A NOTE TO PIERGIUSEPPE

Good morning Mr. Bill.

First of all, thank you for your time (but also, forgive me for disturbing you).

I am writing to you because I would like to have your opinion on my way of configuring an Enterprise Data Warehouse environment: attached, there is a pdf with the architecture and the process that I usually implement.

About 20 years ago, I started working on Data Warehouse after reading your definition which, in a few clear lines, explained what it was.

I have a degree but I do not have a PhD, I have worked for small and large companies, for small and large customers, I have no certifications to exhibit, neither publications, nor awards: when I was commissioned to create Data Warehouse, starting from the theoretical definition, I tried to create something that fits well with the real world. The architectural and process model that I have defined over time (and which gave me the best results) is the one I want to submit to you: in most cases, it has allowed me to achieve the project goals.

Unfortunately, in recent years, my professionalism has been strongly questioned by the advent of Big Data, making everything I have done "obsolete": colleagues and bosses have put me on the sidelines by focusing everything on the "gurus" of the "new way of doing things". Big Data, Artificial Intelligence and Analytics, they say, can replace all the work I did with great effort and sacrifice, without counting on the "at all costs" use of Agile Framework for the development of the Data Warehouse software.

I am convinced that, sooner or later, this "new way of doing things" will present the bill to all those who have denigrated and put aside the Traditional Data Warehouse declaring it "outdated" but, for now, I am paying for it.

I hope you can look at my work and give me your opinion and also some suggestions: I want to be ready for when my time is again!

I apologize for the lengthy message but, for me, it is an honor to write and talk to you.

I hope you and your family are well and safe.

Thanks and best regards,

Pier Giuseppe De Meo.

Piergiuseppe

I got your message and I thought I would write you.

First off I am glad that you have had a career in information systems.

I have done it all my life and it has been very rewarding.

There are many aspects to your query that I would like to cover.

This is a complex question.

1)           Our industry is an immature industry. When you compare our industry to medicine, engineering, accounting and others it is no contest. The streets and walls of Rome were designed by an engineer over 2000 years ago. The hieroglyphics on the walls in Egypt are some accountant saying how much grain is owed the pharoah. In Chile they have skulls in caves that are 10,000 years old that show that medicine – in a crude form – was practiced then. And our industry dates back to 1960, which is puny compared to other industries. So it is inarguable that the IT industry is immature. It is simply a fact.

2)           One of the signs of immaturity of our industry is the practice of depending on vendors to lead the industry. In the beginning the vendors played a very useful role in doing this early work. In the beginning we needed the vendors to guide us into the new technologies. But the vendors have usurped that role. Today a lot of vendors have taken that role of industry leadership and turned it into a role of marketing and selling their products. But the IT person has not been warned that a subtle shift has occurred.

3)           Because we are a young and immature industry, there are new advancements that occur every day. Some people in our industry are “newbie” junkies. All they do is sit around and wait for something new to come around. So ANYTHING new attracts a certain crowd. That is the nature of our industry. The new thing is always considered to be the long waited for “silver bullet”.

4)           Because of the newness of our industry there are very few principles. There are new toys. There are new gadgets. There are new technologies. But when we started in 1960, there were no principles. The work that I have tried to do was based on principles, not new technologies. As an example of a principle, if you want to bring data from different environments together and do analysis on it, you have to integrate the data first. This is true anywhere in any environment. It is true in the cloud. It is true in an organizations shop. It is true on the moon. It is true in Mars or Venus. It was true in 1860, 1960 and it will still be true in 2060. This is true for IBM, Oracle and Snowflake – all of them. It is simply the truth.

5)           There are a lot of principles. This is hardly the only one. The principles last. The different technologies come and go.

6)           When a new product or technology comes into the marketplace, the vendor thinks that it is their duty to remove everything that has come before. They think it is their duty to label everything bad, or old, or yesterday’s technology. This is a sign of the immaturity of our industry. Other industries build on the past. They don’t try to knock it down. Einstein did not try to refute Isaac Newton. Instead Einstein took Newtonian laws of physics and expanded on them. IM Pei did not try to impugn Frank Lloyd Wright. Mature industries try to build on the past. Immature industries try to tear things down and recreate everything from scratch.

7)           There is a secret to combatting the vendors who are telling you that you are dated and old. The secret is to deliver business value to your end user. Your end user will love you for it. In the long run it is going to be you – armed with principles, not fancy new technologies – that win the day. Your business end user knows who is servicing their needs and the business end user is the one that ultimately pays the bills and makes decisions about what comes and what goes. Principles are like the ten commandments. The ten commandments came down thousands of years ago from Mount Sinai but are as applicable today as the day that God gave them to Moses. Thou shalt not kill. Thou shalt not steal. Thou shalt not commit adultery,…..

I hope this at least explains what is happening.

Best regards

Bill Inmon