Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Data Discovery. The first step toward data management.

Introduction


Recently on a data discovery project I observed something that I wanted to share.  Data discovery efforts, and the tools that support them, are well suited for those organizations who've had data explosive growth.  With this kind of growth the data landscape expands to the point where in-depth knowledge of data, and more importantly metadata, details becomes unobtainable.  This is where a product suite like Global IDs data transparency suite can enable effective data management strategies.

Data Transparency


 What's in a data transparency suite? 

The GIDS Data Transparency Product Suite is a suite a of 15 applications that provides companies with a broad set of capabilities to scan and inventory their data landscape. Using these applications, organizations can perform the following tasks.

  1. Scan their data environment (structured data, un-structured data, semi-structured data)

  2. Create and populate a Metadata Repository that can be searched by business and technical users

  3. Profile their structured databases to create a semantic understanding of their data


 [ref] Global IDs http://www.globalids.com/products/product-suites/ddp [/ref]

 I can speak from experience when I say that these three functions present a complete picture of a data landscape.  With metadata, profiling results and sematic taxonomies, a master data management / data quality / data governace solution is within reach.


 Now I'm no stranger to metadata or data profiles.  I understand the value in them.  In fact, I am delivering value to organizations most weeks of the year with these reports.  However, to me, the thing that sets Global IDs apart is the autogenerating semantic taxonomies. 
Looking for privacy data across 300 databases?

This product suite can aggregate privacy data elements, such as social security numbers, from throughout your enterprise.  I've used this feature and was able to create a customer data hub from 30 databases in support of a major MDM initiative.

Timing is everything 


 What I took away from my experiences with Global IDs is that is best used in a complex data environment, as I mentioned in the intro.  It can turn confusion and disarray into organized information with relatively little development.  On the flip side, it may be overkill for a less complex, more defined environment. 
In other words, if you are Haliburton, GIDS is for you.  If you are Smith's Accounting Service, GIDS is probably not for you.

Some Examples of Global IDs reports


 http://www.globalids.com/ddp/screenshots

2 comments:

  1. Thanks for sharing your insights. Another interesting perspective on data search versus discovery is at http://awareresearch.com/content/search_discovery where it agrees with you that discovery is about not knowing what you're going to find, but emphasizes that it's all about expanding the context.

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  2. Electronic discovery is the process of locating and retrieving electronic data. These days, every company is storing its important information in the electronic format, in devices like CD ROMs, DVDs, hard disks, floppy disks, and others. Data is also being sent across the world in electronic formats via e-mail or Internet because of the speed and cost-effectiveness. However, this may cause some of the data to be lost or altered. Electronic discovery enables the retrieval of such electronic data from the vast amounts of data available. Another important application of electronic discovery is in litigation or lawsuits. Electronic discovery can even bring out electronic evidence that has been tampered with.

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