08 Sunday Feb 2026
Martyn Rhisiart Jones, Madrid 28th January 2026
I would like to introduce you to a pragmatic approach to Big Data and Big Data Analytics. It is real-world focused and business-centric. This is the best approach to Big Data you are ever likely to find. Yet, I am still significantly understating the magnificent utility. It is also timely and has all the pertinent facets of the approach.
Continue reading21 Sunday Dec 2025
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, business strategy, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, Data Mart, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strat, Good Strategy, Good Strategy Radio, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., IT strategy, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, Strategy, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
28 Thursday Dec 2017
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data Analytics, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, Data Mart, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strat, Good Strategy, Good Strategy Radio, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones
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Martyn Richard Jones
Gif sur Yvette, 27th December 2017
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.
02 Wednesday Aug 2017
Posted in All Data, Architecture, Big Data, Big Data Analytics, data architecture, Data governance, data management, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strategy, Inform, educate and entertain., information, Information Management, Information Supply Framework, IT strategy, Knowledge, knowledge management, Marketing, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, Sales, structured intellectual capital, wisdom
Martyn Jones
Zurich, Switzerland – 3rd August 2017
If 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? Continue reading
22 Thursday Jun 2017
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“Knowledge is the capacity to give correct answers to questions.”
“There is no well trodden path that takes a straight line from symbols, through data to knowledge and wisdom. This is just some nonsense invented by the IT industry.” – Martyn Jones
We may define data as being the symbolic representation of value or conversely of something which has no attached value. Data may represent, among other things, time, money, resources or worldly objects.
18 Thursday May 2017
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, business strategy, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, Data Mart, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Good Strat, Good Strategy, Good Strategy Radio, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., IT strategy, Marty does, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, Strategy, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
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Martyn Richard Jones
Laugharne 18th May 2017
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.
09 Tuesday May 2017
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, business strategy, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, Data Mart, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strat, Good Strategy, Good Strategy Radio, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., IT strategy, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, Strategy, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
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Martyn 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. Continue reading
07 Sunday May 2017
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Martyn Richard Jones
Sunnyvale, CA – 7th May 2017
Listen up Team Leaders, Test Managers, Project Managers, Programme Managers, Portfolio Managers and PMOs.
You have just made the most perfect project plan in the entire history of project planning, and naturally you want to share your baby with the rest of the world.
But, you can’t.
Your perfectly designed, crafted and honed project plan is locked in a box that only you have access to.
Because none of your target audience has Microsoft Project. Continue reading
17 Monday Apr 2017
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Martyn Richard Jones
Madrid, 16th April 2017
I think Agile has its place, especially in the world of software application development, especially in building the kind of software that businesses frequently use in the peripheral aspects of their day-to-day operations.
Done right, Agile can make the difference between a great success and a painful failure. Done badly, and you might suffer a worse fate than a badly applied Software Development Life Cycle such as Waterfall. Done well, and Agile will oil the wheels of the machine that gets things done.
15 Saturday Apr 2017
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, Data Mart, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Inform, educate and entertain., Marty does, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
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Martyn Jones
Madrid 25th January 2017
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…
15 Saturday Apr 2017
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, business strategy, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, Data Mart, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strat, Good Strategy, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., IT strategy, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, Strategy, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
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Martyn Richard Jones
Baile Átha Cliath
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.
02 Friday Sep 2016
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Martyn Richard Jones
Langley, 2nd September 2016
Few outside of the big intelligence agencies of the USA, Russia and Andorra know this, but a big part of the success of Operational Excellence at ISIS can be put down to their judicious use of Big Data and Data Science. Or, so say the experts[i].
This will probably come as no surprise to big-gun Big Data gurus such as Bernard Marr, Rab C. Nesbitt or Alan Latchley, or indeed will it appear unusual to the more peripheral and intellectual areas of Big Data ‘guruship’ and Data Scientology, where we may find the likes of Shapiro, Kobielus and Podge and Rodge O’Leprosy.
31 Wednesday Aug 2016
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, Cambriano, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, good start, Good Strat, Good Strategy, goodstart, goodstartegy, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
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Martyn Richard Jones
Lora del Rio, 31st August 2016
Big data has arrived. Big Data is here for keeps. Big Data is the future.
Despite some of the malicious, mendacious and malodorous words of naysayers, sceptics and contrarians, the world of big data and big data analytics is replete with totally amazing and fabulous success stories.
Big Data gurus are often accused of not delivering coherent, cohesive and verifiable accounts of Big Data successes. Which is understandable but at the same time a pity. So here, to illustrate this miraculous and remarkable turnaround, I give you not three but seven of the many Big Data success stories that I could have casually grabbed out of the ether.
First, we take a trip to Glasgow to discover the leveraging of Big Data in alternative investments. Then we pass over to Boston to explore the magic of Big Data at Universal Legal. We venture through Switzerland and innovative marketing. Explore the heights of Dongalong Creek. Have a word with the good folks at Heisenberg Labs. Then round it off with a quick in-depth summary of Big Data at Choppers. So, here we go…
29 Monday Aug 2016
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, business, Business Intelligence, business strategy, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, good start, Good Strat, Good Strategy, goodstart, goodstartegy, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones
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Once upon a time, there was a mountain known as Peak 15. Very little was known about it. Then in 1852, surveyors found it was the highest in the world, and they named it Everest.
