by Angela Guess
A new article warns, “If you thought you were already managing big data with the data warehouse and Hadoop has ruined your day, you may also believe the data warehouse is the place where master data finally ‘comes together’ in an organization. In that case, your day then could be ruined by master data management (MDM).”
It continues, “Utilization of enterprise master data is not limited to the post-operational data warehouse analytical environment. Master data is a corporate resource with vast amounts of potential in all types of operational systems. This includes every enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, sales force automation systems, customer relationship management systems and other types of transaction systems. As such, master data clearly needs to be created and utilized as early as possible. Waiting for master records to form in a batch data warehouse creates unnecessary delay. In addition, the warehouse tends to be insufficient as an entity for real-time data distribution. It’s a great final destination for data or the lock-and-load point for post-operational analytical systems, but it’s best as a one-way street.”
The article adds, “Some view master data management as the process for building the master data, which includes enormously valuable hierarchy management and governance capabilities. These are less competitive with the data warehouse, which typically sources and cleanses data from its ‘source systems.’ The functions of enterprise modeling, data integration and data quality are transferrable to the operational environment in the form of master data management. Data integration with master data management is typically done using a “publish and subscribe” approach on an enterprise service bus.”
photo credit: Todd Huffman
