Tag Archives: Gartner
Why The “Upside-Down” Approach Doesn’t Work For Multidomain MDM
OK, where were we… Oh right! Sorry for the interruption in blogging. We’ve all been busy getting acclimated to our new surroundings in Redwood Shores and getting to know our new colleagues in the Informatica family. The process has been really smooth and we’re all excited about continuing to move MDM forward backed by the Informatica brand.
Way back in December I promised a post on the differences between the application approach versus the platform approach for cross-industry, multidomain MDM use cases. So, let’s take up that subject to inaugurate the new Informatica MDM Blog. The impetus for the original blogpost was the claim, made in Gartner’s 2010 predictions for MDM, that the number of companies shopping for multidomain MDM solutions would increase in 2010. It’s a completely understandable prediction, and one that I agree with wholeheartedly. What I take issue with in the Gartner predictions, however, is the contention that no vendor has a comprehensive multidomain MDM technology that handles all different industry use cases and different data domains. (more…)
Cloud Integration: Wilford Brimley, The Achilles Heel And One Big Buzzkill
Recently Dave Linthicum has been writing more and more about the importance of data integration to cloud computing success. A few months ago he wrote about the integration challenges of cloud computing, which made me wonder if he was becoming the Wilford Brimley of the cloud reminding us all to eat our oatmeal. Earlier this month he referred to data integration as the “Achilles Heel” of cloud computing in a post which has led to some interesting comments and a few interesting articles. And finally last week he wrote about the cloud data integration buzzkill in a great InfoWorld post that outlined the common scenario where “cloud euphoria” is disrupted when these awful words are uttered once your first SaaS application is successfully implemented:
What about integrating the data back in the enterprise? How is our data in the cloud going to sync up with our other core enterprise systems?” (more…)
Key Learnings from Gartner MDM Summit
The Siperian team is back in the office after attending the Gartner MDM Summit in Los Angeles last week. As usual, it was a great event for picking up on the latest developments in the field, meeting the analysts who cover MDM, and hearing from the organizations and endusers in the field who are using MDM to resolve their business challenges.
The topic getting the most buzz at the Summit was the shift towards “multidomain MDM.” We heard this from both analysts and vendors, and we were pleased to hear Siperian mentioned frequently in presentations as a vendor that “knows how to do multidomain MDM.”
Of the delegates I interacted with, and there were 330 in attendance total, the consensus was that the analyst presentations and advanced use cases from firms with MDM implementations were real highlights. Among these were case studies presented by Siperian customers Cephalon and Johnson & Johnson. Johnson & Johnson was also highlighted as a past Gartner MDM Excellence Award winner.
Some general notes from the conference:
• Gartner expects the market for MDM to grow from $1.1 billion (in license revenue) in 2008 to $3 billion in 2013.
• North America is still the largest market for MDM (over 50%) followed by Europe (35%).
• IBM, SAP and Oracle control 40% of the MDM market, while specialists like Siperian control 30%.
• Analysts are saying that there’s a “land grab” on for multidomain MDM, but most vendors have yet to span master data province.
Siperian news from the conference:
• John Radcliffe presented the CDI magic quadrant and mentioned Siperian as a “good best-of-breed company.”
• Siperian was recognized as a “multidomain MDM” player in the analyst charts, and was also mentioned as one of the top 5 vendors that can handle customer data.
• Siperian was named a “company to watch” for product data.
• Siperian receives the 4th most inquiries from prospects behind SAP, Oracle, and IBM.
• As a platinum sponsor, Siperian had 4 customer sessions and an evening cocktail session as well. For everyone who attended our events: Thanks!
Master Data Management: Just Hype Or Truly Valuable?
Gartner released their “Hype Cycle for Application Architecture, 2009” last week. If you are not familiar with this report, it’s a great read. It tries to put into perspective from a productivity standpoint where different technologies are in reality, compared with the “hype”.
This year’s report again includes Master Data Management (MDM), and much to my surprise, Gartner put MDM in the “height of inflated expectations” category — the very peak of hype. Does that mean that MDM is not delivering on the promise? The short answer is, MDM does provide value. So what is Gartner getting at? (more…)
What Do Millennials Want? And When Do They Want It? (Answers: The World, And Now)
Generational bulges can have a profound impact on attitudes, culture, and opportunities as they move through organizations. I remember how Dr. Seymour Wolfbein, a business professor at my alma mater, Temple University, connected the dots between the advance of the hefty baby boom generation and management priorities, as members of this group crowded into organizations with their large numbers and new attitudes.
