Remember the data warehousing promises of the past — single source of the truth, reliable data when and where needed, and so on? These promises were rarely realized, and when they were they were never quite enough. Why the gap between expectations and reality? Much of the problem stems from the way we think about data. Enterprise data warehousing assumes that data is a thing to be stored, processed, and managed by technology organizations.

In the age of self-service we must think about data in an entirely different way—data as a service that is accessed, processed, analyzed, and reported by everyone who has a need for information. With data services presented through a “storefront” interface where data users can “shop” to find best-fit data to meet their needs, we can make the shift from the enterprise data warehouse (EDW) to the enterprise data marketplace (EDM).

Imagine the power and impact of a curated marketplace that serves a community of analysts “shopping” for data. Finding the right data quickly is essential in the age of analytics. With ever-increasing numbers of people who analyze data most data analysts depend on tribal knowledge and word of mouth to find the data they need. They don’t have visibility into the data sets that exist, their contents, or the quality and usefulness of each. As a result, they spend too much time finding data, evaluating data, and recreating data sets that already exist.

EDM can change all of this, empowering data seekers to find data sets, evaluate their fit for purpose, read reviews from others who have used the data, get immediate access, and prepare data for use. Recent technology innovations provide advanced capabilities for data cataloging, data preparation, data curation, and collaboration. These tools place the EDM within the reach of data-dependent organizations everywhere.

Readers Will Learn:

• The business case for the enterprise data marketplace
• The characteristics of an effective data marketplace
• EDM architecture and components
• The role of data curating and cataloging in the EDM
• The scope and value of EDM data services
• Social dimensions of the EDM including crowdsourcing and gamification
• The technologies that enable the EDM