Can XBRL play a key role in modern data architectures?
The digital age has ushered in an unprecedented era of data proliferation, with business information being generated and disseminated at an exponential rate. Traditional methods of business reporting and data analysis struggle with this surge in volume and complexity. Consequently, enterprises are turning to cloud-native platforms, data lakes, data lakehouses, and mesh networks for innovative solutions that can imbue business data with meaning, enabling automated processing and enhanced decision-making.
As organisations strive to unify diverse datasets in these tools and extract meaning at scale, the concept of a universal ‘semantic layer’ is gaining significant traction. These structures aim to provide a human understandable view of data stored by presenting information in meaningful business terms.
At the same time, the eXtensible Business Reporting Language (XBRL) has emerged as the pivotal standard in the realm of digital reporting and regulatory compliance, offering a structured and standardised approach to the electronic communication of business and financial data.
This article endeavours to explore the potential of leveraging XBRL as a semantic layer for business data, examining its capabilities, benefits, and limitations, and its position in relation to other semantic technologies. By delving into these aspects, this article seeks to provide a comprehensive understanding of how XBRL can contribute to a more semantically rich and intelligent ecosystem for business information.
The rest of this article can be read on Medium for free – here