{"id":3574,"date":"2019-06-01T10:29:00","date_gmt":"2019-06-01T08:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/?p=3574"},"modified":"2020-05-18T10:35:16","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T08:35:16","slug":"from-data-warehouse-to-digital-business","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/from-data-warehouse-to-digital-business\/","title":{"rendered":"From Data Warehouse to Digital Business"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t<div data-elementor-type=\"wp-post\" data-elementor-id=\"3574\" class=\"elementor elementor-3574\" data-elementor-post-type=\"post\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-top-section elementor-element elementor-element-18d249ec elementor-section-content-top elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"18d249ec\" data-element_type=\"section\" data-settings=\"{&quot;background_background&quot;:&quot;classic&quot;}\" data-e-bg-lazyload=\"\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-background-overlay\"><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-no\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-100 elementor-top-column elementor-element elementor-element-50348238\" data-id=\"50348238\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<section class=\"elementor-section elementor-inner-section elementor-element elementor-element-3c397f14 elementor-section-boxed elementor-section-height-default elementor-section-height-default\" data-id=\"3c397f14\" data-element_type=\"section\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-container elementor-column-gap-default\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-33 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-6e0d2295\" data-id=\"6e0d2295\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-7b1374f elementor-widget elementor-widget-image\" data-id=\"7b1374f\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"image.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 26-03-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-image{text-align:center}.elementor-widget-image a{display:inline-block}.elementor-widget-image a img[src$=\".svg\"]{width:48px}.elementor-widget-image img{vertical-align:middle;display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"420\" height=\"560\" src=\"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/speakBarryDevlin.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full wp-image-1117\" alt=\"\" srcset=\"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/speakBarryDevlin.jpg 420w, https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/speakBarryDevlin-225x300.jpg 225w, https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-content\/uploads\/speakBarryDevlin-300x400.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 420px) 100vw, 420px\" \/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-12bdc97c elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"12bdc97c\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 26-03-2024 *\/\n.elementor-heading-title{padding:0;margin:0;line-height:1}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title[class*=elementor-size-]>a{color:inherit;font-size:inherit;line-height:inherit}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-small{font-size:15px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-medium{font-size:19px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-large{font-size:29px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xl{font-size:39px}.elementor-widget-heading .elementor-heading-title.elementor-size-xxl{font-size:59px}<\/style><h4 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\"><a href=\"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/barry-devlin\/\">By Barry Devlin<\/a><\/h4>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-6439e42 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"6439e42\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h5 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">June 2019<\/h5>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-545e5ee9 elementor-widget-divider--view-line elementor-widget elementor-widget-divider\" data-id=\"545e5ee9\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"divider.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 26-03-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-divider{--divider-border-style:none;--divider-border-width:1px;--divider-color:#0c0d0e;--divider-icon-size:20px;--divider-element-spacing:10px;--divider-pattern-height:24px;--divider-pattern-size:20px;--divider-pattern-url:none;--divider-pattern-repeat:repeat-x}.elementor-widget-divider .elementor-divider{display:flex}.elementor-widget-divider .elementor-divider__text{font-size:15px;line-height:1;max-width:95%}.elementor-widget-divider .elementor-divider__element{margin:0 var(--divider-element-spacing);flex-shrink:0}.elementor-widget-divider .elementor-icon{font-size:var(--divider-icon-size)}.elementor-widget-divider .elementor-divider-separator{display:flex;margin:0;direction:ltr}.elementor-widget-divider--view-line_icon .elementor-divider-separator,.elementor-widget-divider--view-line_text .elementor-divider-separator{align-items:center}.elementor-widget-divider--view-line_icon 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.elementor-divider-separator{border-block-start:var(--divider-border-width) var(--divider-border-style) var(--divider-color)}.elementor-widget-divider--separator-type-pattern{--divider-border-style:none}.elementor-widget-divider--separator-type-pattern.elementor-widget-divider--view-line .elementor-divider-separator,.elementor-widget-divider--separator-type-pattern:not(.elementor-widget-divider--view-line) .elementor-divider-separator:after,.elementor-widget-divider--separator-type-pattern:not(.elementor-widget-divider--view-line) .elementor-divider-separator:before,.elementor-widget-divider--separator-type-pattern:not([class*=elementor-widget-divider--view]) .elementor-divider-separator{width:100%;min-height:var(--divider-pattern-height);-webkit-mask-size:var(--divider-pattern-size) 100%;mask-size:var(--divider-pattern-size) 100%;-webkit-mask-repeat:var(--divider-pattern-repeat);mask-repeat:var(--divider-pattern-repeat);background-color:var(--divider-color);-webkit-mask-image:var(--divider-pattern-url);mask-image:var(--divider-pattern-url)}.elementor-widget-divider--no-spacing{--divider-pattern-size:auto}.elementor-widget-divider--bg-round{--divider-pattern-repeat:round}.rtl .elementor-widget-divider .elementor-divider__text{direction:rtl}.e-con-inner>.elementor-widget-divider,.e-con>.elementor-widget-divider{width:var(--container-widget-width,100%);--flex-grow:var(--container-widget-flex-grow)}<\/style>\t\t<div class=\"elementor-divider\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-divider-separator\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-column elementor-col-66 elementor-inner-column elementor-element elementor-element-54036b3b\" data-id=\"54036b3b\" data-element_type=\"column\">\n\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-wrap elementor-element-populated\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-c283872 elementor-widget elementor-widget-heading\" data-id=\"c283872\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"heading.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<h1 class=\"elementor-heading-title elementor-size-default\">From Data Warehouse to Digital Business<\/h1>\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-11d7e95d elementor-widget-divider--view-line_icon elementor-view-default elementor-widget-divider--element-align-center elementor-widget elementor-widget-divider\" data-id=\"11d7e95d\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"divider.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-divider\">\n\t\t\t<span class=\"elementor-divider-separator\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-icon elementor-divider__element\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<i aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"fas fa-book-open\"><\/i><\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-element elementor-element-5699b927 elementor-widget elementor-widget-text-editor\" data-id=\"5699b927\" data-element_type=\"widget\" data-widget_type=\"text-editor.default\">\n\t\t\t\t<div class=\"elementor-widget-container\">\n\t\t\t<style>\/*! elementor - v3.20.0 - 26-03-2024 *\/\n.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-stacked .elementor-drop-cap{background-color:#69727d;color:#fff}.elementor-widget-text-editor.elementor-drop-cap-view-framed .elementor-drop-cap{color:#69727d;border:3px solid;background-color:transparent}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap{margin-top:8px}.elementor-widget-text-editor:not(.elementor-drop-cap-view-default) .elementor-drop-cap-letter{width:1em;height:1em}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap{float:left;text-align:center;line-height:1;font-size:50px}.elementor-widget-text-editor .elementor-drop-cap-letter{display:inline-block}<\/style>\t\t\t\t<p>If you already have a comprehensive and well-architected data warehouse, you may be closer to delivering a digital business than you might think.<\/p><p><i>If you already have a comprehensive and well-architected data warehouse, you may be closer to delivering a digital business than you might think.<\/i><\/p><p>Digital transformation! Digital business! From analysts to vendors, from consultants to CEOs, the cry is the same: transform yourself into a digital business if you want to succeed in your industry. And do so quickly, because companies that are far down that road already have an enormous variety and volume of data that will enable them to displace you and other incumbents. According to McKinsey\u2019s December 2016 report, The Age of Analytics: Competing in a Data-Driven World: \u201cThe network effects of digital platforms are creating a winner-take-most situation. The leading firms \u2026 are actively looking for ways to enter other industries\u2026 can take advantage of their scale and data insights to add new business lines\u2026 are blurring traditional sector boundaries.\u201d<\/p><p>How far this prediction will play out remains to be seen. Nonetheless, the search for competitive advantage in every industry is now firmly aligned with digital transformation: the ability of businesses to take advantage of the information they already have and all additional data they may access or acquire. For those businesses that have deep experience in the digital world, especially new Internet-based businesses, being data-driven is almost second-nature to them. However, most traditional businesses still struggle to progress down the road of digital transformation. Indeed, some wonder where to even begin.<\/p><p>If you are one of those companies, the starting point may be nearer than you imagine: Digital transformation can begin with your existing data warehouse, but only if you are willing to look at that infrastructure in a different light. Let\u2019s start with the original purpose of the data warehouse.<\/p><p>Thirty years ago, I defined the first data warehouse architecture. The business driver was to provide a reliable and consistent set of data from all available sources for any reporting or analysis need. In the intervening years, much of the focus has been on the reporting and analysis needs. However, when considering the value of data warehousing in digital transformation, we need to look at the underpinning idea of how and when to create a reliable and consistent data set from multiple sources. In its essence, a digital business is one that can use data from every imaginable source for business advantage and balances how far such data should be made consistent and reliable and when that data can\u2014or must\u2014be used in its raw state in order to limit complexity and cost.