Architecting a Data Platform For Enterprise Use (Strata NY 2018)

Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
Architecting a Data
Platform For
Enterprise Use
September 2018
Mark Madsen
Todd Walter

Copyright Third Nature, Inc.Copyright Third Nature, Inc.
What do we hear?
"I want to do analytics, beyond what I can do with BI tools"
"I need an analytics strategy"
"I need an analytics roadmap"
"I want to modernize my DW" aka "I want to speed up my DW"
"I have a specific analytics project of type..."
“We have a data lake. What should we do with it?”
“Technology Y is our replacement for technology X”
“Don’t need schema, curation, ETL, governance … anymore”
“How do I ensure the data is good enough for analytics?”
Good judgement is the result of experience.
Experience is the result of bad judgement.
—Fred Brooks

4 © 2017 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All rights reserved.
Gartner statement in 2018:
only 15% are reported
to be successful
only
17%of Hadoop deployments
are in production in 2017
Survey Analysis: BI and Analytics
Spending Intentions, 2017
A McKinsey survey this
year asked executives if
their company had
achieved a positive ROI
with their big data projects:
7% answered “yes”
Gartner Finding:
in 2017

The business complaints about data and analytics
You really
should
fire IT.

Data
deficient
Takes
too long
Costs
too much
Function
deficient
IT root
causes
IT proximate
causes
What is said
in disputes
Lack of
agility
People & vendor
cost basis
Client-server
infrastructure
Lack of
“good enough”
competency
1980s-era
methods
Inappropriate
technology
Data hygiene
fetishes
Vendor lock
1990s-era
procurement
IT skills
deficit
Dysfunctional
OLTP portfolio

Data
deficient
Takes
too long
Costs
too much
Function
deficient
IT root
causes
IT proximate
causes
What is said
in disputes
How business
responds
How IT
responsds
Lack of
agility
People & vendor
cost basis
Client-server
infrastructure
Lack of
“good enough”
competency
SaaS /
Cloud BI
Consultants
Self-service
BI
Shadow BI
Workarounds &
spreadmarts
Hidden costs
Loss of
control
Loss of
visibility
Loss of
knowledge
Security risks
Bad data risks
1980s-era
methods
Inappropriate
technology
Data hygiene
fetishes
Vendor lock
1990s-era
procurement
IT skills
deficit
Dysfunctional
OLTP portfolio

Data
deficient
Takes
too long
Costs
too much
Function
deficient
IT root
causes
IT proximate
causes
What is said
in disputes
How business
responds
How IT
responds
Lack of
agility
People & vendor
cost basis
Client-server
infrastructure
Lack of
“good enough”
competency
SaaS /
Cloud BI
Consultants
Self-service
BI
Shadow BI
Workarounds &
spreadmarts
Hidden costs
Loss of
control
Loss of
visibility
Loss of
knowledge
Security risks
Bad data risks
1980s-era
methods
Inappropriate
technology
Data hygiene
fetishes
Vendor lock
1990s-era
procurement
IT skills
deficit
Dysfunctional
OLTP portfolio
This is not a technology problem –
it is an architecture problem.

DW: Centralize, that solves all problems!
Creates bottlenecks
Causes scale problems
Availability?

The data lake solution: no central authority
wtf, it was fully
operational!

The data lake solution?
There’s a problem: as
the lake is envisioned,
it is still a centralized
data architecture, but
this time there is no
single global model.
Instead it’s files and
not modeled. It can be
operational while
under construction.
It’s still a death star.

Eventually we run into the same problems
Seriously, wtf?
It was agile
and operational
Rising complexity and scale break centralized models

“The problem is the tools. Standardize on one tech!”
It’s called stack think. Pick your vendor. Cede all architecture.

The problem is methods and process: agile your way
into the Analytics Shantytown

“Infrastructure one PoC at a time”
• Use case driven
• Leverage (any) new
technology
• Re-use of the
technology stack
• Data is captive to the
application or to the
technology stack
• Developers tend to
think “function first”
• Analytics people also
think “function first”,
but generally require
integrated data

A key aspect of operational analytics is “end-to-end”
E2E does not allow you to take a random
walk through technologies and BYOT
because the complexity of integration leads
to a mountain of technical debt.
• Most data
applications are
organized around a
process, not a task or
function.
• Real-time analytics
systems pass their
data over the
network, but the
dependencies can
cross application
boundaries, as well
as requiring
persistence.
• Developers are
being forced to think
of data outside the
local context.

