms such as O365 and SharePoint or upgrading to a better version has become inevitable. The organizations should handle such necessary conditions with precision.

Not only the Switch from on-prem to SharePoint online, SharePoint migration from an older SharePoint version to the latest one too can have a significant effect upon your business growth.

If we wish to keep up in this competitive environment, we need to keep upgrading our organizational assets. SharePoint evolves every once in a while and keeps on adding many new features in it with every release. Few features such as InfoPath forms are on the verge of extinction as well. Therefore, SharePoint migration is a necessity.

Since SharePoint Migration is a very complex and time taking process, it’s always an appropriate choice to tag up with a partner and opt for their migration services that take the hassle away from the process to give you a perfect migration experience.

DIGITAL WORKPLACE SERVICES

The worst issue with Remote Work is the restricted interaction among the team members that might cause a lack of clarity and coordination. This in turn leads to lower productivity. Digital Workplace platforms such as a SharePoint intranet or Microsoft Teams are the best choices to suffice as the Virtual Interacting Platform for the employees. This knits them together even when functioning from far away.

A digital workplace provides state of the art solutions to digitally transform your organizational communication strategically. This boosts your employee engagement by acting as the engaging, interactive, and connecting link between the employees in an organization. A perfectly customized digital workplace that adheres to your organizational needs reflects the interests of the employees as well as the management by virtually creating an environment which can give a boost to the work culture.

Office 365 Intranet solution

An Office 365 intranet is a great solution to enhance collaboration, connectivity and document management. It lets you build an Intranet that perfectly fits your organization’s infrastructure and requirements.

It also offers personalization where each employee can maintain their personal dashboards that would be in accordance with their topics of interest and importance.

The mobility offered by the modern intranets helps them stand out by letting anyone literally work from anywhere on any device.

Extranet Solutions

While intranet is important for internal communication, maintaining an extranet is a must as well to be connected to the leads, vendors, partners and customers. A good connecting link among all the external stake holders ensures the continuity of your business just like the pre-pandemic days. It is therefore wise to set up a fast and secure external connectivity and resource-sharing portal with a sophisticated and user-friendly Extranet solution.

SharePoint Knowledge Management

While the SharePoint might hold an incredible volume of data, the permission to access them might be limited. Now, there comes multiple occasions when you need to share any information with a partner, colleague or client. SharePoint Knowledge Management is a great solution in such cases. It allows you to securely share your data with ease to amplify your business growth.

Product/Solution Catalog

Cataloging is the very first step if you are planning to sell anything, be it a product or a service. It acts as the first bait to your leads that either proceeds to a successful conversion or a failed deal. Therefore, Cataloging must be done with extra care and precision. It is a good practice to maintain a detailed description concerning all your products on a single, secure platform in the form of a Product Catalog. Always rely on a trusted service provider to design a centralized, user-friendly catalog to better manage your products.

Purpose-Built/Custom Portals

Every organization has different needs and the same goes true for each departmental unit of an organization as well. Bridging the communication gaps and facilitating resource sharing within the organization or a particular department of the organization with customized features can be a great digital resource to invest in. Get these advanced custom portals built that serves uniquely to your organization.

BUSINESS PROCESS AUTOMATION SERVICES

Business Process Automation (BPA) is one of the major elements of Digital Transformation that lets you simplify and technologically automate the redundant and complex business processes to bring in transparent and time-saving business solutions. Opting for it can eventually contribute to the increase in service quality and service delivery while maintaining minimalistic time and cost. Opt for the BPA services that are tailor-made to automate and accelerate your business processes by leveraging your existing investments on Office 365/SharePoint.

Power Platform Solutions

Power Platforms let you have a complete end to end solution to analyze data, bring in a solution and automate the processes to tackle challenges effectively. Microsoft Power Platforms consist of three major services:

PowerApps

Power BI

Power Automate

Opt for Power platform solutions to emerge as the industry leader with the help of Artificial Intelligence to leverage it.

Custom Apps for Dynamics 365

Custom Apps for Dynamics 365 strengthens and personalize your customer relationships and lets you have reliable insights by merging your data with tailor-made solutions for stunning outcomes. This helps you in resource management and ensures a great customer success rate. It also takes up your employee engagement a notch higher.

Data Integration and SAA

Data Integration and SAAS let you achieve data sharing supremacy and organize your data. It also lets you manage data-access effectively. This in turn boosts your productivity by enabling your employees to access it from anywhere at any time with Data Integration and SAAS offerings

SHAREPOINT DOCUMENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM

Simplify your document management Document Control Management Solutions. This will ensure that you can manage your documents better, enhance their visibility, track processes, and let your employees share them across various platforms hassle-free.

Content Governance

Streamline your content and monitor its flow within your organization with the help of Content Governance services.

Project control and management

Manage all your products in a highly systematic and logical manner with Project Control Management services that help you thrive.

What Next?

Diving through these unpredictable business scenarios, the only way out is to modernize with the changing needs. Your business should continuously keep adapting to the upcoming digital transformation trends.

With the right kind of business investments, your organization can yield a great amount of profits from these new remote workplace trends.

We at Technovert are dedicated to offering the best Office 365 Consulting services to empower you through your digital transformation journey. Get in touch with us to know more.

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RPA FOR HR

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Technovert, a prominent IT services & software solutions offering custom product development & Digital Transformation across industries & business functions