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One of the year's more interesting trends is the buying spree in the tech sector. What's interesting about this particular bout of mergers and acquisitions is that big vendors aren't just buying comp... More >
It's interesting: Writing custom code for data integration is nearly universally frowned upon by experts – and yet, I'm seeing a lot of discussion about creating your own metadata solutions for suppo... More >
One of the challenges with data quality and governance is that it tends to be an “IT problem,” when, really, it needs to involve the business. That's because, by and large, the business owns the data... More >
Vendors love to talk about integration – even when they're not in the integration business, per se. I get countless press releases touting the benefits of often minor integrations between application... More >
Could outsourcing be a big mistake when it comes to service-oriented architecture? Michael Poulin argues it is, particularly when you're dealing with big, overseas consultants. He says in a re... More >
Recently, I had a chance to talk to the Sean Martin, CTO of Cambridge Semantics, a Massachusetts-based company that has developed a semantic middleware stack, complete with ESB. We largely discussed ... More >
In the past, it wasn't unusual – if not common – to see master data management as a problem you solve once. There was a lot of talk about creating a “golden record,” and the believe that MDM was some... More >
I'll be honest with you: The first time I saw the name “MapReduce,” I thought it had to do with road maps and possibly GPS. And I thought Apache Hadoop sounded a bit like a medieval weapon. Th... More >
To be honest, I haven't followed HP's CEO brouhaha too closely. I'm more concerned about the U.S. economy and personal issues than the demise of an overpaid executive. Also, I live in Louisville, K... More >
Earlier this month, I shared a ComputerWorld report predicting that centralized IT could face severe staff cuts as more IT moved into the business units – a trend in part predicated on the fact tha... More >
A recent customer survey by TrackVia, a cloud-based application development platform, found it's not cost savings that attract non-technical users to their solution. Fifty percent cited functionality... More >
C-Suite strategist Mitchell Osak believes big companies could be shifting away from outsourcing toward a vertical integration strategy. If he's right, it's a trend that would affect not only what CIO... More >
You've heard the old dilemma, which came first, the chicken or the egg? Well, it seems IT has a similar conundrum when it comes to virtualization or integration. I've written previously about ... More >
IT definitely has a love/hate relationship with legacy apps. On the one hand, you hate them, because they don't play well with the newer technologies. They're hard to maintain and nobody wants the de... More >
Service-oriented architecture's Achilles' Heel has always been demonstrating return on investment. Apparently, that hasn't changed: Gartner analyst Matt Holte was recently in Australia, discussing t... More >
Phil Wainewright raises an integration point worth pondering in recent ebizQ post. He notes that while the cloud should make it easy to take a process-first approach to integration, most of the Saas... More >
In a way, it's easier to talk about integration as an IT problem. After all, if it's technology, it can be fixed. Granted, it might be wicked expensive to fix it, but most of the time, it can be fixe... More >
It's always interesting to me to see how buy-outs play out, particularly when it comes to integrating new product lines. Of course, you don't always hear what happens, or if you do, it's so lost in v... More >
Hair ball : noun: a compact mass of hair formed in the stomach especially of a shedding animal (as a cat) that cleanses its coat by licking — called also trichobezoar - Merriam-Webster Dictionary &nb... More >
Integration is something of a side issue for IT. It’s the route you take, not the destination. But in the future, integration could become IT’s primary responsibility, according to a prediction from ... More >
If you haven't looked at how your IT division is handling master data for business intelligence (BI), you should probably check under the hood: This seems to be a problem area for many organizations,... More >
A few weeks ago, I referenced a piece that explained how to use a wiki and an ETL tool to manage metadata. I thought I was being clever when I titled it “Metadata Management, MacGyver-Style,” and sug... More >
Data management tips and techniques that insure ease of access, comprehensive security and absolute privacy for your invaluable company information.
Tools, best practices and expert advice on managing your enterprise IT infrastructure, databases, and Web service components.
Indispensable technologies and best practices to maintain your organization's most valuable asset.
Learn more about this middleware layer that pools and dynamically provisions infrastruction application delivery resources to lower costs and improve efficiency.
