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Testimonials xxi

“I have met Pierre Bonnet “virtually” on an MDM-related
Linkedin group. This allowed me to discover and join the
MAG initiative wholeheartedly. Although a long time
database professional (from DBA to Data-base Architect), my
exposure to MDM started only a few years ago, with an IBM
MDM “draft” solution, while I was involved in “architecting”
an analytical DWH model, based on an operational ODS/ETL
model, integrating a 3rd party CRM package, and complying
with global, corporate wide reporting requirements. My first
impression, outside the “siloed” legacy (mainframe) world,
was the semantic “chaos” introduced by the brave, new and
open, distributed platforms, applications and database
management systems. Beyond the versatile XML, the MDM
(metadata management) was not standard, not accepted, but
even had a lukewarm reception from the majors (IBM, MS &
Oracle). It was clear that MDM was something else, a few
abstraction layers higher, definitely aimed at the business
alignment of the data and application semantics. SOA was
hot and it promised relief to IT of all the legacy (mainframe,
that is) pains. It is less hot now, but it is more mature and it
has become absolutely clear there is no IT alternative to it
(sic!).

While becoming an architect (an alliteration for a
seasoned systems engineer, with the stress on both terms)
entering the marvelous Company Architecture (Zakman’s)
World I've realized that architects have missed one point:
legacy (including new technologies, from MS, Oracle and
IBM, among others) was not present explicitly, while
(passive) data or (actionable) information were persisted
tremendously, all over the place, like in a (flat) Babel Tower.
The (world of) IT was (is) flat (courtesy of T. Friedman). The
answer to that lack of “dimensions” was (already) there:
Master Data Management - that business's own lingua
franca, that IT should translate into local platform MDM
“dialects“, ensuring the long-time aimed “integration” and