Information Management

Hadoop and MapReduce

2012-01-31T09:54:00.000-06:00

Hadoop and MapReduce continue to pick up steam and generate "noise" in periodicals and online publications. As an Information Management Architect I get asked about the value of Hadoop and the impact to existing information and architecture roadmaps.

As such, a short entry to clarify the purpose of Hadoop, which I view as a complementary rather than a competing solution (assuming there is a majority of structured data to be managed) to addressing the need for highly distributed parallel cloud computing for unstructured and structured data in high volumes requiring fast performance. Thus the Yahoo, Facebook, and Google's of the world success stories and implementations.

Some of the drawbacks as of the day of this post include open-source components maturity & support (HDFS, HBASE, MapReduce, PIG, HIVE, AVRO, SQOOP, Chukwa, and Zookeeper), security, backup/recovery, integration to other systems, weak consistency, specialized resource skills/cost, and existing resource skills retraining.

Based on the expanding market, many of the enterprise Business Intelligence vendors (Informatica, SAP, etc..) are building plug-ins to ensure support of Hadoop in order to protect and expand their client base.

ITIL in 30 days!

2010-11-18T14:42:00.002-06:00

The month of November turned out to be a small detour from Information Management activities and very much in the weeds of IT governance as I lead the definition of an ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) initiative for my current client. Insane to think that anyone can do justice to, and actually implement ITIL in 30 days, right? My last run-in with ITIL at Cisco was as large of an initiative as they come.

Well, truth be told the current organization, much smaller in size, was already on board with ITIL as the preferred way to manage IT processes and practices. Furthermore, the initiative excluded the CMDB / technology implementation component. So in effect, we tackled IT governance under the ITIL framework and dug into documenting policies, processes, people (roles & responsibilities), and physical assets under management....on a shoestring. With a top down approach, tackling breadth first and depth as applicable, bi-weekly brainstorming and artifact review sessions, and management support of the initiative, we were able to create the executive overview, framework, documents, process charts, policies, RACIs, and publish the ITIL governance solution for corporate consumption…yes, within 30 days!

More emphasis (depth) was placed on Service Support (Incident Management & Service Desk, Problem Management, Change Management, Release & Deployment Management, Asset & Configuration Management) as well as Security Management, while Service Delivery (Service Level Management, Availability Management, Capacity Management, IT Financial Management, and IT Service Continuity Management) was framed so that internal resources can continue decomposition of processes, policies and responsibilities, without the need for help from outside consultants. To be fair, there is always more work that can be done, but implementing a structure, in quick fashion, that allows a client to continue execution independently is invaluable and very cost effective.

Now, ITIL might initially seem quite far from Architecture and Information Management; the heavy governance MDM initiatives however, overlap many of the same areas of interest that must be tackled (policy, procedures, roles, ownership, management support, executive sponsorship, metrics and reporting, knowledge management, etc...). Time well spend which should translate to cost savings due to reduction of issues and rework, as well as improved efficiency of operations; and all the "-ility" benefits of Service Delivery that come with ITIL.

It seems like December might include some time off to hit the slopes or visit Chicago with the family, so next entry will most likely be next year and who knows on what….the exciting life of consulting!

SQL Server 2008 Master Data Services

2010-03-04T23:34:00.007-06:00

Last week I installed SQL Server 2008 Enterprise R2 MDS customer, product, and chart of accounts sample domain models on a virtual x64 Windows Server 2008 sandbox. The same virtual houses Report Server for 2008 with Report Builder 3.0 and SQL Server 2005 with Report Services as well. Install was completed in minutes with no issues. Coincidentally, Report Builder 3.0 has had a make-over and seems more modular and flexible at first pass. Will be looking into report model migration since we are currently using Report Builder 2.0 at this client.

MDS did not strike me as the most intuitive tool to work with, and I did not find as much breadth as I would like. Jury is still out though, since this is the first release since the purchase of this product by Microsoft and I only had a limited amount of time to devote to this initial evaluation task. If anyone out there has success stories to share on MDS shoot me a note/link.