“Start with the platform. The rest will follow.”

Big data reality: What users seeBig data promise: What you see

Persisting data
is not the end
of the line.
If you stop
here you win
the battle and
lose the war

“Begin with the end in mind”
The starting point can’t be with
technology. That’s like starting
with bricks when designing a
house. You may get lucky but…
The goals and specific uses are
the place to start
▪ Use dictates need
▪ Need dictates capabilities
▪ Capabilities are solved with
technology
This is how you avoid spending $2M on a Hadoop and spark cluster in order to serve
data to analysts whose primary requirements are met with laptops.

We don’t have an analytics problem, just like we
didn’t have a BI problem
The origin of analytics as “business
intelligence” was stated well in 1958:
…the ability to apprehend the
interrelationships of presented facts in
such a way as to guide action towards a
desired goal. ~ H. P. Luhn
“A Business Intelligence System”, http://altaplana.com/ibmrd0204H.pdf
”
“
Our goal is analytics as a capability, not a technology

© Third Nature Inc.
The old problem was access, the new problem is analysis

Three constituencies
Stakeholder Analyst Builder
aka the recipient aka the data scientist aka the engineer

Starting points for analytics strategy
Many organizations choose to start with
the analysts. Create a data science team.
Turn them loose to find a problem.
Many more start with builders: technology
solutions looking for problems, e.g. 65% of
the IT driven Hadoop and Spark projects
over the last five years.
The right place to start? Stakeholders. The
goal to achieve, the problem to solve.

NATURE OF THE PROBLEM FROM
THE STAKEHOLDER’S PERSPECTIVE
Each constituency has their own set of problems to deal with

The myth that still drives analytics – analytic gold
All we need is a fat
pipe and pans
working in parallel…

Analytic insights that result in no action are expensive trivia.
It’s not the insight, but what you do with it, that matters

Applying analytics is not an analytics problem
Applying analytics is not in the
analyst’s control.
It’s not in the engineer’s control.
It’s in the control of the people
involved in the process.
Failures are often in execution, not
in analytics development.
For example, we saw unexpectedly
poor performance in a number of
geographies. Was it the new
analytics we tried? Was it a data
problem? No, it was a simple
compliance problem.

BI and Analysis: Repeatability and Discoverability
Discover
Explore
Analyze
Model
Consume
Promote
Focus is on repeatability
Application cycle time
90% of users just want answers
Focus is on discoverability
Analyst cycle time
9% analysts, 1% data scientists
80% of data use
is repeatable
80% of analysis
is novel

THE ANALYST’S PERSPECTIVE

The analytics process at a high level
Diagram: Kate Matsudaira

The nature of analytics problems is researching the
unknown rather than accessing the known.
Repeat for each new problem (unlike BI)
Diagram: Kate Matsudaira

The main hurdle: just getting the data
Do you know where to find it? Because it’s
may not be in the data warehouse.
Do you have access to it?
Is access fast enough? Because DWs are for
QRD, not for moving huge piles of data. And
ERP systems and SaaS apps are right out.
These are why developers jump on “data lake”
as the solution. But that’s a small, easy part.

Do you have the right data?
Many machine learning
techniques require labeled
(known good) training data:
Supervised learning: a person
has to define the correct
output for some portion of
the data. Data is divided into
training sets used for model
building and test sets for
validating the results.
• What is spam and what isn’t?
• What does a fraudulent
transaction look like
40

Do you have enough of the right data?
ML needs a lot, you may be disappointed in your efforts

Where do analysts spend their time? mostly data work
Slide 42
Define the
business problem
Translate the
problem into an
analytic context
Select appropriate
data
Learn the data
Create a model set
Fix problems with
data
Transform data
Build models
Assess models
Deploy models
Assess results
% of time spent
70% 30%
Source: Michael Berry, Data Miners Inc.

