by Angela Guess
A recent article on service oriented architecture (SOA), master data management (MDM), and cloud computing states that SOA and MDM “are hand-in-glove concepts. Cloud computing, meanwhile, may cover both bases.”
Aaron Zornes, chief research officer of the MDM Institute says, “SOA is useless without MDM content. SOA doesn’t address data; it only addresses processes. What’s the use of having SOA if you’re not taking care of the data side? …The same thing for MDM. MDM is really a misnomer. MDM is not really a data hub; MDM is actually a process hub. In addition to storing data you’re executing a bunch of rules in some BPM [business process management] system. So it’s much more than a database; it’s really a process hub.”
The article continues, “the large SOA leaders have all been moving into MDM. Forrester Research, in a February 2011 report on MDM trends, said consolidation was a big theme for 2010, ‘with a number of large data management software vendors picking off the best and brightest of MDM pure plays.’”
According to the article, “The momentum behind cloud computing is helping to move these disciplines together.” Ron Schmelzer, senior analyst at ZapThink states, “MDM is the data pairing to the architectural philosophy of SOA… A lot of times if companies are pursuing these two things together they will see symbiotic benefits. The irony is that if companies are moving to the cloud they’re kind of getting both; they’re getting MDM whether they know it or not, and they’re getting SOA whether they know it or not. The cloud is really starting to put a merger on getting those two things in sync.”
photo credit: Heungsub Lee
