A Brief History of Data Warehousing – 2026/01/07 – Includes Podcast

10 Saturday Jan 2026

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Masterclass, Snippet

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art, Behavioural Economics, Business Enablement, Information and Technology, Information Technology, internet, Marketing, photography, technology

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

Madrid, 7th January 2026

The origins of data warehousing are often pinned to the late 1980s, when the term “business data warehouse” first appeared in an influential IBM Systems Journal article by researchers Barry Devlin and Paul Murphy. I was based in Birmingham at that time, and I also wrote a similar foundational document on Information Centres for Sperry Univac.

Yet, as with many technological breakthroughs, the story is far richer and older than the conventional narrative suggests. The foundational components of what we now recognise as a data warehouse were quietly taking shape as early as the 1960s, driven by the need to organise, integrate, and analyse growing volumes of business information in an era of punch cards, magnetic tape, and the first mainframes.

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Too Much Information

16 Wednesday Mar 2016

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones 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 →

Can You Read? Be Honest, Now

15 Tuesday Mar 2016

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in business strategy, Good Strat, Good Strategy, goodstrat, Inform, educate and entertain., Marty does, Martyn does, Martyn Jones, Martyn Richard Jones, Strategy

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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 →

STRAIGHT TALK: Main cause of IT project failure? – Big Data Informs… 2026 Revamp

09 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Business Intelligence, Executive, Extract, Knowledge, Offshoring, Outsourcing

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Behavioural Economics, Best principles, Big Data, Business Enablement, business intelligence, Business Management, business strategy, Challenges, Creativity, Data Warehouse, Organisational Autism

We analysed all the big data and discovered that the biggest reason for IT project failure is people – Big Data Informs…

We had failed at Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Core Competence, and quite a few other things, so some bright spark decided to give Big Data a shot.

The first task was to identify the reasons for IT project failure globally.

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Nothing achievable is impossible: Challenges, Self-worth and Strategies – 2026 Replay

09 Thursday Oct 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Excellence, Methodology

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Ask Martyn, Behavioural Economics, Best principles, Business Enablement, Business Management, Information Technology, Strategy

Martyn Richard Jones

Remastered for 2026

I came into IT at the tail end of the seventies, joining one of the original computing pioneers.

It was a conservative company led by veterans, engineers, accountants, and sales professionals, with many ties to the US administration, the Department of Defence, and intelligence agencies.

My interests at the time were in philosophy, politics and economics. I liked meeting people and talking, and I also enjoyed helping people solve real-life business problems, so I was always engaged with corporate staff and executive management rather than with the real hard-core technicians and engineers.

The thing is, I had no idea what constrained IT, so I never had that baggage when thinking about solutions.

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Mugged in Data Hell – Summary – На Бо́га наде́йся, а сам не плоша́й

07 Tuesday Oct 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Architecture, Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Dogma, Knowledge, Offshoring, Outsourcing, Peeves, Risk, Strategy

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Behavioural Economics, Best principles, Business Enablement, business intelligence, Business Management, business strategy, Challenges, Data Warehouse, Demagogism, Dogma, Financial, IT Strategy, Offshoring, Organisational Autism, Outsourcing, Requirements management, Risk

Martyn Richard Jones

I wrote a piece titled “Mugged in Data Hell.”

INTRO

It told the story of a CIO who was hoodwinked, cajoled, bullied, bribed and patronised into doing the wrong things, continuously.

As my mate Bill said, “It packs big punches, and doesn’t hold back with the shit-kicking truth”.

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Creativity – Three Stories – Remastered for 2026

05 Sunday Oct 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Dogma, Knowledge

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Behavioural Economics, Best principles, Business, Business Enablement, Creativity, Dogma, Management, Strategy

Martyn Richard Jones

Remastered for 2026

Here are three stories that illustrate the connection between creativity and what we do in business. Jack’s Retail Story talks about the expansion of retail business; Jill’s Colour Book Story highlights a hugely pervasive tendency, even in these times; and Martyn’s Summer Story argues that there is a strategic time and place for some things.

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Aligning Data Warehousing with Corporate Vision – Remaster 2026

04 Saturday Oct 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Excellence, Knowledge, Process

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Behavioural Economics, Best principles, Business Enablement, business intelligence, Business Management, business strategy, corporate assets, IT Strategy

Martyn Richard Jones

Remaster 2026 – Galicia, Spain

Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence professionals need to think about how their vision will align with and support the corporate vision. Still, they also need to consider how the Data Warehouse vision aligns with addressing the challenges to the vision of the organisation, as well as taking into account the challenges to the vision of the Data Warehousing team, and also, challenges with any conceptual and informational structuring of the corporate vision, forces/challenges and strategy.

