GOOD STRATEGY

Category: All Data

  • Reality Check: Data Mesh and Data Warehousing  

    Reality Check: Data Mesh and Data Warehousing  

    To begin at the beginning

    A few days ago, I published a blog piece that contained the following paragraphs:

    I am quite a fan of many aspects that sit under the Data Mesh umbrella. However, when it comes to a proper fact-based understanding and analysis of the history, place and architecture (business, data and technical) of Data Warehousing the leading exponents of data mesh have it woefully wrong.

    Therefore, the purpose of this blog article is to set the record straight.

    However, it seems to be that denial and specious arguments, are the preferred weapons of choice, over simply and honestly engaging in a professional discourse about these concerns.

    Fast-forward to the future

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  • DATA WORLD: DATA! STRATEGY, INNOVATION AND VALUE BULLSHIT

    DATA WORLD: DATA! STRATEGY, INNOVATION AND VALUE BULLSHIT

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Oza dos Rios 9th June 2020

    REMEMBER! BUY MY BOOK! LAUGHING@BIGDATA

    The purpose of language is to communicate—usually the conveyance of meaning from one entity to another. The value of communication is based on the availability of timely, appropriate and adequate information. In this way, it is positive. But communication can also be used to manipulate, deceive and confuse.

    (more…)
  • DATA WORLD: Why I called bullshit on the data lakehouse nonsense

    DATA WORLD: Why I called bullshit on the data lakehouse nonsense

    Why I called bullshit on the data lakehouse nonsense

    I wrote an article that took to task purveyors of the data lakehouse nonsense. It got plenty of positive reactions and quite a few negative opinions. But what surprised me the most were the number of people who had already swallowed their pitch. Hook, line and sinker.

    So why did I bother to express my opinions on the subject?

    (more…)
  • THE TEN BIG DATA COMMANDMENTS

    THE TEN BIG DATA COMMANDMENTS

    HOW TO SUCCEED WITH BIG DATA

    Here are the ten golden rules of belief for surefire big data success:

    (more…)
  • REVEALING WEALTH: USING BIG DATA TO FIGHT TAX EVASION – MARTYN JONES

    REVEALING WEALTH: USING BIG DATA TO FIGHT TAX EVASION – MARTYN JONES

    REVEALING WEALTH: USING BIG DATA TO FIGHT TAX EVASION – MARTYN JONES

    If anything, taxes for the lower and middle class and maybe even the upper-middle class should even probably be cut further. But I think that people at the high end – people like myself – should be paying a lot more in taxes. We have it better than we’ve ever had it.

    Warren Buffett

    (more…)
  • Information Technology Mirror Balls!

    Information Technology Mirror Balls!

    Coffee and cakes for breakfast
    On the Way of Saint James

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Brussels, 10th July 2019

    As George Burns put it “the key to success is sincerity” and “if you can fake that you’ve got it made.”

    He was right, and you don’t need to go any further than the bizarre world of information technology, with its plethora of professional bulllshit artists, to work this one out.

    Think of these folk as IT bullshit whisperers.

    (more…)
  • Data must adapt or die!

    Data must adapt or die!

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Our bloke in Brussels, 3rd July 2019

    It’s a simple, timeless, human truth; data must adapt or die.

    Read between the lines, the writing on the wall, the fat lady singing and the barking dogs at the gate.

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  • STRAIGHT TALK: Agile at Scale is Bullshit by Design

    STRAIGHT TALK: Agile at Scale is Bullshit by Design

    cropped-p4010326.jpgMartyn Richard Jones

    Bruxelles 28th May 2019

    To begin at the beginning

    To paraphrase the great Bob Hoffman. Just when you thought that if evangelists for Agile were to generate one more ounce of bullshit the entire fucking solar system would explode, what do they do? Exceed expectations.

    And how did they do that? Ladies and gentlemen, let me introduce you to Agile at Scale with all the miscellaneous, spiced-up and vainglorious crap-on-the-side that accompanies it.

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  • Learning to hate Agile-at-scale

    Learning to hate Agile-at-scale

    StupidToScaleAfilonius Rex

    Cordoba, 12th May 2019

    Ladies and gentlemen, the performance is about to start!

    In 1998, as Programme, Product and Competence Centre manager at Hewlett-Packard, I signed the Agile Manifesto.

    At that time, I had been using elements of the Agile-method mindset for the best part of sixteen years.

