Data Vault Hubs Explained
- Rhys Hanscombe
- Sep 23
- 2 min read
If you're working with Data Vault or just starting to explore it, understanding hubs is essential. They are the foundation of your business model within a Data Vault architecture. In this article, we’ll break down the key takeaways from our discussion.
What Is a Hub in Data Vault?
Hubs represent the core business concepts within an organization. These are things that the business needs to track, such as:
Customers
Invoices
Products
Employees
Orders
Each Hub contains a business key, which uniquely identifies an instance of that concept. Unlike traditional physical data models that are tied to specific systems, hubs are business-driven, meaning they stay consistent across different source systems.
Why Are Hubs Important?
Hubs serve as the single source of truth for each business concept, helping organizations integrate data from multiple systems. Consider a company with multiple subsidiaries, each using its own HR system. A Hub for employees allows the business to consolidate all employee records into a single list, regardless of which system stores the data.
Benefits of Using Hubs
Data Integration: They bring together data from multiple systems into one consistent model.
Simplified Queries: Without hubs, you’d need to join multiple satellites to get a complete list of a business concept.
AI & Analytics Ready: Hubs provide a structured, high-quality data source for AI models and analytics.
Graph Database Compatibility: Hubs function as nodes in graph databases, helping model relationships.
Foundation for Star Schema: Hubs naturally translate into dimensions in a Star Schema, making reporting easier.
How Hubs Interact with Satellites & Links
Hubs work with Satellites and Links:
Satellites store descriptive information about each hub’s business key.
Links capture relationships and events between hubs (e.g., linking customers to orders).
By structuring your data this way, you ensure that all business concepts remain consistent and scalable.
All Roads Lead to Hubs
Even if you think you can store data without Hubs by only using Satellites, you’ll eventually need to construct a master list of business concepts. Hubs provide this structure from the start, making data easier to manage and analyze.