Data & Analytics

Certica Unveils Operational Data Store for Schools

• By Joshua Bolkan
• 08/02/17

Certica Solutions has launched a new operational data store (ODS) for schools, Data Connect, in an effort to support data integration and application interoperability.

Located within the company's education technology platform-as-a-service tool, Certica Connect, Data Connect is based on the Ed-Fi suite of open source technology, which includes an education data model, a persistent ODS that centralizes data from district applications and an API for data to flow between integrated applications and the ODS.

Features of Data Connect include:

• The ability to inventory, categorize and manage authorizations for applications to connect to the ODS;
• Tools for tracking and providing visibility into data privacy and security policies;
• The ability to request integrations from vendors;
• The ability for vendors to manage authorized application connections;
• Tools for vendors to test integrations from their own applications; and
• The ability to see and fulfill district integration requests.

"Having provided both on-premises and cloud-based education data technology solutions since 2001, Certica is keenly aware of the challenges faced by districts trying to integrate data between a complex set of applications, and access a comprehensive set of district data to drive instructional and operational decisions," said Mark Rankovic, president and CEO at Certica, in a prepared statement. "The strength of the Ed-Fi ODS and API, paired with Certica's proven data management technology and experience, is enabling us to launch a fully productized application interoperability platform. One of the key attributes of Data Connect is the 'hub and spoke' architecture for data integration and application interoperability, which is a technologically superior approach to the point-to-point or peer-to-peer approach being attempted by other vendors in the market. We're excited to be rolling out Data Connect to school districts later this year."

The company reported it plans to release Data Connect in the fall.