Will Cloud Computing Reduce or Increase the Need for MDM?

Yes. In Cloud computing it will be extremely confusing and totally inefficient to have multiple versions of "Customer" or "Product" in many different systems. In fact it may be better to adopt MDM and get to a single version of data objects before attempting Cloud computing!

I agree. The use of cloud computing will increase the need for MDM. Nari is right, we need to get data under control before moving to the clouds.

Let's think about this. Cloud computing introduces many more data sources and consumers than IT would ever address efficiently in a conventional MDM implementation. I agree with y'all only when MDM is made flexible with business rules that automate the governance associated with newly engaged applications.

Can someone explain to me how it is possible to have MDM in an environment that has no single master?

Take a simple data entity like customer record. Who should be in charge of that record? The customer? The vendor? The intermediary partner? The customer's parent company? The government? All will have different views on what should be in the record (and each will apply different data semantics).

MDM is fine for an enterprise computing environment where everyone is clear who's in charge. But you need a more sophisticated system of loosely coupled data semantics once you move into a shared environment like the cloud.

Yes, the trend towards applications and data in the cloud will increase the need for MDM. Phil Wainwright's comment that it will require a more sophisticated system is right on.

It will put a greater emphasis on the ability to perform identity and entity resolution matching common entities. Organizations will also need to implement what Gartner calls the Co-Existence style hub. This means that the internal MDM Hub will need to continually synchronize the data in the hub with the data in the cloud applications.

I agree with others that cloud computing will increase the need for MDM – and data quality improvement including identity resolution is a corner stone in this process.

But cloud computing will also give us some improved opportunities with using external reference data in the data quality area. This goes from providing simple value lists like up to date postal code tables not only covering your home country but also the rest of the world to providing integration with business and consumer/citizen directories available on a global scale.

Most of the barriers here are commercial – but my guess is that increased use of applications in the cloud will either free the data or at least bring the data in the reach of many organisations in need of these data.

Increase.

MDM will be a key enabler for Cloud Computing. I agree with Michael Destein that the co-existence hub pattern will prevail because its a more realistic implementation of MDM in the Cloud Environment. Taking a big bang approach of implementing the transactional hub pattern system of record MDM system from the get go is not going to be practical in a Cloud Environment even though could be the end state goal.

It would indeed increase the need for MDM and more mature cloud platforms would come default enabled with varied degrees of MDM capability in their offering.

Essence of MDM is convergence where in Cloud it's all about divergence. They can go hand in hand once we expose all MDM hub data as Services - MaS (Master-data as Services) and make them available on Cloud.