David Van Couvering’s post undergirds the idea that Wiki integration will become the next data integration trend soon. Incompatibility between heterogeneous Wiki formats is an issue, definitely. As a result, a number of software vendors are already developing some integrators between Wikis, blogs, e-mails, and so on.

Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) will surely accelerate this future trend. The more enterprises, as well as their departments, consolidate with 3^rd parties, the more they need data-and-knowledge integration. As an “Enterprise 2.0” essential element, Wiki can be seen as a “service” inside enterprise’s SOA model, too. Therefore, some integration tools will be needed to weave Wiki-based data between either sources, or applications.

And you know what? Since Wiki is a collaborative-based effort, open source will be a winner in this game, sooner or later.

Filed under: Open Source, Business Intelligence, Enterprise 2.0, Data Integration, SOA | No Comments »

Eric Roch followed his “SOA ESB Product Selection” post with the new one, “ESB SOA RFP Questions”. There he compiled a comprehensive list of generic Request for Proposal (RFP) and Request for Information (RFI) questions that help select ESB/SOA product. Thanks, Eric!

However, even if you have already chosen a vendor, Mr. Roch’s list will surely help you gain more understanding of ESB/SOA implementation. It is better to analyze the answers to all these questions before you sign the contracts. Commonly, there are some challenges and hidden misunderstandings. Be aware and avoid them.   

Filed under: Enterprise 2.0, Data Integration, SOA, Enterprise Service Bus | No Comments »

David Van Couvering gave some advice to anyone who is interested in getting into IT industry. He wrote,

Ten years ago, I would have told you to get some training and try to get an entry-level position in a tech company. Things have changed since then. Now there is this fastly growing phenomenon of open source software. This means that you do not need to take a class, go job hunting, interview, etc., etc., to start getting some real-world experience and meeting and learning from other folks in technology. So instead what I recommend is to poke around and find out what open source projects there are that interest you. […] Then all you do is start volunteering your time.

Hmm, sounds a bit risky yet very interesting! It seems like the tendency is on the rise. Some might know that Matt Asay noted recently, “If I wanted a job, I’d be sure to go to work for an open source company.” Open source skills are up-and-coming, he-he.

The reasons are obvious. Open source model is currently one of the most competitive software model, “the 21st Century way of writing/selling/supporting/implementing software”, as Matt put it. In few years a lot of IT vendors will run bankrupt due to the success of their competitor’s open source projects.

However, this doesn’t mean that open source approach fits every job seeker. I totally agree with the comments to David Van Couvering’s post. A person should be an open source coder at heart, rather than money-motivated only. Otherwise, Real Estate career would be a better decision, that’s true. I can say the same about open source vendors.

Putting community and the end-user goes first, not the money. One of the major features of open source products is their quality. So, often a commercial open source company has to choose between investing in community (aka users) and investing in, say, advertising. Quality goes first, let me say that again. Otherwise, well, get into Real Estate!

Filed under: Open Source | No Comments »

There are some briefly described pre-requirements and useful considerations for a ‘real-time enterprise’ in this recent William McKnight’s post. To achieve real-time data warehouses, William also suggests rescheduling ‘batch’ ETL (Extract, Transform and Load) to run more frequently.

I’d add that it’s not about rescheduling frequency only; it’s about rescheduling the very moments of ETL operations. Sometimes it is not enough to increase the frequency, it even may be in vain. First, there’s a challenge of increased queue contentions. Second, there’s no use updating data, if there were no changes in it.

Some EAI advisors recommend using alert notifications instead. It is about defining the moments of updating as well as transforming data on an event basis, rather than according to a fixed schedule. However, it is clear that the real-time event model is more complicated, while developing. But as we see, EAI/ETL/EII vendors are already being forced to aiming at it, anyway.   

Filed under: Business Intelligence, Data Quality, Data Integration | No Comments »

‘Software as a Service’ gurus Zoli Erdos and David Linthicum commented on a new study by Nucleus Research. According to the report, companies of all sizes are shifting to project management and content management initiatives, while implementing SaaS technologies. Here’s how Zoli put it:

A new study by Nucleus Research confirms these findings:  63% of companies with over 1000 employees adopted some On-Demand solution, vs. 46% of those with less then 1000 employees.  The study turned up a few more “surprises”, perhaps the most striking one being the market-share of particular types of applications.  Salesforce.com is the poster-boy of SaaS, in fact many would argue they created this market, yet CRM appears to have a relatively low adoption rate amongst SaaS customers, only 32%.  Project Management comes close, 23% of the responding organizations deployed PM solutions.

So, Content Management and Project Management are currently the new growth areas in SaaS world. “Rapid implementation and ease of use were the two reasons cited most often for adoption,” Nucleus reported.

This survey shows how Software as a Service technology is evolving. WikiPedia has already become a standard, as we know. On the other hand, the need for effective collaboration is overwhelming, so it is not a surprise that enterprise CMS is moving towards SaaS.

A number of benefits explain why software vendors adopt SaaS model to improve their project management, too. Process integration is one of the main trends for this year, according to multiple researches.

As a result, one trend produces others.
 

Filed under: Business Intelligence, Software as a Service, Enterprise 2.0, Data Integration | No Comments »

In an article about Regulatory Compliance and Data Quality, Robert Lerner mentioned watch lists, “the lists of suspect individuals, organizations, and countries with which it is unlawful for transact business with.”

