Getting Started


Getting Started


CData Connect is a consolidated connectivity platform that links applications to a broad ecosystem of real-time data sources through consistent, standards-compliant interfaces. CData Connect provides tools to access data seamlessly from any system, anywhere.

With CData Connect, you can unify access to all of the cloud applications, databases, APIs, and services across an organization.

Key Features

  • Broad Data Connectivity: CData Connect transforms data into a simple language that any reporting tool, analytics dashboard, or spreadsheet can understand. It can connect to a vast range of applications (including those for accounting, marketing, customer relationship management, and more) by using a consistent approach that is already supported by many data tools.
  • Real-Time Data Access: CData Connect gives you access to your data in real time, which creates an agile and flexible work environment that adapts and changes as quickly as your data does. This approach avoids the pitfalls of traditional Extract, Transform, Load (ETL) processes that rely on moving data to separate locations.
  • Create, Read, Update, Delete (CRUD) Support: Read and Write operations are supported. Operations are controlled by security settings that you can configure in CData Connect or in your data sources.
  • Secure Access: Administrators can create query users and define their access permissions for each data source individually.
  • Comprehensive Data Model & Dynamic Discovery: CData Connect provides comprehensive access to all of the data that is exposed in the underlying connections, including full access to dynamic data and searchable metadata.
  • Virtual Datasets: CData Connect provides a sleek way to organize, catalog, and control access to specific data. You can bundle related data items separately in a simple and scalable way with virtual datasets.

For more information about these key features, see Technology.

Configuring and Using CData Connect

For a high-level overview about setting up and using CData Connect, see Quick Start Guide.

For more detailed information about the features of CData Connect, see the documentation outlined in the table below:

Documentation Description
Dashboard Information about navigating CData Connect and accessing features
Data Sources Steps for connecting data sources to CData Connect to make your data available for use
Client Tools Steps for connecting client tools to CData Connect to access data from your data sources
API Information about connecting to data via the REST API and OData protocol
Virtual Databases Information about the virtual database feature of CData Connect, including SQL Server
SQL Reference List of supported SQL syntax and code examples

Getting Support

For assistance with using CData Connect, there are two main resources available: