Monthly Archives: August 2011
Four Canonical Techniques That Really Work (Or Not)
Several years ago I had the fortunate opportunity to participate in a post-mortem study of a $100 million dollar project failure. No one likes to be associated with a project failure, but in this case it was fortunate since the size of the write-off was large enough that it forced the team to take a very hard look at root causes and not just do a cursory analysis. As a result we finally got to the heart of a challenge that has been plaguing data architects and designers for 20 years – how to effectively use canonical data models. (more…)
Big Data Unleashed Part 6: Dream Big When Cloud Meets Big Data
Darren Cunningham of Informatica described a pivotal transition happening in an enterprise on Sandhill.com – From Cloud Skeptical to Cloud Curious to Cloud First. “For most people working in IT organizations today, cloud computing is very much the here and now.” But it wasn’t too long ago in most organizations that cloud computing was the point of contention: business could not wait for IT to deliver what they needed so they tried to get up and running faster by resorting to cloud implementations. Faster and cheaper was the king. Many IT organizations were in a state of turmoil about how to respond to this possibility of cloud computing (and specifically software as a service (SaaS) applications, potentially making their jobs irrelevant. With increasing economic pressures to content with, CIOs were asked to explain what cloud means to their organizations and present their plans to outsource applications, platforms and infrastructure to cloud providers. Meanwhile, business executives were thinking that they could access better, cheaper, and more reliable services via cloud applications. (more…)
Bad Data Is Criminal
Reading a recent central statistical office report showing that burglaries, theft and fraud have increased in the last quarter reminded me of a how Humberside police use data and the information they extract from it to help fight crime.
It is easy to underestimate how tenacious the modern criminal can be in avoiding attention and capture by authorities, they are not motivated to provide accurate information when questioned! Moreover, any inconsistency amongst police departments or personnel in the way in which the data was entered could add to data quality problems, inadvertently aiding the criminal. (more…)
Using Metadata To Manage Data Integration Change
Last week, a long-time Informatica customer told me about how he is managing change in his data integration environment on a truly massive scale. The story he told reminded me of someone doing a heart transplant on themself while running a marathon. … blindfolded.
- First, he is delivering several innovative new applications. One to improve customer service. Another, proactively monitors operational performance and suggests where the business needs to invest more to improve their capacity and service levels.
- Next, he is rolling out new systems that will collect customer sentiment analysis from social media sources (Big Data) and integrate that with ongoing campaigns and company planning. (more…)
Less Is More – Why Data Quality Means Less Work For Marketing
The common mantra recently in IT has been the need to ‘do more with less’ and it is very true when it comes to lowering IT budgets and resources to support even more priorities. However in the world of reaching out to your customers ‘less is more’ may be more apt. Personally speaking, I get too many emails that are irrelevant to my work focus or personal interests. I know that if they were more relevant to me it is far more likely that I would take more interest in mails from that source in the future. The days of sending out emails to the full customer database are over. The tools are there to provide far more relevant information to enable more intelligent, timely campaigns. (more…)
The Innovation Premium
Recently I ran across an article from INSEAD (self-described as “The Business School for the World”), articulating a concept that they call “The Innovation Premium.” Essentially, it is “the premium the stock market gives a company because investors expect it to launch new offerings and enter new markets.” This is documented in detail in their recently published book, “The Innovator’s DNA”, co-authored with Clayton Christensen, noted professor and author of two previous books on innovation: “The Innovator’s Dilemma” and “The Innovator’s Solution.” (more…)
Informatica Ultra Messaging Software Supports Capital Markets Reforms
As a leader in providing enterprise software to the capital markets industry, Informatica is well aware of the technological impact of current financial reforms on many segments of that industry. To help its customers fully understand this impact, Informatica commissioned a study by the TABB Group to investigate the ramifications of key new regulations in the United States and Europe on company IT infrastructures, with a specific focus on the OTC derivatives market (also known as the swaps market).
The findings of this study have been published in a TABB Group report entitled “Technology and Financial Reform: Data, Derivatives and Decision Making”, which highlights the critical requirement for a robust messaging architecture within the required new IT infrastructure. (more…)
Single Views Of The Customer
In my previous post, I outlined some of the underlying semantic challenges associated with the use of a terminology that historically lacks a clear definition, using the term “customer” as the example. Yet some data management {analysts, professionals, vendors, users} often muddy the waters when considering the need for a “single view of the customer.”
Hadoop Extends Data Architectures: Part 3 In Hadoop Series
The list and diversity of NoSQL, “NewSQL”, cloud, grid, and other data architecture options seem to grow every year.
The Harry Potter books and movies were a particularly popular inspiration for project names. For example, at LinkedIn, to empower features such as “People You May Know” and “Jobs You May Be Interested In”, LinkedIn uses Hadoop together with an Azkaban batch workflow scheduler and Voldemort key-value store. We’ll see if the Twilight series has a similar impact on project names.
Who’s Fault Is It If Your Integration Factory Is Not Performing?
The CIO of GT Inc. (the fictitious name of a real company) met with his middleware vendor rep to deliver some depressing news.
“We established an outsourced factory delivery model two years ago using the productivity tools that you sold us and we made it our enterprise standard. The factory results however, are discouraging use of your integration platform. Projects are not getting approved by the business because of high costs, or else project teams are working around the standard and building hand-coded solutions. Did I make a mistake in buying your software?” (more…)
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