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Mugged in Data Hell – Perils of embracing the Faustian Side of IT – Part 4 – Remaster 2026

04 Saturday Oct 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Architecture, Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Knowledge, Peeves

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Behavioural Economics, Business Enablement, business intelligence, Business Management, business strategy, data integration, Demagogism, Dogma, enterprise data warehousing, Goal Setting, Information and Technology, information management, IT Strategy, MDM, Offshoring, Organisational Autism, Outsourcing, Strategy

By Martyn Richard Jones

Continued from Part 3, which can be found here -> Part 3

“The following week, the full high-powered delegation from The Taffia Connection and BogartSys flies in. It was as if an army had come to do battle with us. Uniformly slick, sullen and tacky. iPhone; laptop; knock-off Marks and Spark’s; check patterns; butt ugly ties; ‘plastique’ shoes; mismatching socks; ‘business’ rucksacks; all weather hoodies; and, worst of all, off-the-peg smirks just begging to be slapped”.

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Mugged in Data Hell – Perils of embracing the Faustian Side of IT – Part 3

03 Friday Oct 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Process

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Behavioural Economics, BI, Big Data, Business, Business Enablement, Business Management, Demagogism, Dogma, enterprise data warehousing, Information Technology, IT Strategy, MDM, Offshoring, Organisational Autism, Outsourcing

Continued from Part 2 which can be found here -> Part 2

I look over at Crème, who is now staring out the window watching the rain. I cough, theatrically, for effect. “So, Crème, would you like a rest, or do you want to tell us about what happened next?”

“Oh, yes” Crème says, “Sorry, I was wandering there for a while”. She continues.

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On your way to DW success? We’ll put a stop to that! – Remaster 2026

01 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Architecture, Big Data, Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Excellence, Inmon, Peeves

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Behavioural Economics, Best principles, BI, business analysis, Business Enablement, Business Management, data integration, enterprise data warehousing

One of the most soul-destroying moments in the life of a data warehouse professional is when a key decision maker (usually backed by other key decision makers) decides to radically alter course, and “in a dance as old as time”, snatches defeat from the jaws of victory.

This can happen in various ways, but the most gut-wrenching of all is this…

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Baby Naming and Religious and Social Trends – Remaster 2026

01 Wednesday Oct 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Big Data, Knowledge

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Behavioural Economics, BI, Business Enablement, Organisational Autism

As legal sources close to the Westminster Bar would have it, an alleged fan of Stewart Lee, a leading English social commentator, writer, director, musician and stand-up comedian, has called on the power of big data outcomes to highlight changing demographics and to place hot-topic issues of people and society in the public forum. Continue reading →

Understanding Climate Change Through Big Data Insights – Remaster 2026

30 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Big Data, Business Intelligence, Climate Change, Excerpt, Peeves

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Behavioural Economics, business analysis, Business Enablement, Business Management

You may well have seen all the climate change events around the world. 23^rd September saw the biggest ever Climate Change awareness march the world has produced to date. Al Gore was there, Ban Ki Moon was there, Leonardo DiCaprio was there… even Prince Chuck was there.

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Essential Steps for Successful Data Warehousing

28 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Architecture, Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Excellence

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Behavioural Economics, business analysis, Business Enablement, business intelligence, enterprise data warehousing, IT Strategy, Organisational Autism

Young Einstein was awaiting the birth of his sister. His mother and father had been telling him for months to look forward to having somebody to play with. When Einstein eventually got to see his sister, he exclaimed disappointedly “But, it doesn’t have wheels!”

That happens a lot in IT. Young Einstein had a very good excuse, we don’t.

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Improving IT-Business Communication for Data Success – Remaster 2026

27 Saturday Sep 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Peeves

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BI, Business Enablement, business intelligence, Business Management, enterprise data warehousing, IT Strategy, Organisational Autism

In a city centre office block, somewhere in Scotland, the conversation between the IT Business Manager (Bill) and the Information Management Manager (Richie) is in full swing,, Bob is irate because his successfully delivered data mart has been derided as unusable rubbish by the business people it was meant to serve.

