A data dictionary describes data in business terms, including information about the data. It includes elements like data types, structure details, and security restrictions. Unlike business glossaries, which focus on data across the organization, data dictionaries support data architectures – the technical infrastructures that connect a Business Strategy and Data Strategy with technical execution. This support references high-quality metadata that describes data platform attributes […]
10 Advantages of Real-Time Data Streaming in Commerce
While early science fiction shows like “Buck Rogers” (1939) and “The Fly” (1950) depicted teleportation technology, it was Star Trek’s transporter room that made real-time living matter transfer a classical sci-fi trope. While we haven’t built technology that enables real-time matter transfer yet, modern science is pursuing concepts like superposition and quantum teleportation to facilitate information transfer across any distance […]
The Swashbuckling Guide to Building an Analytics Center of Excellence
Ahoy, data adventurers! Embarking on the thrilling journey of building a successful Analytics Center of Excellence (CoE) is akin to navigating the vast seas of data-driven decision-making. As a seasoned captain who’s steered the ship through the turbulent waters of financial services, retail, CPG, and telecom industries, I’ve charted a course that’s proven its mettle […]
How to Become a Data Engineer
The work of data engineers is extremely technical. They are responsible for designing and maintaining the architecture of data systems, which incorporates concepts ranging from analytic infrastructures to data warehouses. A data engineer needs to have a solid understanding of commonly used scripting languages and is expected to support the steady evolution of improved Data Quality, […]
Mastering Microsoft SQL Server: Analyzing and Optimizing Complex Queries
In the realm of database management, particularly with Microsoft SQL Server, understanding and optimizing complex queries is crucial for maintaining system performance and efficiency. As databases grow and complexity, the queries used to retrieve, update, or manipulate data can become increasingly intricate, potentially leading to slower response times and decreased application performance. This blog post […]
How GenAI Bridges the Data Gap Between CMOs and CFOs
Marketing budgets are never entirely safe. While it may seem like pressure is easing as global economic estimates turn slightly sunnier, consumer demand is still getting more expensive to capture and close – which means scrutiny from finance chiefs is as tough as ever. To keep investment flowing, CMOs need to get better at not only boosting […]
5 Key Strategies for Making Data Visualization Accessible
“If I can’t picture it, I can’t understand it.” —Albert Einstein Research has found that 65% of the general population are visual learners, meaning they need to see information as images to understand it. The business world confirms this: Visualization is essential in driving success. Take, for instance, data visualization, or, the art of translating data into […]
Fundamentals of Data Virtualization
Organizations are increasingly employing innovative technology called “data virtualization” (DV) to tackle high volumes of data from varied sources. Data virtualization is widely used in enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and sales force automation (SFA) systems to collect and aggregate multi-source data. From multi-sourced data acquisition to advanced analytics, this technology seems […]
How to Achieve Self-Service Data Transformation for AI and Analytics
Data transformation is the critical step that bridges the gap between raw data and actionable insights. It lays the foundation for strong decision-making and innovation, and helps organizations gain a competitive edge. Traditionally, data transformation was relegated to specialized engineering teams employing complex extract, transform, and load (ETL) processes using highly complex tooling and code. […]
Unveiling the Power of Dark Data in Strategic Decision-Making
If you’ve never heard of dark data, you’re not alone. Setting aside the ominous name, dark data isn’t something that is inherently bad – although, in practice, it usually does end up this way. Dark data is usually unstructured data, though it can also be semi-structured or structured data that a business collects and stores but […]