by Angela Guess
Ash Parikh of Sys-Con Media recently wrote, “Data virtualization is definitely about agility… Agility in this context is about accelerating the time-to-delivery of new critical data and reports that the business needs and trusts. It is also about an architecture that is flexible to changes in underlying data sources, without impacting the consuming applications. It’s about doing data virtualization the right way so you can deliver new critical data and reports in days vs. months.”
He continues, “However, what about productivity? A discussion around agility cannot and must not exclude productivity. Productivity thus goes hand-in-hand with agility. Whether it is about the rate at which goods are produced or work is completed, or a measure of the efficiency of production, it’s about doing something well and effectively. This begs a deeper conversation around productivity, both as a capability as well as a benefit. However, looks like somebody forgot to talk about this – or, did they?”
Parikh goes on, “According to the 2011 TDWI BI Benchmark Report - ‘By a sizable margin, development and testing is the predominant activity for BI/DW teams, showing that initiatives to build and expand BI systems are under way across the industry. Nearly 53 percent of a team’s time is spent on development and testing, followed by maintenance and change management at 26 percent.’ If a majority of time is spent in development and testing, and if BI agility is the end goal, isn’t increased productivity absolutely critical?”