Where do most of the analytics tools focus?
Slide 43
Define the
business problem
Translate the
problem into an
analytic context Select
appropriate data
Learn the data
Create a model
set
Fix problems
with data
Transform data
Build models
Assess models
Deploy models
Assess results

Where do most of the analytics aaS focus?
Slide 44
Define the
business problem
Translate the
problem into an
analytic context Select
appropriate data
Learn the data
Create a model
set
Fix problems
with data
Transform data
Build models
Assess models
Deploy models
Assess results

The analyst’s workspace in BI is relatively spare

The analyst’s workspace needs to be more like a
kitchen than like BI vending machines

Do you treat this as a production workload? Storage control,
space limitations, resource limitations, production lockdown
Analytics work is a production workload, but…
Hi, we’re from
IT, and we’re
here to help!

THE BUILDER’S PERSPECTIVE

IT and Ops people want to know “what to build?”
Giant data platform? Self service tools?

Analytics has different processes and workloads
None of this analytics work
is the same as what IT
considered “analysis” to be,
which is usually equated
with BI or ad-hoc query.
Ad-hoc analysis =
Exploratory data analysis =
Batch analytics =
Real-time analytics
A real analytics production workflow
Hatch, CIKM ‘11 Slide 50

Things engineering and operations worry about
Engineering time and effort
▪ Introduction of new technology, complexity
▪ Integration - Deployment of models requirements linking different types of
environments, creating supportable workflows for the analysts
▪ Ability to develop and deploy at the required speed
Supportability
▪ Automation
▪ The environment requires additional monitoring, other technology and
processes, particularly for customer-facing work
▪ Support costs (time and money)
SLAs:
▪ Availability – if analytics are tied to production operations, particularly
customer facing, this becomes important and difficult because it’s not
standard application work
▪ Performance and scalability – have to manage unpredictable workloads,
resource conflicts between model development with model execution

The world changes, do the models?
In BI you maintain ETL and
schemas, in ML you maintain
models and maybe pipelines.
“Model decay” happens as the
assumptions around which a
model is built change, e.g. spam
techniques change.
When you adjust the model you
need to know it is normal again
▪ Better save the data used to
build the model
▪ Better save the model
▪ Baseline and measurements

THREE PERSPECTIVES, ONE SOLUTION?
There are requirements from all constituents. You need to put them
together to have a complete picture of what’s needed.

The missing stakeholder
There is another stakeholder:
analytics management - the
CAO, CDO, VP of analytics, aka
“your boss” if you’re a data
scientist.
This is the perspective and
problems of the person
responsible for oversight of
the team and efforts is across
the organization and across
multiple projects

Job # 2 - Operational predictability

They need a system of record for analytics

There is an extensive list of requirements to support
Primary requirements needed by constituents S D E
Data catalog and ability to search it for datasets X X
Self-service access to curated data X
Self-service access to uncurated (unknown, new) data X X
Temporary storage for working with data X
Data integration, cleaning, transformation, preparation tools and environment X X
Persistent storage for source data used by production models X X
Persistent storage for training, testing, production data used by models X X
Storage and management of models X X
Deployment, monitoring, decommissioning models X
Lineage, traceability of changes made for data used by models X X
Lineage, traceability for model changes X X X
Managing baseline data / metrics for comparing model performance X X X
Managing ongoing data / metrics for tracking ongoing model performance X X X
S = stakeholder, user, D = data scientist, analyst, E = engineer, developer

How did we get to this state
with BI & analytics?
There’s a difference
between having no past
and actively rejecting it.

61
100
1,000
10,000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
Customer Data Plateaus
Add users,
accumulate
history, add
attributes, add
dimensions
Entirely new data
set enabled by
new technology at
new price point –
value has to
exceed cost (ROI).
Earliest adopters
have vision ahead
of ROI

62
1
10
100
1,000
10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
User Adoption of New Data
Customer Data
Users - Data Set 1
Users - Data Set 2
Users of Integrated Data
User adoption of new data sets
starts over. Very small number of
experts growing to wider
audience, sophisticated users
moving to business analysts, then
business users, B2B customers and
even to consumers
Greater value is derived when
data sets are linked – see bigger
picture (eg who buys what,
when). Comes after initial
extraction of easy value from
standalone data

63
1
10
100
1,000
10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
100,000,000
1,000,000,000
10,000,000,000
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
Data Size Plateaus over Time
Lather, Rinse,
Repeat. Trend
line is roughly
Moore’s Law.
Delay or skip a
generation if new
data set is two
orders of
magnitude
instead of one.

