This week, I attended a CIO conference in Philadelphia, for the first time in a couple of years. It was really good to hear them talk about their experiences, goals and issues, and to talk with some of them one on one. It spurred a bunch of new thoughts, which I’ll be writing about in a series of upcoming blogs. This first posting is on CIOs playing offense.
In my last posting, I talked about the Dr. Jekyll/Mr. Hyde nature of data—data being both an asset and a liability. The CIOs talked about playing offense vs. defense. They really wanted to be engaged with business transformation and growth initiatives. But many were saddled with cumbersome, expensive IT environments that sucked up 90% of their IT spend and resources just to “keep the lights on”. In other words, they were spending almost all their time and energy playing defense. [Read more]
Over the last few blogs, we have stepped through a project to implement Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) on corporate databases. First, we evaluated the target databases, then we determined the Business Objects and assigned retention periods to the data – including both Legal and Operational requirements. Now that we are ready to start applying the retention policies and deleting data, it is a good idea to set up an archive database as an intermediate repository for business objects classified as legal records. [Read more]
I am very fortunate to have a CIO role that extends beyond the traditional responsibilities of IT. Part of my role includes the strategy and implementation of the recently launched Informatica Marketplace.
The Informatica Marketplace has generated a lot of buzz with our customers and partners. Last week while I was presenting at the Pacific Crest Annual Cloud Computing Conference I heard the excitement about our new offering from many of the attendees. Mostly, people appreciated our continued thought leadership and commitment to providing an open platform to host solutions for data integration, data quality and data management. And yes, it is an open platform to host solutions that not only support Informatica, but other vendors too - even competitors. Our fundamental belief is that the hand of free enterprise will ultimately win, so we are willing to provide an open platform to do so.
Here are a few questions I've heard and answered over the last few weeks: [Read more]
Today Informatica announced that Bay & Bay Transportation has used Informatica Cloud Services to achieve a six month project payback on their total Salesforce.com investment and a 900 percent return on their critical data integration project.
Bay & Bay is using the turnkey, on-demand Informatica Cloud Services to provide robust, bi-directional synchronization between its logistics management databases and applications with Salesforce CRM. Using an intuitive web based integration wizard, the company automatically maps source and target fields, configures powerful data transformations, and sets automated synchronization schedules. And being a true multi-tenant cloud-based service, there is no hardware, software, or infrastructure for them to install, manage, or maintain.
This is the last of the Data as an Asset series and what better way to wrap up the theme than with a view to the future. As stated by Thomas Redman, author of Data Driven, “Your company's data is a key business asset, and you need to manage it aggressively and professionally.” The future vision then is around Agile Data-Driven Enterprises.[Read more]
Two of the more common questions that arise when trying to effectively deploy Data Governance are; "Where do I begin?" and "What business areas should I include?". If you start too narrowly, the value and credibility of the effort is questioned. Be too aggressive, and delivery risk and scalability become a problem. As usual, success comes down to defining and managing scope. However, more times than not it is prudent to err on the small side, and here's why… [Read more]
2009 was a banner year for Informatica's OEM business. We grew the number of ISVs (Software Companies), BPOs (Business Process Outsourcers) and SaaS/Cloud providers who use the Informatica platform as part of/with their offerings by 24 new partners. What was really interesting throughout 2009 was the variety of use cases across the spectrum of new partners addressed by various platform capabilities. You can read about this breadth and more details on specific examples in "2009 OEM Momentum".
For software, application or service providers faced with data acquisition, data conversion, data quality, data exchange, or other related challenges in the cloud or on premise, using the Informatica platform can alleviate that pain and allow them to focus on their core business.
With the delivery of Informatica 9 and the acquisition of Siperian, I expect that variety and growth to continue in 2010!
A key benefit of implementing an Application Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) project is to reduce the amount of structured data in the data center. Application ILM is a combination of a strategy and process that assesses information based on its business value and aligns the technology it resides on. This process assures that the data center does not over allocate IT resources if the business doesn’t need it. And likewise, if the business can provide detailed requirements for what it needs for its data, the IT department has a better idea of its technology forecasting needs. Application ILM is a capacity planner’s friend.
The only way for HealthDetail to hold or increase margins was to think differently. The company’s provider directory business supplies accurate and compliant healthcare directories for Medicaid and other health insurers. The problem was that the volume of data coming in and the breadth of different sources it was derived from threatened to overwhelm the existing database. HealthDetail could either invest in dedicated database administration resources, at great expense, or consider a more innovative solution: cloud-based data integration.
One aspect of an Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) project that often gets overlooked is deleting data. Once information has reached the end of its usefulness, delete it. It is the single-most cost effective task you can execute on an ILM project. If you don’t have the data, you don’t have to store it, manage it, or worry about it getting into the wrong hands. Delete it.
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This week, I attended a CIO conference in Philadelphia, for the first time in a couple of years. It was really good to hear them talk about their experiences, goals and issues, and to talk with some of them one on one. It spurred a bunch of new thoughts, which I’ll be writing about in a series of upcoming blogs. This first posting is on CIOs playing offense.
Over the last few blogs, we have stepped through a project to implement Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) on corporate databases. First, we evaluated the target databases, then we determined the Business Objects and assigned retention periods to the data – including both Legal and Operational requirements. Now that we are ready to start applying the retention policies and deleting data, it is a good idea to set up an archive database as an intermediate repository for business objects classified as legal records.
I am very fortunate to have a CIO role that extends beyond the traditional responsibilities of IT. Part of my role includes the strategy and implementation of the recently launched 
Today 
This is the last of the Data as an Asset series and what better way to wrap up the theme than with a view to the future. As stated by Thomas Redman, author of Data Driven, “Your company's data is a key business asset, and you need to manage it aggressively and professionally.” The future vision then is around Agile Data-Driven Enterprises. 
Two of the more common questions that arise when trying to effectively deploy Data Governance are; "Where do I begin?" and "What business areas should I include?". If you start too narrowly, the value and credibility of the effort is questioned. Be too aggressive, and delivery risk and scalability become a problem. As usual, success comes down to defining and managing scope. However, more times than not it is prudent to err on the small side, and here's why… 
2009 was a banner year for Informatica's OEM business. We grew the number of ISVs (Software Companies), BPOs (Business Process Outsourcers) and SaaS/Cloud providers who use the Informatica platform as part of/with their offerings by 24 new partners. What was really interesting throughout 2009 was the variety of use cases across the spectrum of new partners addressed by various platform capabilities. You can read about this breadth and more details on specific examples in "