Let’s join the conversation: Continue reading →

Data Disasters: Lessons from Widget and Wodget’s Failures – Remaster 2026

23 Tuesday Sep 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Extract

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Ask Martyn, business analysis, Business Enablement, business intelligence, Business Management, business strategy, enterprise data warehousing, information management, Organisational Autism, Strategy

It’s 9:45 on a cold and wintry Monday morning; crowds of people are huddled around the water fountains as gossip spreads throughout the building like wildfire. There has been a multiple data pile up in the Widget and Wodget data centre, there are a few casualties but no reported fatalities. No one knows what quite is going on, as shadowy rumour hints at flying pigs, rebellious ducks and rolling heads.

It was to be a big day for Widget and Wodget, “your neighbourhood’s favourite Prime Brokers”, it was billed as the Senior Mega Monday to end all Mega Mondays. A mega coup for the hallowed financial institution of W&W; today would be the day that would herald in the culmination of two major IPOs and one multi-billion global M&A deal signed off, as well as the launch of a raft of CDOs.

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Why IT Must Speak the Language of Business – Remaster 2026

21 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Business Intelligence, Data Warehouse, Extract

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BI, Business Enablement, business intelligence, business strategy, data integration, enterprise data warehousing, information management, MDM, Organisational Autism, Requirements management, Strategy

Extract taken from the draft work-in-progress provisionally titled Assess! Choose! Act! Data Warehousing and Strategy by Martyn Jones, Chief Strategist at Cambriano Energy.

For more than 34 years I have been trying to convince IT organisations that it is not in their best interests to play Santa Claus, especially when it comes to strategy and data management.

Peace. Tranquility. Mastery.

I have tried – again and again, to make people pay attention to this advice, because I think that acting upon this take-away in an intelligent manner is absolutely central for the success of IT, for the benefit of business, and ultimately for the effective realization of Information Management; whether that is Data Warehousing, Business Intelligence, Data Integration, Decision Support, Data Analytics, Big Data or MDM.

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A Brief History of Data Warehousing

14 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Snippet

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Behavioural Economics, Business Enablement, Information and Technology, Information Technology

There is a general consensus that Data Warehousing first appeared in the 1980s. However, the components of Data Warehousing were being developed and implemented as early as the 1960s. Many individuals are credited with discovering Data Warehousing. Wikipedia has a great chronological timeline that provides a lot of context for the evolution of data warehousing methodologies.

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Transforming IT: A Guide for CEOs – REMASTER 2026

14 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Polemic, Snippet

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Behavioural Economics, Business, Business Enablement, corporate assets, Goal Setting, Information and Technology, Information Technology, IT Strategy, Organisational Autism, Strategy, traditional assets

Far too few CEOs regularly think about IT on a habitual basis, and especially as something that is potentially integrated into everything their companies do and could do. This, however, is not at all surprising; there is a general lack of time for any CEO to be actively involved in what IT does, and they will generally have some degree of misunderstanding of both the historic roles and the relative successes and failures of IT.

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Transforming IT: Strategies for Business Success – REMASTER 2026

14 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Polemic, Snippet

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Behavioural Economics, Business Enablement, Information Technology, Organisational Autism, Strategy

From banking to airlines, through communications businesses to pharmaceutical companies, the IT landscape is littered with failures of Homeric proportions, lost opportunities and profligate waste. Across the spectrum of commercial enterprise, the IT bottom line is inevitably familiar: in general, businesses expose themselves to unnecessary levels of disruption, and spend far too much time and money on IT projects, IT products and internal IT services that frankly suck.

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Aligning ICT with Business Strategy for Growth – REMASTER 2026

14 Sunday Sep 2014

Posted by Martyn Rhisiart Jones in Polemic, Snippet

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Business Enablement, Goal Setting, Information Technology, Strategy

Martyn Rhisiart Jones

As a CEO, CIO, or student of Business Management, you will understand this. Information and Communication Technology (ICT, also known as IT) has become essential. It is crucial. It is a pervasive element in the fabric of corporate life. What I mean by ICT encompasses three essential elements: Processes, Information and Technology. ICT should be seen as an important corporate asset. More importantly, Information, Processes, and their Management (IM) should be considered as such. They should be made to work as contemporary business enablers. They should bring about value-adding alignment in business. Thus, they should be managed as such. Although it does work that way, it typically doesn’t.

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