Time for zzzz's.

IBM to buy Initiate Systems

2010-02-03T12:03:00.005-06:00

http://news.cnet.com/8301-27083_3-10446675-247.html

One more MDM consolidation. It will be interesting to see how MDM product lines get merged at IBM

Field Asset Services (FAS)

2009-09-21T16:41:00.004-05:00

So the family is back from the annual Greek vacation (August) all happy and rejuvenated. I have started a short-term project with Field Asset Services (FAS) executing an Information Management Assessment which includes Master Data Management & Data Warehousing as well as helping out with the overall definition of the Enterprise Architecture Roadmap. Fun project and many familiar faces from prior project work.

Multidomain MDM for Business Success

2009-07-20T08:28:00.005-05:00

http://www.information-management.com/specialreports/2009_153/mdm_master_data_management_analytics_manufacturing_marketing-10015747-1.html

Nice article by Marty Moseley of Initiate Systems on Multidomain MDM. The article provides real world examples and explains how multi-domain MDM adds value. I am pleased we are seeing more emphasis on multi-domain by the product vendors (Initiate has been a leader in the CDI space for a while now).

One comment on the following statement from the article:

"All data that flows through an enterprise can be categorized into six different types: who, what, when, where, how and why. Master data is about who, what, when and where. ...."

I would extend the definition of master data to include "how" and maybe "why". And to be clear I am still talking about entity and not transactional data. I view relations (intersections) across MDM domains which define the "how" as master data as well. Here are a few examples:

Hierarchies, define how like master data relates
Entitlements, define how customers and products relate
Pricing, defines how customers, products, and locations relate

I need to chew a little more on the classification of "why" as master data since not many real world examples of such master data does jumps out at me right away. Strategic business planning and metrics come to mind though, where information is very important from the executive and management levels through to the individual contributors, which I would make the case for inclusion as master data as well.

Dell

2009-07-13T09:00:00.002-05:00

I was hired as a Senior MDM Consultant/Architect by Dell in late 2008 under the Information Management & Architecture group to provide MDM expertise and consulting services. Under confidentiality and non-disclosure I am unable to provide any details about my engagement which completed in July of 2009 (yes, time again for the annual trip to Greece). What I can do is provide a summary of references I found while searching Google which provide the reader potentially relevant landscape information through existing public information.

September 2007 - a reference from Dell on Financial MDM initiative and the use of SOA on the Oracle site. http://www.oracle.com/appserver/business-intelligence/docs/financial-mdm-at-dell.pdf

2008 – a reference on The MDM Institute (Aaron Zornes) showing Dell as a customer of Initiate Systems.
http://www.tcdii.com/initiatesystemsidentityhub.html

December 2008 - a reference on Dell’s CDI initiative from the Gartner MDM Summit presented by John Miller and summarized by Jill Dyche http://www.beyenetwork.be/blogs/dyche/archives/2008/12/dell_does_mdm_r.php

June 2009 - a reference from Oracle in their MDM Executive brief showing Dell as a client. http://www.oracle.com/master-data-management/master-data-management-executive-brief.pdf

June 2009 – multiple recruiting site references for talent acquisition around Master Data Management Enablement and Data Services utilizing AquaLogic Service Bus - ALSB (now: Oracle Service Bus - OSB) and Aqualogic Data Services Platform - ALDSP (now: Oracle Data Services Integrator - ODSI)
http://jobs.monsterindia.com/details/6991360.html http://jobs.monsterindia.com/details/7103559.html?sig=js-1-e8a98fc9f01d868eec37e666f84bf6cf-1 http://www.recruit.net/jobs/1243504796491/ http://www.careerenclave.com/jobs/index.php?topic=43392.msg%msg_id%

I thank everyone at Dell for the project opportunity and worthwhile experience. Our paths might cross again in the future since the Austin MDM market is not THAT large ;-).