“If an organization has problems in the quality of its customer data, then it will have difficulty making accurate matches against the watch lists. For example, if an organization has misspelled the name of a customer or potential customer – using Smith instead of Smyth – then the odds of correctly matching this customer against a watch list are slim.”

That reminded me of a true story I’ve heard about a man, say, Mr. Smith, who received a call from a bank one day. After ‘hellos’ and ‘how-do-you-dos’ bank officer asked that man to return to the bank and “sign the rest of the papers”.

“What papers?” Mr. Smith asked.

“The papers confirming that you transferred $1,000,000 from your account yesterday,” bank officer answered.

Mr. Smith was shocked. “Me?”

“Are you Mr. Smith?” bank officer asked.

“Yes.”

“Do you live in blah-blah-blah?”

“Yes.”

“Is your account number blah-blah-blah?”

“Yes.”

“Then it might be you who transferred $1,000,000 yesterday.”

In a few hours Mr. Smith found himself sitting in the bank watching yesterday’s video control system tapes. After additional verifications they noticed that there was a mistake in spelling Mr. Smith’s name. Everything was correct, first name, the country of residence, but the last name was misspelled in the papers. Just one letter, one silly letter was misspelled. The man who visited the bank the day before was, say, Mr. Smyth. That’s why the bank officer mixed up the clients and called the wrong number, he called Mr. Smith instead of Mr. Smyth.

That’s it. It’s all about data quality, data validation, data accuracy, etc., etc. Keep an eye on spelling your names, and avoid getting into a watch list.

Oh, yes, and install data integration software. =)

Filed under: Data Quality, Data Integration | No Comments »

The hype around Google Apps is on the rise. With the recent launch of this service, analysts are talking about Software as a Service (SaaS) pros and cons. Again. And security is being discussed, either. I liked this excerpt by Phil Wainewright about the fight between on-premise and on-demand advocates:

“So here is a selection of news stories culled from the past few months that allow us to objectively evaluate what happens when users “have total control over things like privacy and security” as Ryan puts it:

·         U.K. company fined over laptop theft
·         Hard drive vanishes from VA facility
·         Stolen Boeing laptop held ID data on 382,000
·         Commerce Department counts 1,100 missing laptops
·         Theft of laptop puts thousands of identities at risk 

And how likely is it that Google will be so lax as to allow any unauthorized access to its servers? As Talkback regular Donnieboy noted in a comment to my post on Google Apps last night, Google doesn’t even hand over search data to Federal investigators.”

Well, it seems to me that the more SaaS is being adopted, the more it is being criticized. It’s natural. However, if SaaS technology were as vulnerable as the skeptics say, then it wouldn’t be so popular. And don’t forget, SaaS popularity is increasing.

To make a forecast, I’d say that the market will surely put everything in its right place. There will be a robust niche for on-demand packages, and there will be other niches for on-premise applications. We’ll see how these niches will shape the portrait of a devoted SaaS optimist.

Filed under: Business Intelligence, Software as a Service, Enterprise 2.0 | No Comments »

Dion Hinchcliffe is tracking ‘DYI phenomenon’ of widgets and mashups. He considers five key issues for successful mashup creation tools:

1.    Ease of use
2.    Embody best practices in software development
3.    Support open standards
4.    Use a broad array of visual parts and non-visual Web services
5.    Will encourage social use and uptake. 

It’s completely true, Dion. However, I’d add one more critical key issue, ‘Providing Security Option’. Given the early state of mashups, they still lack robust security features. At least, they need better policing and control. Mashups may create a hole in your system because of low password security, easy access to private information, and so on. That’s why mashup creation tools should consider such issues. Data integration has never been easy, folks. So, we need to take security steps, before it’s too late.

Filed under: Enterprise 2.0, Mashups | No Comments »

The numbers in ‘Enterprise 2.0’ are pronounced as ‘two point oh’, as Phil Wainewright has written in his blog. The variants ‘two dot oh’ or ‘two dot zero’ are wierd or incorrect. The survey conducted by Phil undergirds this way of pronunciation. So, the rules are as following:

·         Use ‘point’ when you’re talking about a decimal point in a number, e.g. version 2.0 or 16.9 percent (but not when the number is a sum of money, and if the position of the decimal point is obvious from the context, e.g. if your cup of coffee costs $3.49, you’ll be asked for ‘three forty-nine’). As with the money exception, it is also accepted usage to say just ‘two oh’ if the context makes it evident that what you mean is ‘2.0′;
·         Use ‘dot’ when you’re talking about a separator, whether between letters or numbers, e.g. a web address like zdnet.com is said ‘zdnet dot com’, and similarly a numeric IP address like 192.168.1.1 is said ‘192 dot 168 dot 1 dot 1′. This rule also explains why the name of an IEEE standard like 802.11 (Wi-Fi) is spoken with a dot rather than a point: as one commenter posted in response to my poll, “the IEEE stuff usually ends in a letter, but yes, also a dot for specs that don’t end in a letter like Ethernet, 802.3.” 

Also, there’s an interesting article in WikiPedia about using ‘dots’, ‘decimal points’ and ‘decimal commas’. I was surprised to know that the Chinese and Indians use an asymmetric distribution of comma separators (i.e., 123,4567.89 or 3,00,00,000). It is easy to get into a mess if you visit Asia, but I hope it would be clear about ‘2.0’, at least. =)

Filed under: Enterprise 2.0 | No Comments »