64
1
10
100
1,000
10,000
100,000
1,000,000
10,000,000
100,000,000
1,000,000,000
10,000,000,000
100,000,000,000
1,000,000,000,000
10,000,000,000,000
100,000,000,000,000
1,000,000,000,000,000
10,000,000,000,000,000
1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 31 33 35 37 39 41 43
Customer Data Size vs. 2x per 12mo
Customer Data
Moore's Law - 2x/18mo
2x/12 mo
But all studies show
demand/creation of
data increasing
significantly faster
than Moore’s law
If we started only 1
OOM behind, we are
now 5 OOM away from
user demand for data
Data
Exhaust

65
• <Store, Item, Week>
• <Store, Item, Day>
– Simple aggregations
• Market Basket
– Affinity
– Link to person, demographics, HR
• Inventory by SKU by store
– Temporal, time series, forecasting
– Link to product, marketing, market basket
Retail Plateaus
2B records
total for 9
quarters
2B records
per day,
keep 9
quarters

66
• Web Logs and traffic
– Behavioral patterns – eg path linked to person, offers, other channels
– Operations of the web site
• Supply chain sensors – sampled at major event
– Activity Based Costing
– Link to customer, product, HR, planning
• Social Media
– Text analysis, Filtering, languages
– Link to customer, sales, other channel interactions
• Supply chain sensors – sampled at minutes or seconds
– Telematics
– Real time, Event detection, trending, static and dynamic rules
– Link to HR, thresholds, forecasts, routing, planning
Retail Plateaus
30B records per day

67
FINANCE
Revenue
Expenses
Customers
CUSTOMER
CARE
Customer
Products
Orders
Case History
SALES
Orders
Customers
Products
MARKETING
Customers
Orders
Campaign
History
OPERATIONS
Inventory
Returns
Manufacturing
Supply Chain
How many
batteries
are in
inventory
by plant?
What is the
trend of
warranty
costs?
How many
people
made a
warranty
claim last
week?
How many
sales have
been
made
quarter to
date?
Which
customers
should get a
communica
tion on
extended
warranties?
54 32 29 49 66

69
Given the rise in warranty costs, isolate the problem to be a
plant, then to a battery lot.
Communicate with affected customers, who have not made
a warranty claim on batteries, through Marketing and
Customer Service channels to recall cars with affected
batteries.
2855
Inventory
Returns
Manufacturing
Supply Chain
Customer Service
Orders
Revenue
Expenses
Case History
Customers
Products
Pipeline
Customers
Campaign
History
FINANCE
SALESMARKETING
OPERATIONS
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE
2855

70
Manufacturing: Data Overlap Analysis
New Business Improvement Opportunities through Data Leverage
Sales Force Profitability Analysis 100% 80% 66% 24% 41% 66% 0% 24% 0% 24%
Transportation Planning 11% 100% 87% 28% 64% 56% 22% 34% 13% 45%
Production Planning 6% 57% 100% 19% 83% 35% 17% 28% 9% 40%
Vendor Managed Inventory 12% 100% 100% 100% 78% 100% 61% 100% 39% 100%
Global Pricing Rationalization 4% 50% 100% 17% 100% 27% 15% 29% 11% 41%
Fulfillment (Perfect Order) 16% 94% 90% 48% 58% 100% 35% 53% 19% 56%
Manufacturing Quality
Optimization
0% 76% 88% 60% 66% 71% 100% 79% 43% 73%
Preventative Maintenance Analysis 7% 75% 93% 61% 80% 68% 50% 100% 27% 82%
Warranty Claims Analysis 0% 94% 100% 83% 100% 83% 94% 93% 100% 98%
Quality Life Cycle Improvement 4% 57% 75% 35% 64% 41% 26% 47% 16% 100%
SalesForce
ProfitabilityAnalysis
ProductionPlanning
VendorManaged
Inventory
GlobalPricing
Rationalization
TransportationPlanning
Fulfillment
(PerfectOrder)
ManufacturingQuality
Optimization
Preventative
Maintenance
Analysis
WarrantyClaims
Analysis
QualityLifeCycle
Improvement
If
Then