    Previously, in 1995 I was trained and certified in Iterations, an iterative and agile-like methodology for building, maintaining and expanding data warehouses and data marts. (more…)

  • CEO BRIEFING: Deep learning and shallow understanding

    CEO BRIEFING: Deep learning and shallow understanding

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    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Bruxelles, 29th April 2019

    To begin at the beginning

    In spite of or perhaps because of the many years I worked in artificial intelligence I believe that the current long-distance love affair with AI and what is also euphemistically termed ‘deep learning’ to be somewhat irrational in its exuberance.

    In the eighties I was experimenting with automatic feature extraction, pattern recognition and parallel distributed processing (see Rumelhart and McClelland), which led me to adaptive neural networks.

    As a result, my research and development in this field showed me that automatically mining nuggets of gold or automatically gaining real insight from data is not easy, far from stable and frequently not achievable.  Interesting experiments, but frequently impractical in a business setting. (more…)

  • Three really stupid things you can do with a Data Lake

    Three really stupid things you can do with a Data Lake

    OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAMartyn Richard Jones

    Gif sur Yvette, 27th December 2017

    To begin at the beginning

    First, a thought.

    Just because it’s there, it doesn’t mean it has to be done. Just because you can, it doesn’t mean that you should. Just because you believe you are right, doesn’t mean that you are not wrong.

    (more…)

  • If Relational Was the New Thing

    If Relational Was the New Thing

    Image2Martyn Richard Jones

    Gif sur Yvette, 15th December 2017

    If all we had right now was operational tech stacks consisting of PL/1 and IMS and Hadoop we would be in a bad place if it came to strategic, tactical and operational decision support. (more…)

  • Business Data Explained: The Long Read

    Business Data Explained: The Long Read

    Martyn Richard Jones, Gif sur Yvette 23rd September 2017

    Integrity

    Hi, Friends. As always, it’s great to be able to engage with you again. I am writing to you from the splendorous, wooded and verdant French town of Gif sur Yvette, and I wanted to take this opportunity to address aspects of data for an audience beyond the interests of data management and architecture people.

    There is confusion about some of the fundamental aspects of business data, and there shouldn’t. If we strip away all of the boloney, it’s a subject that is quite approachable. In short, ‘it is not rocket surgery’. (more…)

  • STRAIGHT TALK: How to turn data into knowledge

    STRAIGHT TALK: How to turn data into knowledge

    Martyn Jones

    Zurich, Switzerland – 3rd August 2017

    Image2If anyone can turn data into knowledge then that person is me.

    Let me explain.

    I am a data architecture and management professional. For more than three decades I have been acquiring knowledge and experience in the design and delivery of effective data and solutions architectures for a wide range of projects and in a wide range of (mainly large global or regional) enterprise clients.

    Therefore I think I can reasonably presume to have built up quite a good personal body of knowledge when it comes to applied data architecture and management.

    As well as being a professional in the management and architecture of data, I have also considerable knowledge and experience in the areas of information management, artificial intelligence and knowledge management (structured intellectual capital).

    So, what about turning data or information into knowledge? (more…)

  • STRAIGHT TALK: 5 Simple Tips to Help You Survive the Big Data Bullshit Revolution

    STRAIGHT TALK: 5 Simple Tips to Help You Survive the Big Data Bullshit Revolution

    Image1Afilonius Rex

    Dunny on the Wold, 1st July 2017

    The 4th big data bullshit is here, and it is completely reimagining the way we conceptualise, think and reason. This amazingly and imaginary Govesque world is driven by hyperbole and mendacity distributed via interconnected digital devices that are capable of amassing and fermenting ever-growing amounts of big data bullshit.

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  • Become an Instant Big Data Rock Star with 10 Insider Tips from the Top

    Become an Instant Big Data Rock Star with 10 Insider Tips from the Top

    002Martyn Richard Jones  

    Talacharn, 28th May 2017

    Folks! Here I bring you ten amazing tips from some of Big Data’s great and good. Tips that will help you become the Big Data Rock Star that you have always dreamed of being.

    But first, a question.

    What’s the sexiest job in the 21st century? (more…)

  • How to turn internal user data into a massive liability – Zéro pièce

    How to turn internal user data into a massive liability – Zéro pièce

    5

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Laugharne 18th May 2017

    “Our discreditable secret is that we don’t know anything at all, and our horrid inner secret is that we don’t care that we don’t.”