Multi-Domain MDM

2009-07-01T10:52:00.010-05:00

Ok, ok, it is really the same thing... Multi-Domain MDM and Multi-Entity MDM. So much maturing terminology...I will get to the point.

If you attended conferences on MDM since late 2008, you might have noticed that most product vendors either already support (say they support) or are moving towards supporting multi-entity MDM. To be honest, very few vendors are close to mature multi-entity MDM as of early 2009; the direction however is clear. Most engagements I have worked on to-date involved multiple MDM domains and I foresee this continuing in the future. With multiple domains comes the need for MDM enablement which was introduced in a prior blog. Since MDM enablement involves commonalities across domains, there is more emphasis and need for enablement under the centralized MDM style / architectural pattern.

Which reminds me, there has been a slight change of terminology on MDM architectural styles as presented by Gartner on the November 2008 MDM conference. The table below shows the change (green replacing red) and consolidates/aligns the Gartner terms to the ones from IBM's and my first article on MDM which can be found under the links area.

(end of parenthesis)

Getting back to Multi-Entity MDM, I believe this is a natural evolution of maturity and would expect (in alignment with other MDM experts) to see not only vendors and implementations, but also governance and assets consolidation into more homogeneous solutions across domains in the future. Here are a few selected quotes on market trends from MDM experts, providing insight to the future direction of multi-entity MDM.

"Multi-style MDM to increase.Through 2009 and 2010, Global 5000 enterprises will broaden their MDM business initiatives from single-use case, single entity to multi-style, multi-entity uses"
Aaron Zornes, founder and chief research officer, MDM Institute.

"I have seen positive momentum towards multi-data-domain operational MDM solutions."
Rob Karel, MDM analyst, Forrester.

"By 2012, more than 65% of Global 2000 organizations will deploy two or more domain-specific, MDM-supporting technologies that start out as specific business requirements but become part of a larger MDM initiative."
Andrew White, Research VP, Gartner Inc.

Multi-Entity MDM Enablement

2009-06-17T09:57:00.015-05:00

As a pre-requisite to successful (efficient and effective) multi-entity MDM solutions, I offer the term “MDM Enablement” and definition below:

The charter of MDM enablement is to identify common assets (people, information, processes, practices, policies, services, tools and technologies) across MDM domains (customer, product, service, employee), and to promote standardization and harmonization of such assets in order to maximize re-use, efficiency, effectiveness and value to the organization.

MDM enablement is sub-divided into logical groupings powered by people & groups who provide common processes & practices through the use of standardized tools & technology. Sample MDM enabler areas are depicted in the diagram below.

MDM enablement has been proven to reduce costs through asset re-use and IT simplification. Some examples of savings include: reduced product licensing, standardized integration, legacy system retirement, infrastructure simplification, streamlined development & support, simplified governance, and reduced training costs. (An article on MDM Enablement is currently in the works).

Pfizer

2009-06-16T21:38:00.005-05:00

I found this reference (http://blogs.zdnet.com/service-oriented/?p=998 ) on the Pfizer success story of SOA & MDM by Joe McKendrick in his "SOA's role in master data Management explained" entry from back in November of 2007. Pfizer's efforts have truly been on the leading edge in terms of tackling SOA & MDM concurrently. I had the opportunity to participate in this effort in 2007 and manage the definition of the SOA & MDM intersection (the Data Services Layer) across the customer, product and identity domains. Since then and through seeing other implementations, I came to truly appreciate Pfizer's decision to execute this multi-domain MDM solution on a single MDM Hub on the same infrastructure, and leveraging SOA as the primary enterprise data delivery mechanism. If it was not for my newborn son I might still be in Groton CT.

Blog Kick-off

2009-06-16T15:48:00.000-05:00

I have been postponing the creation of an MDM blog (and associated areas) for a while now. The time has finally come to start collecting all the articles, papers, links, and thoughts into a centralized area. In the next few weeks and months I will be adding content around MDM value, enablement, and metrics.