Architecting a Data Platform For Enterprise Use (Strata NY 2018)

72
PRODUCT
SENSOR
SOCIAL
MEDIA
CUSTOMER
CARE AUDIO
RECORDINGS
DIGITAL
ADVERTISING
CLICKSTREAM
65 41 32 19 28
How many
visitors did
we have to
our hybrid
cars
microsite
yesterday?
What are
the
temperature
readings for
batteries by
Manufactur
er?
What is the
sentiment
towards line
of hybrid
vehicles?
Which
customers
likely
expressed
anger with
customer
care?
Which ad
creative
generated
the most
clicks?

73
2855
High, Well
Known Quality
Directional
Quality
Unknown/Low
quality
Well Defined
Data Model
Curated JSON,
XML, DB
Extracted
Attributes
Curation Required

74
2855
SENSOR
DIGITAL
ADVERTISING
CLICKSTREAM
INTERACTIONS
RATINGS &
REVIEWS
CUSTOMER PORTAL
INTERACTIONS
EXTERNAL
INTERACTIONS
SOCIAL MEDIA
IVR Routing
RFID
ELECTRONIC
COMMERCE
FINANCE
SALESMARKETING
Inventory
Returns
Manufacturing
Supply Chain
Customer
Service
Orders
Revenue
Expenses
Case History
Customers
Products
Pipeline
Customers
Campaign History
OPERATIONS
CUSTOMER
CARE – AUDIO
RECORDINGS
Maps
Telemetry
SERVER LOGS
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE
Enterprise Data

75
2855
Schema on
Write
Evolving
Schema
Schema on
Read
Enterprise
Data
Evolving
Data
New Data
Sources
Schema?

76
2855
Out of Deviation
Sensor Readings
Fraud
Events
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
SALES
MARKETING
OPERATIONS
Abandoned
Carts
Online Price
Quotes
Social Media
Influencers
FINANCE
11234
Minimum Viable
Curation
Minimum Viable
Data Quality

77
2855
Out of Deviation
Sensor Readings
Fraud
Events
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE
SALES
MARKETING
OPERATIONS
Abandoned
Carts
Online Price
Quotes
Social Media
Influencers
FINANCE
11234
Sensor data
formatting
Unit
Normalization
Vehicle/version
normalization
Make/model/year
selection
Data Comprehension,
Pipelines

78
2855
Enterprise
Wide Use
10s to 100s
of Users
10s Users
Analysts /
engineers
Business
Analysts
Action list, Report,
Dashboard Users
Share across
Enterprise
Share in
department
Share over
cube wall
User Base and Sharing

79
Evolving
Consumption
2855
Enterprise
production
analytics
Departmental
analytics
Exploratory
analytics
Repeatable,
auditable
results
Ad-Hoc
Query, Self
Service
Data Labs

80
Evolving Consumption
Requirements
2855
Production tools,
curated data,
integrated across
business areas
Wide variety
of tools and
data forms
Targeted data access,
many applications,
response time SLAs
High CPU,
moderate to
low IO
Bulk scans, large
computation,
transformation, data access,
specific integration
Moderate CPU,
High IO, Resource
management

81
Technology,
Capacity
2855
Relational
store more
appropriate
Hybrid
File Store more
appropriate
100s TB -
PBs
10s PB
10 TB

82
MARKETING
FINANCE
SALES
OPERATIONS
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE
Given the rise in warranty
costs, isolate the
problem to be a plant
and the specific lot.
Exclude 2/3rd of the
batteries from the lot
that are fine.
Communicate with
affected customers, who
have not made a
warranty claim, through
Marketing and Customer
Service channels to
recall cars with affected
batteries.
2855
MANUFACTURING
CAMPAIGN
HISTORY
COSTS
PRODUCTS
CUSTOMERS
CASE HISTORY
SENSOR
Access Wide Variety of Data
to Answer a Question

An event contains mainly IDs…that reference other data
2010.01.10.01:41:4468 67.189.110.179 Ser40489a07-7f6e4251801a
13ae51a6d092 301212631165031 590387153892659 DNIS5555685981-
UTF8&1T4ACGW_enUS386US387&fu=0&ifi=1&dtd=204&xpc=1KoLqh374s
m100109_44IOJ1-Id=105543CD1A7B8322
timestamp
user ID
device ID
game ID event details
IP adr
log ID
Log de-referencing and enrichment is difficult since you can’t
enforce integrity like you can in a DB.
What’s the glue that holds it together?
It’s just keys to other data.
e.g. remember that device ID 0 problem?