    ― Dylan Thomas

    Let me explain

    I read a poster the other, it read “How To Turn Internal User Data Into Revenue”. It was one of those Facebook or LinkedIn hooks, you know, the ones used to get people to spend precious time on useless pursuits.

    It reminded me of a book that my mother-in-law bought for my partner, many, many moons ago. “How to make a mint whilst you snooze”, or some such wacky title.

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  • TEAM 2.0 Total Eminence Analytical Mapper – The highest level architecture

    TEAM 2.0 Total Eminence Analytical Mapper – The highest level architecture

    This is the draft version of TEAM 0.1

    The TEAM 2.0 version will be published in June 2017.

    This will by far the best and most streamlined and comprehensive analytics and (big) data framework that has ever existed in the life-time of IT.

    TEAM2

    Many thanks for reading.

  • AI and Big Data: A pig’s breakfast

    AI and Big Data: A pig’s breakfast

    Pigs_eating_pumpkins.jpgMartyn Richard Jones

    Dublin 10th May 2017

    Throw AI, Big Data and Data Science into a pot, and what have you got?

    Yes. A pig’s breakfast, not fit for a pig.

    Let me explain

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  • Data-Less Apps: Revolutionary IT

    Data-Less Apps: Revolutionary IT

    Image1Martyn Richard Jones

    Dublin 9th May 2017

    Weighed down with data?

    Inundated with information?

    Overstrained with knowledge?

    Intimidated by wisdom?

    Don’t despair!

    Relief from all of this is just be around the corner, in the shape of the next revolutionary inflection point in IT. Yes, as you might have guessed it by now. I am talking about data-less apps. (more…)

  • Brand Aversion: Exhibit One

    Brand Aversion: Exhibit One

    Martyn Richard Jones

    San Luis Obispo 16th April 2017

    La-mode-sur-tous-les-tableauxTaking a Pop at Traditional Data Warehousing

    Pitch: I recently read a report from a data visualisation company on the “Top Ten Big Data Trends for 2017”. This is what they told me “Hadoop is no longer just a batch-processing platform for data-science use cases. It has become a multi-purpose engine for ad hoc analysis. It’s even being used for operational reporting on day-to-day workloads—the kind traditionally handled by data warehouses.” (more…)

  • Big Dummies for Data

    Big Dummies for Data

    Martyn Jones

    Madrid 25th January 2017

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    HERE’S A THOUGHT! In the past age of big iron, the only reason for not having a proliferation of duplicated databases was the prohibitively high cost of disk storage. Now, we can let our database collections grow ‘like Topsy’. This is the Brave New World of data… apparently…

    Let’s, for one moment, be the fly-guy on the corporate wall. What are we picking up on the radar there, Enda? Oh, yes…

    (more…)

  • Hadoop’s Revolutionary Data Warehouse

    Hadoop’s Revolutionary Data Warehouse

    Martyn Richard Jones

    Baile Átha Cliath

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    2017 Martyn Richard Jones

    It’s Easter in Baile Átha Cliath, and thoughts naturally turn to purple-shrouded, sombre-shadowed and mystical aspects of bereavement, resurrection and bunnies.

    Which may go some way to explain why people come up to me in the street, and apropos of nothing, ask me about what is the biggest reason why Data Warehousing projects fail.

    Try as I might, I cannot convince people that the reasons I give have any validity. It’s as if the mundaneness of the stupidity involved in these failures is just too frivolous, banal and immature as to be believable or even worth listening to.

    (more…)

  • Here’s a thought… A Date with Codd

    Here’s a thought… A Date with Codd

    SBMartyn Richard Jones

    Carmarthen 18th March 2017

    This is a second collection of snippets; ideas and occurrences that are aimed to provoke critical thought and engagement.

    As I stated in the first of these articles, “Most people who know me, at least in a professional capacity, will know that I am no unconditional supporter of Data Warehousing, never mind the more plague ridden swamps inhabited by Big Data, Data Lakes, Travelling IoT, Dodgy Data Science, Instant Data Scientists (just add water) and New-Age Machine Learning. So, many will not be surprised by this heterogeneous post-modern pastiche of ideas, impressions and bagatelles.”

    I have extended the original scope of these posts to include any thought on themes of strategy, data, technology, process, business and humanity. (more…)