As with other significant challenges that we can identify in life, many people have been driven by a passionate desire to conquer peaks all around the world. This is just one illustration of those of us who can identify their significant challenges and rise to them. This sharp focus, determination and courage turns ordinary citizens into people who are invariably on a mission. People who know what they want. Continue reading
29 Tuesday Mar 2016
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, Commercial Analytics, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Inform, educate and entertain., Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, sentiment analysis, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
Martyn Richard Jones
I first became involved in commercial analytics in the eighties. First, through my involvement in customer segmentation and data visualisation, principally in banking but also in energy, manufacturing and the chemical industry. It also emerged later, in conjunction with my activities at the Sperry European Centre for AI, and was centred on pricing and yield management applications developed using a combination of statistical techniques, expert system technology and data centre architectures all tightly integrated within a 4GL development and delivery environment. This provided a comprehensive and seamless scenario building, hypothesis testing and reporting capability. Continue reading
17 Thursday Mar 2016
Why buy when you can get it for free?
Back at you! Here is the fifth fantastic delivery of an amazing and fabulous selection of free and widely available business analytics learning content, which has been prepared… just for you. Continue reading
16 Wednesday Mar 2016
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, business strategy, dark data, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strat, Good Strategy, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., IT strategy, Marty does, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, Strategy, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
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Ask Martyn, Big Data, Business Enablement, business intelligence, Business Management, Data Warehouse, Good Strat, Information Technology, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, Organisational Autism, Strategy
Martyn Richard Jones
I have questions about data.
Most of us who have more than a cursory knowledge of the English language have heard of the phrase ‘too much information’. We know what it means, even if we don’t always know when to apply it.
For those who don’t know, or are unsure, the Urban Dictionary describes ‘too much information’ as “An expression of exasperation and disgust when a person is divulging personal details of his sex life, toilet habits, or anything the listener finds disgusting, uninteresting, and unwelcome.”[1]
Sum, sum. Just because we know it, doesn’t mean we should share it or even try and remember it, never mind go about analysing the hell out of it.
This is where Big Data comes in. Continue reading
15 Tuesday Mar 2016
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Analytics, Ask Martyn, Behavioural Economics, Business Enablement, business strategy, Consider this, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, Organisational Autism, Strategy
Martyn Richard Jones
When you have read this, if indeed you read it all, will I have failed to convey the essence of what I am trying to get at? Will a confusion of entropy win the battle? Will the wheel of fortune turn in my favour, or will I fail to connect and communicate effectively?
Let’s give it a spin and see what happens. Continue reading
09 Wednesday Mar 2016
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, business strategy, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strat, Good Strategy, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., IT strategy, Marty does, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, statistics, Strategy, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
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Why buy when you can get it for free?
Back at you! Here is the fourth fantastic delivery of an amazing, fabulous selection of free, widely available business analytics learning content, prepared… just for you. Continue reading
08 Tuesday Mar 2016
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, business strategy, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strategy, Inform, educate and entertain., IT strategy, Marty does, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, Process, Strategy, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
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Why buy when you can get it for free?
Back at you! Here is the third fantastic delivery of an amazing and fabulous selection of free and widely available business analytics learning content, which has been prepared… just for you. Continue reading
05 Saturday Mar 2016
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, business strategy, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strat, Good Strategy, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., IT strategy, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, Strategy, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
Martyn Richard Jones
Dusseldorf, August 2006
Data Warehousing provides possibly one of the best opportunities for IT organizations to deliver a valuable business solution in order to address a set of business needs; requirements that go well beyond the area of day to day operational support, and traditional applications (web enabled or not), and when Data Warehousing is done the right way, and for the right reasons, its payback to all of its stakeholders can be positively significant. Continue reading
05 Saturday Mar 2016
Posted in All Data, Big Data, Big Data 7s, Big Data Analytics, dark data, data architecture, Data governance, Data Lake, data management, data science, Data Supply Framework, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, hadoop, Inform, educate and entertain., Marty does, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, pig data, The Amazing Big Data Challenge, The Big Data Contrarians
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This is the story of how the amazing Hadoop ecosphere revolutionised IT. If you enjoy it, then consider joining The Big Data Contrarians.
Before the advent of Hadoop and its ecosphere, IT was a desperate wasteland of failed opportunities, archaic technology and broken promises.
In the dark Cambrian days of bits, mercury delay lines and ferrite cores, we knew nothing about digital. The age of big iron did little to change matters, and vendors made enormous profits selling systems that nobody could use and even fewer people could understand. Continue reading
21 Sunday Feb 2016
Posted in Big Data, Big Data 7s, Data Warehouse, Data Warehousing, Good Strat, Good Strategy, goodstart, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., Information Management, Information Supply Frameowrk, Information Supply Framework, Inmon, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, Strategy, The Big Data Contrarians
NB THIS IS FICTION
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Data warehousing, what is it like?
Although the answers are probably obvious, and to be honest, compared to the Big Data hype-circus, this is a walk in the park, I have often wondered why Data Warehousing attracts such a surfeit of lazy, socially inept and shallow-thinking chancers. Continue reading
02 Saturday Jan 2016
“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything – all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure – these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important.” – Steve Jobs Continue reading