Data Quality Enlightenment

Six Reasons Businesses Need to Pay Attention to Unstructured Data

A few weeks ago, I wrote about the Five-Fold Path for Ensuring Data = Information, which I drew upon Buddha’s Eight-Fold Path for inspiration.

But to really understand the practices of the eight-fold path, you need to understand the underlying doctrines that motivate it. In Buddhism, those tenets are outlined in the Four Noble Truths.

The five-fold path describes what you need to do to achieve data quality, but that still doesn’t define the realities that drive us to pursue data quality.

This week, data management consultant and blogger Jim Harris filled in that gap by outlining the Four Noble Truths of Data Quality:

1. The Truth of Poor Data Quality
2. The Truth of the Origin of Poor Data Quality
3. The Truth of the Cessation of Poor Data Quality
4. The truth of the Path to Better Data Quality

In business terms, you might say these truths are the drivers for data quality, even if we fail to acknowledge them as realities.

He also includes a lot of links to help you drill down on each Noble Truth. If you’re struggling to define or justify data quality, it’s definitely worth your time to read his post.

Magic Software’s New In-Memory Architecture

Magic Software offers an integration platform that’s primarily used for integrating specific solutions, such as JD Edwards, SAP, Salesforce, HL7 and IBM. The company announced recently it has revamped its Magic xpi Integration Platform to run on an In-Memory Data Grid architecture. It’s also added new off-the-shelf certified adapters for SugarCRM, Sage ERP and SYSPRO applications. The press release explains the details.

Scribe Software Credits Resellers for Growth

In the early days of cloud, there was some question about which business model for cloud integration would win out. Scribe Software opted to forge it’s own path and focus its marketing on selling integration solutions to VARs and ISVs.

The approach seems to be paying off for the company, which revealed a 525 percent increase in bookings of its cloud integration platform over a 12-month period from Q3 2012 to Q3 2013.

The press release provides the details, but I think it’s worth noting that this jump may also reflect what we keep hearing:  Integration is a growing headache for organizations running in a hybrid environment.