Page 26 - Data Architecture

Chapter 1.1: An Introduction to Data Architecture
In a word, if it is data and it is in the corporation, it is depicted by the bar shown in Fig.
1.1.1.

Subdividing Data

There are many ways to subdivide the data shown in Fig. 1.1.1. The way that is shown is
only one of many ways data can be understood.

One way to understand the data found in the corporation is to look at structured data and
nonstructured data. Fig. 1.1.2 shows this subdivision of data.

Fig. 1.1.2 Structured data is only a small part of corporate data.

Structured data are data that are well defined. Structured data are typically repetitive.
The same structure of data recurs repeatedly. The only difference between one
occurrence of data and another is in the contents of the data. As a simple example of
structured data, there are records of the sale of a good—an “SKU”—made by a retailer.
Each time Walmart makes a sale the item sold, the amount of the sale, the tax paid, and
the date and location of the sale are recorded. In a day's time, Walmart will create many
records of the sale of many items. From a structural standpoint, the sale of one item will
be identical to the sale of another item. The data are called “structured” because of the

similarity of the structure of the records.

The high degree of structure and definition of the records make the records easy to

handle inside a database management system.

However, structured records are hardly the only kind of data in the corporation. In fact,

structured data typically represent only a small fraction of the data found in the
corporation. The other kind of data found in the corporation is called unstructured data.

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