What Is OData and Why You Need It

In my previous blog post, you read about Database Wars and the decision-making process surrounding data storage. In this blog, we’ll explore how OData fits into this picture.

Standards-Based ​Data Connectivity

ODBC and JDBC standards have been around for a long time and for good reason—they allow you to plug into software like Pentaho, Tableau, MicroStrategy, Informatica or almost any tool you want.

At Progress® DataDirect®, we’ve created a hub in the cloud that you can access via ODBC and JDBC. This lets you get to any of your cloud sources, tunnel through your firewall, and be able to access all of your on-premise sources (including legacy systems) as well. With ODBC and JDBC, you get the standards-based access that you’ve been used to for a long time.

Reaching New ​Standards with OData

A new standard that we’ve been working with is OData. When you think about OData, you should think REST/JSON because it’s basically a standardized REST interface. This means that whenever you are able to get to a RESTful interface, you can use the OData standard. So whether you’re programming on Windows Mobile, iOS, Android, or trying to use a cloud based application such as Salesforce Lightning Connect to enrich your Salesforce data, OData can be there to help you out.

The Story of OData

OData was originally started by Microsoft a few years ago. It quickly became clear to Microsoft that for this standard to be fully embraced, it would need to be moved to the Open Group, an open standards organization. When Microsoft approached us at Progress DataDirect, where we’ve been known in the industry as the Switzerland of data access for many years, we cosigned with them. Today, we sit on the OData standards body, just as we have in the past with ANSI SQL and ODBC, and just as we continue to do for JDBC. It’s our role in these organizations to ensure that the data access standards remain open, and are written in such a way to be applicable to a wide variety of data sources.  It’s our mission at Progress DataDirect to continue to lead the way in providing the fastest, most reliable connectivity on the market today based on these standards.

Fastest In the Industry

The drivers my team and I build here at Progress DataDirect are designed to be the fastest in the industry, and we stand behind that claim with award winning technical support. When you find performance degradation issues in our software, we treat them like any defects because we understand how important speed is to your business. You can pick up a free trial today and try it out for yourself, or watch a replay of my webinar, “Industry Insight: Optimizing Your Data for Better Performance.” Don’t forget to check back for the next installment of this series!