Modern Data Strategy

This book contains practical steps business users can take to implement data management in a number of ways, including data governance, data architecture, master data management, business intelligence, and others. It defines data strategy, and covers chapters that illustrate how to align a data strategy with the business strategy, a discussion on valuing data as an asset, the evolution of data management, and who should oversee a data strategy. This provides the user with a good understanding of what a data strategy is and its limits. Critical to a data strategy is the incorporation of one or more data management domains. Chapters on key data management domains—data governance, data architecture, master data management and analytics, offer the user a practical approach to data management execution within a data strategy. The intent is to enable the user to identify how execution on one or more data management domains can help solve business issues. This book is intended for business users who work with data, who need to manage one or more aspects of the organization’s data, and who want to foster an integrated approach for how enterprise data is managed. This book is also an excellent reference for students studying computer science and business management or simply for someone who has been tasked with starting or improving existing data management.

This book contains practical steps business users can take to implement data management in a number of ways, including data governance, data architecture, master data management, business intelligence, and others. It defines data strategy, and covers chapters that illustrate how to align a data strategy with the business strategy, a discussion on valuing data as an asset, the evolution of data management, and who should oversee a data strategy. This provides the user with a good understanding of what a data strategy is and its limits. Critical to a data strategy is the incorporation of one or more data management domains. Chapters on key data management domains—data governance, data architecture, master data management and analytics, offer the user a practical approach to data management execution within a data strategy. The intent is to enable the user to identify how execution on one or more data management domains can help solve business issues. This book is intended for business users who work with data, who need to manage one or more aspects of the organization’s data, and who want to foster an integrated approach for how enterprise data is managed. This book is also an excellent reference for students studying computer science and business management or simply for someone who has been tasked with starting or improving existing data management.

This book is intended for business users who work with data, who need to manage one or more aspects of the organizations data, and who want to foster an integrated approach for how enterprise data is managed. --

A well thought out, fit-for-purpose data strategy is essential to modern data-driven businesses. This book is a practical guide to planning, developing and implementing such a strategy, presenting a framework which takes you from data strategy definition to successful strategy delivery and execution with support and engagement from stakeholders. Key topics include data-driven business transformation, change enablers, benefits realisation and measurement. Case studies, example scenarios and reader questions throughout the book are designed to stimulate real-world thinking and help you put the framework into practice in the context of your own organisation.

In the age of digital transformation, becoming overwhelmed by the sheer volume of potential data management, analytics, and AI solutions is common. Then it's all too easy to become distracted by glossy vendor marketing, and then chase the latest shiny tool, rather than focusing on building resilient, valuable platforms that will outperform the competition. This book aims to fix a glaring gap for data professionals: a comprehensive guide to the full Modern Data Stack that's rooted in real-world capabilities, not vendor hype. It is full of hard-earned advice on how to get maximum value from your investments through tangible insights, actionable strategies, and proven best practices. It comprehensively explains how the Modern Data Stack is truly utilized by today's data-driven companies. Mastering the Modern Data Stack: An Executive Guide to Unified Business Analytics is crafted for a diverse audience. It's for business and technology leaders who understand the importance and potential value of data, analytics, and AI—but don’t quite see how it all fits together in the big picture. It's for enterprise architects and technology professionals looking for a primer on the data analytics domain, including definitions of essential components and their usage patterns. It's also for individuals early in their data analytics careers who wish to have a practical and jargon-free understanding of how all the gears and pulleys move behind the scenes in a Modern Data Stack to turn data into actual business value. Whether you're starting your data journey with modest resources, or implementing digital transformation in the cloud, you'll find that this isn't just another textbook on data tools or a mere overview of outdated systems. It's a powerful guide to efficient, modern data management and analytics, with a firm focus on emerging technologies such as data science, machine learning, and AI. If you want to gain a competitive advantage in today’s fast-paced digital world, this TinyTechGuide™ is for you. Remember, it’s not the tech that’s tiny, just the book!™

Tips, techniques, and trends on how to use dashboard technology to optimize business performance Business performance management is a hot new management discipline that delivers tremendous value when supported by information technology. Through case studies and industry research, this book shows how leading companies are using performance dashboards to execute strategy, optimize business processes, and improve performance. Wayne W. Eckerson (Hingham, MA) is the Director of Research for The Data Warehousing Institute (TDWI), the leading association of business intelligence and data warehousing professionals worldwide that provide high-quality, in-depth education, training, and research. He is a columnist for SearchCIO.com, DM Review, Application Development Trends, the Business Intelligence Journal, and TDWI Case Studies & Solution.

Without a data strategy, the people within an organization have no guidelines for making decisions that are absolutely crucial to the success of the IT organization and to the entire organization. The absence of a strategy gives a blank check to those who want to pursue their own agendas, including those who want to try new database management systems, new technologies (often unproven), and new tools. This type of environment provides no hope for success. Data Strategy should result in the development of systems with less risk, higher quality systems, and reusability of assets. This is key to keeping cost and maintenance down, thus running lean and mean. Data Strategy provides a CIO with a rationale to counter arguments for immature technology and data strategies that are inconsistent with existing strategies. This book uses case studies and best practices to give the reader the tools they need to create the best strategy for the organization.

Build a modern data warehouse on Microsoft's Azure Platform that is flexible, adaptable, and fast—fast to snap together, reconfigure, and fast at delivering results to drive good decision making in your business. Gone are the days when data warehousing projects were lumbering dinosaur-style projects that took forever, drained budgets, and produced business intelligence (BI) just in time to tell you what to do 10 years ago. This book will show you how to assemble a data warehouse solution like a jigsaw puzzle by connecting specific Azure technologies that address your own needs and bring value to your business. You will see how to implement a range of architectural patterns using batches, events, and streams for both data lake technology and SQL databases. You will discover how to manage metadata and automation to accelerate the development of your warehouse while establishing resilience at every level. And you will know how to feed downstream analytic solutions such as Power BI and Azure Analysis Services to empower data-driven decision making that drives your business forward toward a pattern of success. This book teaches you how to employ the Azure platform in a strategy to dramatically improve implementation speed and flexibility of data warehousing systems. You will know how to make correct decisions in design, architecture, and infrastructure such as choosing which type of SQL engine (from at least three options) best meets the needs of your organization. You also will learn about ETL/ELT structure and the vast number of accelerators and patterns that can be used to aid implementation and ensure resilience. Data warehouse developers and architects will find this book a tremendous resource for moving their skills into the future through cloud-based implementations. What You Will LearnChoose the appropriate Azure SQL engine for implementing a given data warehouse Develop smart, reusable ETL/ELT processes that are resilient and easily maintained Automate mundane development tasks through tools such as PowerShell Ensure consistency of data by creating and enforcing data contracts Explore streaming and event-driven architectures for data ingestionCreate advanced staging layers using Azure Data Lake Gen 2 to feed your data warehouse Who This Book Is For Data warehouse or ETL/ELT developers who wish to implement a data warehouse project in the Azure cloud, and developers currently working in on-premise environments who want to move to the cloud, and for developers with Azure experience looking to tighten up their implementation and consolidate their knowledge