In a recent report from Gigaom Research, Lead Analyst Andrew Brust examines the challenge of fragmented organizational data and its impact on enterprise operations. Enterprises are seeking to harness their data efficiently and innovatively to gain a competitive edge, but technical breakthroughs must be matched by careful integration of data within analytics layers. The fragmentation and distribution of an organization's data, driven by cloud-based SaaS offerings and the proliferation of NoSQL databases and Big Data systems, has made integration work more difficult. However, Brust argues that a unified approach to connecting to, integrating, and querying data is necessary, and proposes that application programming interfaces (APIs) can play a key role in achieving this goal. By exploring the history of conventional APIs, their combination with the database metaphor, and their potential for scaling across multiple data sources, Brust aims to provide insights into the path forward for data-driven organizations and digital transformation.