Integration glossary
Data hub
A data hub is a central store that connected systems feed and read, so they all share one current version of records such as customers, orders and assets.
Hub, warehouse and lake
A data hub is operational. It holds the current version of shared records, and changes flow in from the systems and back out to them while the business runs.
A data warehouse is analytical. It keeps history arranged for reporting, and it is usually loaded on a schedule and read rather than written back. A data lake stores raw data in bulk, often before anyone has decided how it will be used. A company can have all three, and a hub often feeds the other two.
Hub and spoke instead of point to point
Without a hub, systems connect to each other in pairs and the number of connections grows quickly with every new system. With a hub, each system connects once, to the centre, and reads what the others have written there.
What a hub needs to work
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An agreed model of the shared records, so every system means the same thing by a customer.
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Change capture, so the hub stays current without full reloads.
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Conflict handling, for when two systems change the same record.
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Lineage, so every value shows which system it came from.
The STRAX hub
At the centre of STRAX is a hub, a SQL Server database on your own servers that every connected system feeds and reads. It keeps its full record even when a source removes one, and the reports, portals and workflows you build in STRAX read the same hub, so everyone works from the same facts.
How the STRAX integration engine works → What a canonical data model is → What two-way synchronisation is →
More terms
Other ideas worth knowing.
Change data capture (CDC)
Passing on only what changed in a database, shortly after it changed, instead of copying whole tables on a schedule.
Read the definition →Canonical data model
One agreed definition of shared records such as customer and order, which every connected system is mapped to once.
Read the definition →Two-way data synchronisation
Keeping the same record current in several systems, so an edit made in any one of them reaches the rest.
Read the definition →See it on your own systems.
A demo takes about an hour and shows these ideas working on systems like yours.