Industry Briefs
This issue includes some observations about metadata
management and it's place in the BI food chain.
You may also be interested in my latest Data
Integration Advisor column in DM Review:
Software
Development Standards Enhance Your Data Warehouse
ROI.
- Rick
Sherman, Athena IT Solutions -
Metadata Might Matter?
Metadata management has been like Don Quixote
battling the windmills — a frustrating and
endless battle.
My metadata background has evolved from being
an area of expertise, to a specialty, then a hobby,
and now just an interest. Why the downward trend?
I guess I got tired of explaining the importance
of metadata – both to business and IT people
– and having the effort to implement it
sink to the bottom of their priority lists. And
that was in the ‘good’ times, when
companies were throwing money at high-tech projects!
During those good times the vendors, consulting
firms, and the business customers themselves just
wanted to get as many projects (and products)
up and running. Integration of those solutions
would come later… Years later many companies
have information stovepipes, inconsistent numbers
from the numerous solutions that they implemented,
and terabytes of data… but much less useful
information.
But there is some good news. Now the top ETL
— I mean data integration — companies
are saying the “M” word. That's right,
they're explaining how metadata benefits your
business and they are backing it up with products.
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Informatica introduced SuperGlue in
August and CEO Gaurav Dhillon has been on the interview
circuit explaining Informatica’s view of data
integration and metadata management. Ascential
Software has always stayed true to its data
integration focus and offers a very strong metadata
management capability across its Enterprise Integration
Suite.
Businesses need to provide financial transparency in
their dealing with their stockholders, customers, and
employees. Sarbanes-Oxley requires adherence to regulations
to reinforce this trend. In addition, there are other
industry-specific divers such as HIPAA that are impacting
business processes and the IT systems that support them.
All these business initiatives require IT systems that,
at the very least, can trace data and its transformation
into business analysis and reporting from its source
to published numbers.
Tracking the data movements and transformations is
a great first step, but more systemic changes that actually
manage the process from source to information consumption
not only provide true financial transparency, but also
improves data quality, timeliness, and responsiveness
to business changes.
The core infrastructure component of this endeavor
is metadata management. Companies have
been terrific at proliferating information silos over
the last decade. Now it is time to truly integrate that
information and produce the elusive “single version
of the truth.” It’s not just a "nice
to have," it's a necessity in today’s business
climate.
(Don't miss the next issue of Business Intelligence
Briefs! See www.athena-solutions.com
to subscribe.)
© 2004 Athena IT Solutions |
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