With the hype surrounding Big Data and current focus on tools and technology such as Hadoop, it is easy to forget that success of any technology project rests more on strategy and less on technology/tools. That’s true even in the case of Big Data solutions.
Architects and managers implementing Big Data solutions would do well to remember that in order to truly leverage and derive insights from Big Data, it is important to have a Master Data Management (MDM) solution in place with a repository of relevant non-transactional data entities (also known as master data).
For example, if an organization wants to leverage social media data for better sales, marketing or customer support, it is important that a master database of all customers and prospects is in place with information on social media profiles/handles for each customer. Master Data Management (MDM) “comprises a set of processes, governance, policies, standards and tools that consistently defines and manages the master data of an organization” (for more, see this).
Trying to implement a Big Data solution without a repository of relevant master data is a recipe for disaster in my opinion. What to you think? Do you agree that MDM is key to Big Data success? Please share your thoughts:
