Build vs Buy: The Data Connectivity Decision

Your connectivity decisions have long-term consequences. They affect development velocity, cost structure, and time-to-market for years. When evaluating ODBC and JDBC connectivity options, technical leaders face pressure to deliver quickly while managing constrained resources and demonstrating ROI.

Building connectors appears cost-effective when evaluating initial development costs alone. However, this analysis typically underweights three critical factors: ongoing maintenance overhead, specialized expertise requirements, and opportunity cost to core product development. Projects that begin with four-month estimates often extend to 18 months while consuming far more resources than projected.

Who This Guide Is For: Two Types of Connectivity Challenges

Before diving into build vs buy, it's essential to understand that different organizations face different connectivity challenges:

Application Vendors

Your challenge: You're building an application that needs to connect to multiple data sources your customers use—whether customer databases, cloud platforms, or SaaS tools. You control your application code, so you need a scalable approach that doesn't force you to build custom integrations for every data source.

Data Source Vendors & Enterprises with Custom Data

Your challenge: You have a data source (custom database, proprietary system, internal application) that's valuable, and you want users to access it through their favorite BI, analytics, and ETL tools. Those third-party applications are outside your control—you can't modify Tableau or Power BI. You need a standards-based connector that these tools already know how to use.

Both groups face the same fundamental question: Should we build our own connectivity solution, or buy one?

The Build Option: What It Really Costs

When teams consider building their own data connectivity, they're typically evaluating one of two approaches:

Building Fully Custom Integrations (Application Vendors Only)

Some application vendors build proprietary integrations specific to their application. This gives complete control but comes at a steep price: significant development costs, constant maintenance with every change made by the data source, and exponentially growing complexity with each new data source. Every hour spent on connectivity is an hour not spent on your core product.

Building Standards-Based ODBC/JDBC Drivers From Scratch

This approach is appropriate for data source vendors needing a driver for others to access their data source as well for application vendors or Enterprises that need custom logic when accessing a data source.

This requires deep expertise—not just in your data source, but in the intricacies of ODBC and JDBC standards themselves.

The Real Costs of Building

Financial investment:

• 12-18 months of developer time (often more)

• Training costs for ODBC/JDBC expertise

• Ongoing maintenance burden as changes are made in the data source

• Lost opportunity costs on core product features

Hidden risks:

• High expertise gap in most development teams

• Significant risk of non-functional final product

• Delays causing missed deals and market opportunities

• Project failure rates significantly higher than buying

Real-World Example: The $1M Learning Curve

A software company invested a full year training developers and building a custom ODBC driver. They focused on security, scalability, and performance—all the right things.

But when customers tried using it with third-party applications, critical gaps emerged. The driver couldn't support all the SQL queries generated by real-world applications, making it unusable for actual customer workflows.

After a year of development with experienced developers, they came to Simba. We built a production-ready ODBC driver that gave them the reliability, performance, and compatibility they needed.

The lesson: Building robust connectors demands expertise most teams simply don't have. That expertise gap doesn't just slow timelines—it can result in a connector that doesn't work.

The Buy Option: Three Ways Simba Accelerates Your Success

Instead of building from scratch, Simba offers three paths depending on your specific needs. Each eliminates the massive learning curve and risk while getting you to market faster.

Option 1: Plug-and-Play Connectors (Off-the-Shelf)

Best for: Application vendors needing access to popular data sources | Data source vendors whose source Simba already supports

Simba offers plug-and-play ODBC and JDBC drivers for the most popular data sources and applications. This is often the fastest, most cost-effective path to market.

For application vendors: Write standards-based ODBC/JDBC code into your application once. Then purchase and distribute Simba drivers to instantly connect to data sources. Your users get seamless access without you building each integration from scratch.

For data source vendors: If Simba already offers a connector for your data source, license it rather than building your own.

What You Get:

✓ Instant access to production-ready connectors ✓ Up to 45% cost savings vs. building ✓ 67% reduction in project failure risk ✓ Enterprise-grade security and authentication (Kerberos, OAuth, FIPS) ✓ Real-time connectivity with no data extraction ✓ Trusted reliability across thousands of global deployments ✓ Same code connects to multiple data sources ✓ Free your team to focus on core product innovation

How It Integrates Into Your Architecture

Imagine your application is live with native support for some data sources, but users need access to sources you don't yet support.

If your application supports ODBC or JDBC, you don't need to rebuild anything. Just plug in the appropriate Simba driver and instantly extend connectivity to new data sources—with enterprise-grade security, robust performance, full SQL support, and compliance with ODBC/JDBC specifications built in.

Option 2: Simba SDK (Build Your Own with Our Framework)

Best for: Data source vendors needing custom connectors | Application vendors or Enterprises requiring highly customized behavior

If Simba doesn't already offer a connector for your specific data source, or if you need customization beyond what off-the-shelf drivers provide, Simba SDK accelerates your development while dramatically reducing risk.

Rather than building from scratch, you leverage Simba's proven framework that's been battle-tested across thousands of deployments. You focus on customizing the data store interface to match your specific source, while the standards-based layer (ODBC, JDBC, ADO.NET, OLEDB) comes built in.

What You Get:

✓ Comprehensive driver framework and any updates—not starting from scratch ✓ Dramatically reduced risk vs. building completely custom ✓ Enterprise-grade features built in (authentication, security, compliance) ✓ Full control over customization and optimization ✓ Leading BI tools already familiar with Simba's interface behavior ✓ Faster development than building from scratch ✓ Standardized SQL access enabling seamless integration

Why This Accelerates Development

When you build a new driver using the SDK, most leading BI and analytics applications already know how to work with it seamlessly. The application treats your new connector like other widely used Simba connectors—meaning smooth integration without extensive compatibility testing.

The trade-off: You still need development resources and technical expertise. Ongoing maintenance of your code remains your responsibility. But you've eliminated the massive ODBC/JDBC learning curve and the risk of a non-functional driver - plus you get the benefit of any updates Simba makes to the core SDK.

Option 3: Managed Services (We Build It For You)

Best for: Data source vendors without internal resources | Enterprises with custom internal data | Any team wanting fastest time-to-market

Partner with Simba to build your custom connector. We handle the entire development process, delivering a production-ready, enterprise-grade driver optimized for the BI, analytics, and ETL platforms your customers rely on.

This is often the fastest path when Simba doesn't already offer a connector for your data source. You get all the benefits of a custom-built connector without investing internal development resources or slowing down your product roadmap.

What You Get:

✓ Production-ready connector without internal resource investment ✓ Deep connectivity expertise—we've solved countless challenges ✓ Reliable, standard-compliant connector delivered faster with less risk ✓ Accelerated time to market while focusing on core product ✓ Seamless integration into applications customers already use ✓ Ongoing support, maintenance, and enhancement available ✓ Eliminate the learning curve entirely

The Partnership Model

We don't just build your connector and walk away. Simba Managed Services means we continue to support, maintain, and enhance your connector over time. You get faster updates, certified compatibility, continuous optimization, and peace of mind—leaving connectivity in expert hands so your team stays focused on what you do best.

The trade-off: Initial investment in custom development and coordination with an external partner. Development timeline depends on project scope and complexity.

Making Your Decision: Build or Buy?

When Building Might Make Sense:

• You have deep in-house expertise in ODBC/JDBC standards (rare)

• Connectivity IS your core competency and competitive differentiator

• You're willing to accept 67% higher project failure risk

• You can dedicate 12-18+ months of developer time

• You're prepared for the ongoing maintenance burden

When Buying Makes More Sense:

• You need faster time to market (most organizations)

• You want to reduce costs by up to 45%

• You want to cut project failure risk by 67%

• Your team should focus on core product innovation

• You need enterprise-grade security and compliance built in

• You want proven reliability across thousands of deployments

Questions to Ask:

For Application Vendors:

• How many data sources do we need to support today? In the future?

• Can we write ODBC/JDBC code once and leverage multiple drivers?

• Do we have the expertise to build/maintain custom integrations?

• What's the opportunity cost of pulling developers from core features?

• What is the opportunity cost of a longer project if we build it ourselves?

For Data Source Vendors & Enterprises:

• Does Simba already offer a connector we can license?

• Do we have the internal resources to build with the SDK?

• Would partnering with Simba get us to market faster?

• What is the opportunity cost of a longer project if we build it ourselves?

• Can we handle ongoing maintenance, updates, and API changes?

Next Steps: Accelerate Your Data Connectivity Strategy

Whether you're considering Simba's plug-and-play drivers, building with our SDK, or partnering with us for managed services, we're here to help you choose the right path.

Ready to explore your options? Explore our full solution portfolio and learn more about Simba