Biographical Information

Articles by Pete Rivett

Are You Creating a Data Swamp?

Organizations have made investments in "small data" for years and many are achieving data governance, or at least understand the gap they need to fill. They know how to work with the relatively small number of technologies in play—including databases (standardized on SQL), ETL, DQ and BI—ideally all linked with modeling tools and/or a business glossary. These organizations are now embracing the promise of big data—a new frontier akin to the wild west or the gold rush, with programmers/data scientists let loose with a daily growing menagerie of languages and technologies outside the normal IT and governance structure. Sometimes this produces genuinely impressive-looking results and insights—especially those supporting marketing. But making decisions based on marketing insights can be low consequence compared to other potential analytical results . . . .