Embarcadero Technologies, a provider of software solutions for application and database development, has introduced CONNECT, the company's new metadata governance platform.
Embarcadero recently launched the newest version of its full database tools suite XE4, which includes ERStudio, its data architecture and data modeling suite, as well as DB Power Studio, its data management suite. “Essentially we cover the spectrum from data architecture to data delivery, and with XE 4, we are introducing this CONNECT product that actually ties those pieces together to deliver more value for customers,” Henry Olson, director of product management, Embarcadero, explained in a recent interview.
The two key ideas for CONNECT center around what Embarcadero calls "embracing the sprawl," said Olson. "We are helping our customers get their arms around all of the data assets in the organization and then closing the gap because sometimes in governance we find that front-line folks in IT such as DBAs often feel removed governance efforts. This is a way that policies and definitions can become part of their daily workflows."
From database administrators, architects, modelers and developers, to governance administrators and business users, CONNECT is intended to be a single platform that puts all of an organization's constituents on the same page without requiring existing technologies to be replaced.
According to Embarcadero, diverse data types are flooding organizations at fast pace – and while this can provide new opportunities for data management professionals and business data consumers, there must be consistency before any real benefits of this data can be recognized. The first step toward achieving this is identifying critical data elements and obtaining a clear understanding of their sources and interactions. integrates business definitions, models, and metadata with data management and development tools giving users "on the fly" business context for all their data, and providing a single, searchable registry of all available data sources, called the Enterprise Information Map. The map allows any authorized user to locate and utilize existing enterprise data via reports, glossaries and taxonomies, to make better use of data while adhering to business policies.
“There is a growing recognition that data governance is the pragmatic approach to the complexities of the enterprise data landscape,” said Olson. A typical enterprise customer may have several hundred applications and thousands of data elements, so there is “a ton of complexity” as well as great definitional inconsistency from a departmental standpoint, he said. For example, he noted, the sales organization may say a customer is any person or company with whom they are actively engaged while the finance organization may say a customer is someone who has paid money. “You take all of those definitional distinctions and all of that customers data spread over hundreds of applications and it s very clear why many organizations can’t make use of more than about 5% of their available data.”
CONNECT ties together previously siloed databases, metadata, models, and definitions in a collaborative platform that supports tools and websites with the business context behind data while enabling business users to find and "follow" the terms and business domains they care about. In addition to mapping an organization's data, CONNECT also features integrated collaboration and social capabilities, which allow users to define and publish valuable business and data definitions. With these “crowdsourcing” capabilities, users can collaboratively create, store, and centrally manage a single source of enterprise-wide business definitions.
“Our effort is to give our customers a way to get their arms around the data sprawl all those different data assets and get the big picture, and, having done this, to put the metadata that is compiled in the hands of the folks that can really use it,” said Olson. For more information, visit www.embarcadero.com/products/connect.