Leveraging Information and Intelligence

I've been getting a few e-mails about me, Mr. SOA, writing a blog about issues surrounding data.   Indeed, I've noticed this blog referenced a few times from data integration and data governance vendors, noting my call for a return to the basics of architecture and spending a bit more time understanding, managing, and creating operational layers around data.  

Let me make a few things clear:

·         First, data integration, data intelligence, and data governance issues are systemic to all enterprise architectures, and indeed SOA.   While there is a focus on services, those who have won with SOA understand that the foundations are based on the data, and services operate on the data.   Indeed, if you follow my approach, you'll notice that I work up from the data, to the services, and then to the processes.    Works every time, trust me. 

·         Second, I think that within many enterprises data complexity and inefficiencies are systemic problems.   I think we've been misdirected by a few hype-driven trends, that actually should drive a need to redesign, redeploy, or abstract the data, but we never seem to get around to it.  

·         Finally, there is a wealth of business intelligence contained within our data, and if you're able to make use of it, you could avoid critical business mistakes, and make the right adjustments to optimize the business.    The ROI here is huge.

So, if you want to call me "Data Dave" that's fine with me, but it's about doing things right, and getting the proper foundations for a functional architecture, in most instances it begins with the data.  

Stay tuned for some great thinking here.