The past 10 years have brought tremendous changes in how the world consumes and thinks about data. At no time in the history of managing information have humans become more aware of the role data plays in all of our lives. Better still, most of us are keenly aware of what happens when it’s not well managed.
For those who work in data management it’s been hard to bet on where all of this change will lead. There are, however, significant patterns and shifts emerging that are having a profound impact on the way business leaders and technologists work. The result is that many of us are now forced to rethink previously irreproachable methodologies. One of those shifts will be the transition from Enterprise Architecture to Enterprise Stewardship.
The rise of advanced analytics and data science, along with supporting tech like machine learning and AI, has forever changed the landscape. However, large inventories of legacy business systems continue to be the barrier to realization of next generation solutions. There’s a not-so-quiet war underway between the monolithic platforms of the old guard Big Tech and the relatively newer micro-service based Cloud applications. This is a battle that’s left EA struggling to find middle ground as enterprise application portfolios stagnate and become cluttered like your grandparent’s garage. It’s also deeply impacting the ability to pivot your business quickly. Sadly, resistance to such change forces the development of deep bias which may manifest as technology over process, apps over data, or consumption over stewardship.
If you want what modern data has to offer, it’s time to rethink how to get there. Companies must seriously reconsider how they approach the care and feeding of the data in their eco-systems. This may sound counter-intuitive, but to win in the digital decade companies must also aggressively re-purpose their enterprise tech landscape with that same focus on data. Despite the advances in technology, the path forward will still lie in people making good choices.
While not a new term, this is an effort to innovate the concept of Enterprise Stewardship. I envision a transformation roadmap and framework to the next generation of data management. One that moves the focus from ownership to stewardship, and to what I feel Enterprise Architecture must become: Enterprise Stewardship. The framework should be founded upon the notion that a healthy and successful business revolves around well managed data that’s highly accessible and deeply trusted. While that sounds straight forward, the journey to digital transformation is anything but. Lastly, it’s built on things that make sense. Like managing your tech and people investments with a strategy to focus on better data.