Data Platform FAQs
What is the Data Platform?
Data Platform has been developed by OneAdvanced to provide customers with secure access to their data in the cloud. It is required because cloud-based databases can’t be securely accessed directly via the Internet.
OneAdvanced’s Data Platform includes two main services: Bring Your Own BI and Data Share, in addition to facilitating data requirements for AI use cases.
What are Bring Your Own BI (BYOBI) and Data Share?
BYOBI and Data Share are specific services delivered using the Data Platform. Data from each product within the OneAdvanced product suite is made available based on the following:
BYOBI: Data is aggregated and modelled based on a star schema. A star schema is a type of data warehouse schema that consists of a central fact table surrounded by dimension tables. This structure allows for fast and efficient querying and analysis of data without the need for you to create complex table joins after importing the data.
Data Share: Data is served using the product’s base table-schema. This ensures customers that are adopting the cloud-based version of the product can maintain their existing SQL based analysis and reporting solutions. Documentation will be provided to help you create the required table joins after importing the data.
What technology does the Data Platform use?
The Data Platform is built on modern cloud-native technologies, leveraging Snowflake for data storage. processing and security. Snowflake incorporates APIs and data-sharing capabilities to ensure seamless access for customers and integrations with BI tools.
What is Snowflake?
Snowflake is an industry leading cloud-based data hosting and development platform. The decision to adopt Snowflake was the result of an extensive review of the available services at the time, and considered the availability of solutions that will ensure the Data Platform continues to provide a secure and flexible data solution. More information can be found here https://www.snowflake.com/
How is data secured in the Data Platform?
Data on the platform is encrypted at rest and in transit. Snowflake is a secure-by-design platform. More information can be found here https://www.snowflake.com/en/why-snowflake/snowflake-security-hub/
Will I share the Data Platform with any other customers?
Yes, Data Platform is a multi-tenanted solution. Robust security is applied to ensure only your organisation has access to your data.
Where is my data held/located?
All data processing involving Snowflake is undertaken in virtual warehouses located in the UK. All ‘at rest’ data is hosted in the UK using AWS cloud services.
How does the Data Platform comply with GDPR?
When identified data sets of each product within the OneAdvanced product suite become available in the Data Platform, a Data Protection Impact Assessment (DPIA) is undertaken. Customer’s data is only made available once the DPIA has been approved by OneAdvanced’s project sponsors.
More information can be found here https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/uk-gdpr-guidance-and-resources/accountability-and-governance/data-protection-impact-assessments-dpias/
Snowflake Inc is a published OneAdvanced sub-processor https://www.oneadvanced.com/terms-and-conditions/data-protection-schedule/sub-processors/.
What happens to my data if I no longer want to use either BYOBI or Data Share?
All users will be denied access to the service and all your data will be deleted. This does not affect the original data held in the source database.
Who within OneAdvanced can access my data held in the Data Platform?
Only authorised employees can access specific datasets, ensuring sensitive information is protected from unauthorised access.
How can I access the data in the Data Platform?
Users that require direct access to the data (usually data analysts and BI analysts) using a tool that supports SSO connections with Snowflake e.g. Power BI, will be able to access the data seamlessly. As part of the onboarding process, you will be asked to provide email addresses for all authorised users that require access, and details about your SSO identity service provider (normally your MS Entra ID).
The data can also be accessed using Snowflake’s ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) connector. More details of this can be found here https://docs.snowflake.com/en/developer-guide/odbc/odbc. We will contact you for further information once you have identified the need to use Snowflake’s ODBC connector.
Are there any restrictions on what data I can access?
No, we do not apply role-level security to the data. Everyone from your organisation granted direct access to the Data Platform can access all your data.
What is the frequency of data refresh in the Data Platform?
Data is refreshed at an interval of no more than 15 minutes.
Is there any rate limiting on the Data Platform?
Yes, the platform employs rate limiting to ensure fair usage and protect against abuse. These limits are designed to prevent excessive querying and maintain optimal performance for all users. Specific rate limits can vary based on the service tier.
How do database schema changes affect the Data Platform?
New columns added to the source database tables will get picked up and replicated into Snowflake. At that point, some additional adjustments may be required to take those columns into account for any transformations carried out on the data. New tables will be added as part of the release roadmap.
Does replicating our data to the Data Platform impact the performance of our Live system?
No, the data share replication uses native SQL functionality, and our testing has registered just a 1-2% increase in CPU activity during the replication process, indicating impact on performance will be negligible.
How does Data Platform store and process data?
Data from source systems is ingested using Change Data Capture (CDC) and streamed through Apache Kafka. Kafka Cluster is in AWS. Kafka processes and buffers the data before it is stored in Snowflake, where Snowflake's Data Share functionality allows secure, near real-time access to live data for customers, ensuring efficient data retrieval without duplication. Note: Data is encrypted while in transit and at rest in the Data Platform.
What skills do I need to use BYOBI/Data Share?
You should be familiar with the data analysis/BI tool you are planning to use to access and analyse the data. This should include how to create/manage table relationships etc.
You should also be familiar with the functional nature of the data you have access to. Appropriate documentation will be provided to support this.
How do I get support for BYOBI/Data Share?
Please refer to the relevant support related documentation for the OneAdvanced products you are using.