<\/p><p>This, of course, leads us to the topic of the appropriate information\/data architecture for a digital business.<\/p><p>In contrast to a traditional business, a digital business uses externally sourced data\u2014from social media and the Internet of Things (IoT)\u2014as a basis for both operations and management. These new sources are characterised not only by the three Vs of volume, velocity and variety. More importantly, they are often of questionable quality and reliability. Furthermore, this new data must also be integrated with data originating from the traditional, internal operational systems. As a result, and bearing in mind thirty years of data warehouse experience and success, it makes sense to ask: What can we keep and what must change in a data warehouse architecture in order to build a digital business? We can see three key aspects. First and foremost is data reconciliation and consistency. In a data warehouse, data is reconciled by bringing it all to a single store\u2014the enterprise data warehouse (EDW) built in a relational database. Big data proponents have long claimed that a relational database cannot handle the volumes, velocity and variety of big data. However, hardware advances\u2014such as in-memory databases, parallel processing and GPUs\u2014coupled with software that takes advantage of this new hardware have weakened these claims significantly. In addition, advances in data virtualization technology allow data to be logically reconciled without the need to bring it all to the same platform. In effect, we can use an enhanced EDW for data that must be physically reconciled, while data virtualization allows us to reconcile data across relational and non-relational platforms. This concept is key to the pillared logical information architecture that I devised in my book, Business unIntelligence.<\/p><p>Second is enterprise information modelling. We must recognise that it is unnecessary\u2014and impossible\u2014to reconcile all data. Some data (individual data points from IoT sensors, for example) is too fleeting to reconcile. Other data, such as that from social media, is too unmanaged and ill-defined to make consistent. An enterprise information model (EIM) is necessary to decide the uses and value of different types of information to the business and when it is necessary to reconcile it or not. Most data warehouse implementations have already created EIMs of varying degrees of completeness and complexity. Such EIMs must be extended to cover external information sources. The core entities and relationships of the existing EIM will certainly remain at the heart of the digital business and allow new information sources to be linked as appropriate to traditional entities. It is through the EIM, for example, that social media user IDs can be matched to internal customer IDs (within the bounds of GDPR legislation, of course).<\/p><p>Third is metadata or, as I prefer to call it, context-setting information (CSI). The concept of metadata was central to the data warehouse, both for technical management of the data stored there, as well as for enabling businesspeople to understand and benefit from the data warehouse. Unfortunately, many earlier implementations have focused almost exclusively on technically oriented metadata. This is now changing with an industry emphasis on \u201cdata catalogs\u201d, particularly those that incorporate some elements of machine learning. The inclusion of machine learning, as well as collaboration, in these modern tools is important because it addresses long-standing challenges of gathering information about how data is really used and understood by businesspeople. These challenges that have prevented data warehouse developers offering a full set of CSI in the past.<\/p><p>In summary, the major change to a data warehouse architecture to enable support for digital business is in how data is stored and reconciled. In a digital business, we no longer channel all data through a relationally based EDW. Rather we limit the EDW to that data that must be consistent across the enterprise and allow other data to be stored on other platforms (a data lake) and reconciled through data virtualization only to the extent necessary. This change leads to extended requirements on\u2014but no fundamental change in\u2014information modelling and business-focused context-setting information as defined in traditional data warehousing. So, if you are planning to implement a digital business, dust off your old data warehouse architecture and see how it can help!<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Barry Devlin June 2019 If you already have a comprehensive and well-architected data warehouse, you may be closer to delivering a digital business than you might think. If you already have a comprehensive and well-architected data warehouse, you may be closer to delivering a digital business than you might think. Digital transformation! Digital business! [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"default","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"default","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3574"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3574\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3574"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3574"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/technologytransfer.it\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3574"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}