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CryspIQ® vs a data fabric

These two answer different questions.

  • A data fabric asks: "How do I connect all my data without moving it?"
  • CryspIQ® asks: "Can I trust the answer?"

A data fabric connects your systems and leaves the data in them. You can reach any of it from one place, but what comes back is whatever those systems hold, mistakes included.

CryspIQ® keeps one trusted copy of only the data that matters. That data is checked as it loads, corrected once at source, and recorded with its business context, so every answer comes from the same reliable source.

Is CryspIQ® a data fabric?​

It depends which meaning you have in mind, because the term is used two ways.

  • Usually, a data fabric means a connecting layer. It's built from data virtualisation, a data catalogue and metadata about how datasets relate, so a query can reach any system without the data being moved. In that sense, no: CryspIQ® is not a data fabric, and the comparison is the one on this page.
  • Sometimes it means any governed layer over data from many sources. In that broader sense, CryspIQ® fits the pattern, and is listed in data fabric software categories. It gets there differently: one governed model that the data is loaded into, rather than a layer that reaches into each system.

If you meant Microsoft Fabric, the product, see CryspIQ® vs Microsoft Fabric. The two share a word and little else.

What a data fabric is​

A data fabric is an architectural pattern, not a single product. It aims to make data spread across many systems, on premises and in several clouds, look like one connected estate. The usual ingredients are:

  • Data virtualisation or query federation, so a query can reach each system in place. See CryspIQ® vs data virtualisation.
  • A data catalogue, so people can find what exists and who owns it.
  • Metadata about the data, often held as a knowledge graph of how datasets and terms relate, and increasingly used to recommend or automate integration.
  • Policies applied across the estate, such as who may see what.

It solves a real problem well: large organisations with data in dozens of systems, where moving all of it isn't practical, need a way to find it and reach it.

Connecting the data is not the same as trusting it​

A data fabric makes it easier to find and reach the customer records in five systems. It doesn't make those five records into one customer, decide which address is right, or notice that one system is missing a month of invoices. Those questions stay with whoever uses the result, and they are answered again each time someone asks.

That's the question CryspIQ® is built around: data you can sign off on, and the efficiency of getting it.

Where the two actually differ​

Where meaning lives. In a data fabric, business meaning sits in the metadata: catalogue entries, glossary terms and the relationships in the knowledge graph, describing tables still in the shape their source systems produced. In CryspIQ®, the business definition is carried on the fact type and stored with the data itself.

Data quality. A data fabric can describe and monitor quality, and flag a dataset that has gone wrong. The data it returns is still what the source holds. CryspIQ® assesses quality as data loads, so a problem is caught on the way in. The data steward has it corrected once, in the source system, and everyone downstream gets the corrected version.

One customer, or five. A fabric can tell you that five tables all hold customers, and even link records it thinks match. CryspIQ® holds a single instance per party, enforced by the structure of the model.

Ask twice, get two answers. Because a fabric reads the sources when you ask, the answer moves when they do. In CryspIQ®, every report, dashboard and AI agent reads the same stored data.

Replacing a source system. The fabric's metadata describes each application's tables, so a new CRM means new mappings and new metadata, and the old CRM's history goes with it unless it's kept elsewhere. CryspIQ® holds business facts rather than one application's version of them, so a new application is a new mapping and history is unaffected.

Side by side​

With a data fabricWith CryspIQ®
The question it answersHow do I connect all my data without moving it?Can I trust the answer?
Where the data livesIn each source systemOne governed copy of the data that matters
Where business meaning livesIn catalogue and graph metadata, over source-shaped tablesStored with the data on the fact type
Data qualityDescribed and monitored; data returned as the source holds itChecked as data loads, and corrected once at source
Master dataRecords may be linked; matching is left to the consumer or an MDM toolA single instance per party, enforced by the structure
Same question, asked twiceCan return different answersReturns the same answer
ScopeEvery system in the estateThe data that carries business meaning
AI readinessThe agent can reach the sources and their metadataThe agent gets checked data with its business context

Where a data fabric is stronger​

Breadth. A fabric aims to cover everything: every system, every dataset, structured or not, so people can find it. CryspIQ® deliberately holds only the data that carries business meaning.

Discovery. If the problem is that nobody knows what data exists, where it is or who owns it, a catalogue and the metadata around it answer that directly. CryspIQ® is not a catalogue of your whole estate.

No data movement. Where data has to stay in place, for regulation, contracts or sheer volume, a fabric can still reach it.

Less invasive to start. A fabric connects to systems as they are. CryspIQ® needs each source mapped into the model, which is more work up front.

The honest way to choose: a data fabric fixes finding and reaching data spread across an estate. It doesn't fix data that's wrong, duplicated or missing its meaning. If your problem is that people can't find or reach the data, a fabric addresses it. If your problem is that people don't trust the answers once they have them, connecting more systems gives you more answers to reconcile.

Using both​

They work well together. CryspIQ® can be one of the sources a data fabric connects, and often the one it should point people to first: the catalogue shows where everything is, and the governed numbers that the board, regulators and AI agents rely on come from CryspIQ®. See co-existence.