Data fabric is a combination of architecture and technology that is designed to ease the complexities of managing many different kinds of data, using multiple database management systems, and deployed across a variety of platforms. A typical data management organization today has data deployed in on-premises data centers and multiple cloud environments. They have data in flat files, tagged files, relational databases, document stores, graph databases, and more. Processing spans technologies from batch ETL to changed data capture, stream processing, and complex event processing. The variety of tools, technologies, platforms, and data types make it difficult to manage processing, access, security, and integration across multiple platforms. Data fabric provides a consolidated data management platform. It is a single platform to manage disparate data and divergent technologies deployed across multiple data centers, both cloud and on-premises.

Data fabric is a combination of architecture, technology, and services that is designed to ease the complexities of managing many different kinds of data, using multiple database management systems, and deployed across a variety of platforms. It provides a single, unified platform for data management across multiple technologies and deployment platforms. One key point in this definition needs to be highlighted: Data fabric is a combination of architecture, technology, and services. Architecture alone does not make a data fabric, but architecture is an essential part of the fabric.