IT Business Edge contributor Loraine Lawson is using this Halloween week to look at software industry analyst R “Ray” Wang's 2010 MDM predictions and look into the crystal ball herself. For Lawson, the two most significant predictions are these:

• Vendors must offer MDM tools tailored to specific industries.
• MDM must support a hybrid approach to data, meaning it must be able to handle both on-premise and data from the cloud or SaaS providers.

She also likes his suggestion that in the future, MDM styles will no longer matter – just the results:

If he means we'll see a movement away from domain-specific solutions and more multidomain MDM, then that trend is already in play. That said, it does seem like it may take more time to catch on, considering how the economy has slowed MDM adoption overall.

The Knowledge Network contains Master Data Management Research Notes, provided by Ventana Research. This document gives users tips on the business case for MDM and other related MDM topics.