Informatica Perspectives

Good architecture is the foundation required for agile systems that are responsive to business needs. We see that with SOA, which has been missing a vital piece of its architectural approach – from the data. Since it came about in its current form in the early-to-mid 2000s, service-orientation (mainly focused on applications) has existed in a separate world from data management.

Problem is, an SOA-enabled infrastructure with bad data flowing through it can be useless and even dangerous. One commentator even compared SOA to a mosquito that can deliver payloads of bad data (”viral data”) at lightning speed all across the enterprise — pandemic style — before it can be stopped. [Read more]

No question about it, we face an information tsunami. And many organizations do not yet have a coherent strategy to deal with all the new data that is surging their enterprises. Worse yet, when applications fail or slow down, they attempt to fix the problem by throwing more hardware at it – rather than dealing with the root cause of the issue – too much data. Most organizations are only just beginning to take the necessary steps to address these challenges and keep massive amounts of data from overwhelming their enterprise applications.

As part of my work with Unisphere Research/Information Today Inc., I recently had the opportunity to team with Informatica's Application ILM team to develop and publish a survey that explored ILM awareness and implementations among 277 managers and professionals affiliated with the Oracle Applications Users Group (OAUG).  (Full survey report available for download here.) [Read more]

Time and time again, technology is proving itself to be an enabler of both organizational and personal transformation. Initiatives such as service oriented architecture, cloud and pervasive analytics are opening up new possibilities and opportunities for growth.

More than anything, SOA, cloud and analytics are paving the way for the composite or loosely coupled company - which may be an entity that delivers solutions to customers via an aggregation of third-party services, provided on an on-demand basis to meet customer demands. Most of these services will be passed through as cloud-based services, both from within the enterprise and from outside.

The first phase of the Informatica Marketplace, which opens up a 52,000-member-strong community of buyers and sellers to share and leverage data integration solutions, is a great example of this emerging trend. [Read more]

Lately, we've had a great deal of discussion here at the Perspectives community over the emerging role of data services within a service-oriented architecture (SOA) context.

At the end of October 2009, I had the honor of joining a group of thought leaders and industry experts at the SOA Symposium in Rotterdam to sit down and worked to clear the air, once and for all, as to what it means to service-orient a system, and arrive at a consensus as to what SOA should mean to organizations. The result was a document called the "SOA Manifesto". [Read more]

Is data architect a role that's interchangeable with enterprise architect? Many observers see the two roles are overlapping to some degree. However, perhaps it’s time that data architecture be recognized for having a distinct role in today's enterprises.

With the rise of service oriented architecture and distributed computing, enterprise architects have been emerging as key players in their organizations – assuring that applications and systems are designed within a coherent framework and follow a roadmap designed with the business in mind. Now, the same discipline needs to apply to an enterprise's data resources. [Read more]

It looks like we're finally climbing out of the economic crisis that tested the mettle of many companies over the past couple of years. However, expect plenty more storms in the months and years ahead – our rough-and-tumble economy may finally start to resume growth, but rough and tumble will remain the norm. The best way to weather the current and future storms is by becoming an analytics-driven organization – from top to bottom.

Claudia Imhoff, a highly regarded proponent of business intelligence and data warehousing, recently conducted a series of Webcasts over at the TDWI site that contemplated the role of BI and analytics to get organizations through the tough times.  [Read more]

The year 2009 – and the first decade of the 21st century – is drawing to a close, and what a time it's been.

The economy was buffeted around by the financial crisis, companies tightened their spending, and cuts hit hard and fast. But there has also been a deepening realization that the secret to success in this new environment wasn't to batten down the hatches and cut away, but rather, to run businesses smarter. More companies learned that to forge ahead, they needed to better leverage both their human and technology resources – employing smarter data strategies, including business intelligence and analytics.

The year ahead promises more of the same. Here are some up-and-coming trends that will shape the data management space in the year 2010: [Read more]

A difficult economy creates plenty of fear, uncertainty, and frustration within enterprises. Budgets get slashed, projects get put on hold, and overworked employees get stretched to the limits. Another victim of the recent downturn was data security efforts, a new survey shows. [Read more]

For years, organizations have been relying on strategies such as enterprise application integration to streamline and automate business processes from disparate silos and systems. However, there's a large gaping hole in the capabilities EAI – and its successor, enterprise service buses – can deliver. Current middleware strategies fall short in addressing data integration and data quality issues – and this is costing organizations. [Read more]

Enterprise data integration is often brushed over in projects involving approaches such as enterprise application integration (EAI) or service-oriented architecture (SOA).

People who attempt to manage data within these types of initiatives often find themselves in hot water: Data issues are very complex — and typically greatly underestimated — and EAI and SOA-based approaches just aren't up to the task. Successful data integration requires finding the right tool for the job.

This October 1st (at high noon Eastern Time), I have the pleasure of moderating an Informatica-sponsored Webinar, hosted by ebizQ, featuring Dave Linthicum, CEO of the Linthicum Group and one of the world’s leading authorities on SOA, Cloud, and application and data integration.

Dave will take the mystery out of data integration, providing his recommendations for the best implementation approaches and technologies. He will also provide a method for understanding your own data integration requirements, review existing solution patterns, and discuss the technology that is available today to make sure you can get your job done.

Topics to be discussed include emerging data integration patterns; limitations of existing data integration approaches; approaching SOA with "A"rchitecture; Informatica’s Data Services; and a plan of action.

Dave has been contributing his insights here at the Informatica Perspectives community, with posts on bringing enterprise data integration into SOA domains.

Dave’s latest book, Cloud Computing and SOA Convergence in Your Enterprise: A Step-by-Step Guide, connects the dots between SOA and cloud, and is scheduled for released in October.

Tune into the Webinar on October 1st, at noon Eastern Time, to learn more about data integration.