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Posts in Data Architecture

The document discusses three posts related to data architecture: 1. It describes the three levels of abstraction in enterprise data architecture - conceptual, logical, and physical - and lists eight components for building a modern data architecture. 2. It defines data governance and lists typical roles and technologies to support governance. 3. It discusses a debate on whether data architecture and information architecture are distinct terms or a single field, and argues they depend on context but both support business needs.

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Sulafa Hassan
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14 views

Posts in Data Architecture

The document discusses three posts related to data architecture: 1. It describes the three levels of abstraction in enterprise data architecture - conceptual, logical, and physical - and lists eight components for building a modern data architecture. 2. It defines data governance and lists typical roles and technologies to support governance. 3. It discusses a debate on whether data architecture and information architecture are distinct terms or a single field, and argues they depend on context but both support business needs.

Uploaded by

Sulafa Hassan
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Sunday, February 12, 2017

Posts in Data Architecture


Post No.1- Major Components of Data Architectures

Now more than ever, organization has started to see data as a strategic asset that can be sold and
exchanged. In the near future, the digital revolution with concepts such as the Internet of Things (IoT) will
push companies to collect, and analyze vast volumes of data and therefore, architect in a way that adds
to its business value.

The enterprise data architecture should be defined and modeled at the three levels of abstractions:
Conceptual level to describe the high level business perspective of the data entities, how they
deliver value and how they will be used. At this level data can be seen as Business information
conceptual entities whether it is structured data, enterprise contents or taxonomies.
A logical level that describes in much detailed modeling how data is represented and
interrelated. At this level Schemas are defined and data are mapped to applications or taxonomies.
A Physical or implementation level modeling that reflects the builder perspective such as
Physical data stores and repositories for both structured data and enterprise wide information contents.

Without a proper data architecture, organizations wont be able to drive strategic change. Therefore, it is
very important not to see data architecting as a technical job. Old data models are no longer sufficient to
fulfill business demands. Experts suggest the following eight components to go into the building of a
modern data architecture:
Engage business users in identifying the most valuable types of data
Make data governance a first priority
Ensure your data architecture is not developed around a specific technology.
Develop a real-time foundation to support analysis and movement
Build security within the foundation
Develop a master data management strategy
Position data as a service to enable information to be pulled from multiple sources.
Offer self-service environments to allow business users to build their own queries.

The link below contains useful information on the topic:


http://www.dbta.com/Editorial/Think-About-It/8-Steps-to-Building-a-Modern-Data-Architecture-
101417.aspx

Post No.2- Data Architecture Governance

Data architectures does not involve only designing data models but it includes the rules, policies, and
standards that govern how data is used, stored, managed and integrated within an organization.

Gartner defines data governance as the specification of decision rights and an accountability framework
to encourage desirable behavior in the valuation, creation, storage, use, archiving and deletion of
information. It includes the processes, roles, standards and metrics that ensure the effective and efficient
use of information in enabling an organization to achieve its goals.

Data governance addresses many pain areas that face organizations today. It can improve the
organization ability to deploy data for external use. It can also improve Data error remediation process
and thus enhance data quality by addressing root causes of data issues.
A data governance document in an organization typically includes the following sections: Roles &
Organizations, Data Strategy, Policies & Standards, Compliance, Issue Management, Projects &
Services, Data Asset Valuation and Communication.

The emerging digital business that deal with vast amount of data requires data governance to cover areas
such as: Big Data, Mobile Data Platforms, Social media, Data Demand Management and Regulatory
Coordination.

Typical roles in Data governance are: Steering Committee, Data Governance Sponsor, Data Governance
Head, Data owners and Data Stewards.

Data architects may recommend enabling technologies to support data governance and stewardship
workflows such as Data profiling, Data discovery, and Business glossary and data lineage.

For more on this interesting topic, please pay a visit to this link:
https://www.isaca.org/chapters3/Atlanta/AboutOurChapter/Documents/GW2014/Implementing%20a%20
Data%20Governance%20Program%20-%20Chalker%202014.pdf

Post No.3- Data Architecture and Informational Architecture

I have recently read a blog whose author is among a team that work to clean up the Wikipedia pages
dealing with Enterprise Architecture. The author was discussing how his team found out two separate
pages in Wikipedia one dedicated for Information architecture and the other for Data Architecture. The
author made a simple survey to determine whether they should keep Data Architecture and Informational
Architecture as two distinct terms in Wikipedia or as a single term, and in this case, which one should they
keep Data Architecture or Informational Architecture.

The results of the 55 respondents was split even. Most of those who claimed that it is one field, favored
Information Architecture over Data Architecture.

I went through different articles and blogs over the internet that have different interesting viewpoint on the
topic. Some would argue that Information is data within context, therefore data architecture is a subset of
Information architecture. Others see Data architecture as the bigger picture whereas how information is
modeled as being part of it.

My personal viewpoint is that it depends on the context on which the term is used. In different levels of
abstraction for instance the terms can be Data or Information. To Business Intelligence experts working to
extract data from its sources it is no doubt data, whereas it is information for those working on Enterprise
Content management system for instance. In general, Data architecture represent the technical view and
Information architecture represent the business view.

I certainly go with the term data when I am setting architectural principles, stewardship requirements and
other governance requirements. However, regardless of any debates on the topic, the most important
thing is that Data and Information architects should know how to build their models, methods, standards
and governance in support of the business and its drivers.

Here is the link of the blog and the survey results:


https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/nickmalik/2014/11/21/do-you-perform-information-architecture-or-a-
data-architecture/

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