Now, baby boomers are the establishment, and their offspring, another large generation born between 1977 and 2001, is setting a new agenda for business — with profound implications for enterprise data management. (more…)
Advancing SOA and MDM — in Tandem
In a recent post, Informatica Perspectives colleague Dave Reed talks about the importance of a strong data integration and quality infrastructure to MDM efforts. Another important aspect of MDM is the powerful relationship between MDM and SOA.
This is not always an easy relationship; in fact, Gartner’s Andrew White recently opined that there is even fear among some companies with SOA efforts underway that adding MDM to the mix would be a form of “overkill.”
However, to reiterate what I said in a post a few months back, SOA and MDM need each other. SOA in and of itself holds little value to an organization unless it provides the capability to open up information to the enterprise. (more…)
Here’s An MDM Wheel – Don’t Reinvent It!
As organizations determine whether or not to make the investment in Master Data Management (MDM), concerns around being an early adopter and the “relative” maturity of respective MDM offerings are to be expected. Suitability and fit of the correct architecture and applicability to the domain and industry of the organization making the decision leads a long list of review criteria during the evaluation process of an MDM platform.
Fortunately many of the latest analyst reports, such as the Gartner Customer MDM Quadrant 2008 and Forrester CDI Wave 2008, provide a good review of vendors and their relative strengths and weaknesses as it pertains to fundamental MDM capabilities. Features such as data cleansing, data deduplication, Hierarchy management, security, data model and management to name a few form the basis of core functionality that have been identified as being critical to the success of deploying MDM solutions. While features and functions are important, the reality is that many of the early and ultimately successful MDM deployments suffered through trial and error, before eventually settling on the correct architecture, designs and business processes for their needs.
As MDM experiences evolve, these best practices and key artifacts of knowledge are often documented and presented at industry forums for the benefit of others who are interested in developing their own MDM initiatives. General computer software productivity preaches reuse as an approach to solving commonly-occurring software design problems. The concept of reuse has been well documented and leveraged in all aspects of software development and is commonly accepted as a means of delivering high quality software. In the same way, shouldn't the notion of pre-built Solution Components be used to illuminate the way to MDM solution success? My sense is that as MDM becomes more widely adopted; Solution components will eventually be readily available, offered for sale in an Exchange/Marketplace type environment or for general sharing and collaboration.
As the old adage goes, don't reinvent the (MDM) wheel!
‘Cloud Computing’ is Ready for Enterprise Prime Time, But…
There’s been no shortage of excitement about “cloud computing” – the idea that applications, databases and even entire data centers can be managed by someone else somewhere else, and be accessed online on an as-needed basis. Instead of maintaining complex software or systems that need constant maintenance and upgrades, a company could theoretically “rent” processing power, through the cloud, from service providers, only paying an incremental fee based on usage.
Major systems and applications vendors have announced cloud-computing initiatives, and leading analyst firm Gartner has named cloud computing – along with green IT and social-computing platforms – among technologies that are “poised to reach broad enterprise adoption in the next two to five years.” Cloud computing is also known as Software as a Service and on-demand computing.
However, while cloud computing hands off many of the aches and pains associated with systems and application development and management to someone else, this does not relieve enterprises of the requirements and responsibilities around effectively managing enterprise data. Many observers, in fact, are concerned about the implications of cloud computing on enterprise data management and integration, since much of the processing and storage of information shifts to outside providers.
For example, cloud computing – which everyone suddenly seems to want – puts new strains on enterprises and vendors alike. A new study from Saugatuck Technology states that users want SaaS throughout the enterprise, whether their enterprises are ready for it or not, and whether vendors are ready to deliver it or not. The study, based on interviews with 400 executives and 30 SaaS solution provider and independent software vendors, finds that while users are increasingly demanding and expecting SaaS versions of everything from email to ERP, they often don’t understand the technological and organizational resource constraints to enterprise-wide cloud computing.
And cloud computing does nothing to solve tricky data integration problems that companies may be wrestling with. Todd Biske, a practicing enterprise architect and former industry consultant, recently observed that cloud-based systems do not do the hard integration work – that’s still up to the enterprise. He put it well when he pointed out “if an organization chooses Salesforce.com CRM on demand instead of SAP or Oracle CRM deployed within their firewall, does anything really change? Yes, there’s no doubt that there are potential benefits as far as getting CRM up and running goes, but then what? In the enterprises I’ve worked with, the bulk of the projects were not about implementing some new vendor package. Some of that was always occurring, but there was plenty more that was about integration, enhancements, and other development activities.”
Will these integration issues dampen the enthusiasm around cloud computing? In my next post ‘Cloud Computing’ is Ready for Enterprise Prime Time, But… (Part 2), I talk to Informatica’s Chris Boorman and Ron Papas about how enterprises should handle integration issues.