Data is a corporate asset. Yes, this is a much-bandied about term in modern management spheres. The fact of the matter is the modern business relies heavily on data. Data provides insight into business performance, operational efficiencies, as well as strategic direction. If utilised properly, it plays a pivotal role in making strategic and operational decisions.
Managing the varied data in an enterprise is no trivial matter. There is significant diversity in terms of the type of information and the technologies involved. Apart from diversity, there is duplication and fragmentation of data across the firm.
I would propose that Data Discovery Automation technologies provide a solution to manage many of the significant challenges (if not all) of data management across the enterprise.
Many large scale firms have recognised the strategic importance of data. While a number of firms have deployed modern data discovery and data visualisation tools, most have come around to realise that this does not quite solve the challenges of data management, data governance, data security, and having a “single source of the truth” that is used for data discovery.
Eckerson report: Governed Data Discovery
There is thus an instinctive realisation amongst firms and forward thinking IT managers that a solution could be the creation of governed and secure intermediate data stores that consolidate data from various sources, with governance applied on such stores. Such centralised data stores can become the “single source of the truth,” or the Data Discovery Hub, where core business data can be governed and documented prior to making it available to business users through data discovery tools.
The challenges of deploying such a solution though, can be quite daunting on a number of fronts.... time and cost of creation, adaptability to change, flexibility to incorporate new sources easily and speedily, time and cost of refining data quality.
This is where Data Discovery Automation comes into play. TimeXtender’s technology, with automation at its heart, radically reduces the time and cost of the design and build of data discovery hubs. The automation across design, build, operation and change management enables agile deployment and rapid adaptability to change. It reduces the total cost of ownership. TimeXtender is the engine that orchestrates the consolidation of source data from differing sources, provides automation tools for data governance and reconciliation, and furthermore automates the creation of models for end-user data discovery tools such as Qlik.
White paper by Barry Devlin: Data Discovery Automation
Automation is the key. Through the use of technologies such as TimeXtender, the business can properly govern the information used in data discovery. A governed, “single source of the truth” goes a long way in assuring the validity of the strategic insights gained from data discovery. This is when data truly becomes a corporate asset.
Additionally, read Dr. Barry Devlin’s free paper, Data Discovery Automation - Learning from the Warehouse Experience for additional information on this subject.
Note: This guest blog post was written by Bharat Adodra, Director at Macro Define Ltd. Bharat is a Senior Project Manager with extensive experience and a vast knowledge base in helping users bridge IT and Business.