Overview

Overview#

Querona is a Data Fabric platform powered by data virtualization. It presents your data — whether it lives in one system or many — through a single SQL Server–compatible surface, queried and joined in real time, with nothing copied or moved unless you choose to materialize it. This section lays the conceptual foundation for the rest of the documentation: what the platform is, how it works, and the ideas the practical guides build on.

A single principle runs through the platform: express as much of a solution as possible in SQL — views and virtual databases over your sources — so the result is one declarative model Querona maintains, refreshes and re-engines for you, rather than a web of loosely-integrated pipelines and connectors you operate yourself.

Capabilities at a glance#

  • Federation — query and join heterogeneous data sources in real time, with no data movement.

  • SQL Server compatibility — a SQL Server–compatible endpoint, metadata catalog, system views and Transact-SQL, so existing drivers, tools and BI clients just work.

  • Open data endpoints — expose virtual databases over REST, GraphQL and MCP, alongside the SQL Server (TDS) endpoint.

  • Materialization — materialize hot views using multiple strategies (full, incremental, in-memory, physical rotation) to accelerate selectively.

  • In-memory columnar engine with built-in Apache Spark for processing and materialization.

  • Security — Standard, Windows Integrated and Microsoft Entra ID authentication; full TLS encryption (Optional/Mandatory on TDS 7.x, Strict on TDS 8.0); object- and row-level permissions, data masking and transparent pseudonymization.

  • Governance — a searchable catalog with tags, metadata lineage, access control, data protection and auditing — applied centrally and kept entirely on your own infrastructure.

  • Full web interface for management and monitoring.

  • Runs on your own infrastructure — on-premise, cloud or hybrid, with no SaaS lock-in.

Key concepts#

  • Data virtualization — the core technology: one logical, governed layer over distributed sources, materialized only where it pays off.

  • Federation — how a single SELECT reaches and joins data across different systems at query time, pushing the work down to the sources.

  • Virtual tables and views — the building blocks you model with: virtual databases, virtual tables and views.

  • General architecture — how those pieces fit together, from source connection to published model.

  • SQL Server compatibility — what Querona emulates, so your existing T-SQL tools, drivers and skills carry over.

  • Governance — discovery, lineage, access control, masking and auditing, applied centrally.