Copyright Third Nature, Inc.© Third Nature Inc.
It’s not just the log data, it’s big data + small data
Device
Event logs
Event logs
Event logs
A product has a complex set of master
data and metadata and this needs to
be added back to the bare events.

Copyright Third Nature, Inc.© Third Nature Inc.
Where does the reference data come from?
The keys come from somewhere. You don’t just make up
system-wide unique identifiers in your code.
The lack of local lookup data at event generation leads to
development practices that lead to inconsistencies.
Event logs
Event logs
Event logs
Problem we had: product
identifiers that didn’t match
any known products
Had to fix by analyzing each
log of bad-ID events.
Because developers used
config files they copied from
the PMS and put in the code
Break here and
you have nothing

MDM again
If you want to link datasets then you must manage the keys
You need canonical forms for common data (in code too)
user ID
IP adr
2010.01.10.01:41:4468 67.189.110.179 Ser40489a07-7f6e4251801a
13ae51a6d092 301212631165031 590387153892659 DNIS5555685981-
UTF8&1T4ACGW_enUS386US387&fu=0&ifi=1&dtd=204&xpc=1KoLqh374s
m100109_44IOJ1-Id=105543CD1A7B8322
UID CID Email City State Country
590387153892659 10098213 barry.dylan@odin.com Paris Île-de-FranceFrance
2010.01.10.14:26:2468 67.189.110.179 10098213 5046876319474403 MOZILLA/4.0
(COMPATIBLE; TRIDENT/4.0; GTB6; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) https://www.phisherking.com/
gifts/store/LogonForm?mmc=link-src-email_m100109 http://www.google.com/search?
sourceid=navclient&aq=0h&oq=Italian&ie=UTF8&pid=1T4ACGW_13ae51a6d092&q=ita
lian+rose&fu=0&ifi=1&dtd=204&xpc=1KoLqh374s
game ID
date
IP adr
customer ID
Event
Click
Cust-
user

Data hoarding is not a data management strategy

The missing ingredient from most big data
Specifically,
metadata kept
separate from
the data.

The solution to our problems isn’t
technology, it’s architecture.

Architecture is an abstraction – it’s a purpose

Blueprints are not architectures

History: This is how BI was done through the 80s
First there were files and reporting programs.
Application files feed through a data processing pipeline to
generate an output file. The file is used by a report formatter
for print/screen. Files are largely single-purpose use.
Every report is a program written by a developer.
Data pipeline
code

History: This is how BI ended the 80s
The inevitable situation was...
Data pipeline
code

History: This is how we started the 90s
Collect data in a database. Queries replaced a LOT of
application code because much was just joins. We
learned about “dead code”
SQL
SQL
SQL
SQL
SQL

Pragmatism and Data
Lessons learned during
the ad-hoc SQL era of the
DW market:
When the technology is
awkward for the users, the
users will stop trying to use
it.
Even “simple” schemas
weren’t enough for anyone
other than analysts and
their Brio…
Led to the evolution of
metadata-driven SQL-
generating BI tools, ETL
tools.

BI evolved to hiding query generation for end users
With more regular schema models, in particular
dimensional models that didn’t contain cyclic join paths, it
was possible to automate SQL generation via semantic
mapping layers.
We developed data pipeline building tools (ETL).
Query via business terms made BI usable by non-technical
people.
ETL
SQL
Life got much easier…for a while

Today’s model: Lake + data engineers, looks familiar…
The Lake with data pipelines to files or Hive tables
is exactly the same pattern as the COBOL batch..
Dataflow
code
We already know that people don’t scale…

DATA ARCHITECTURE
We’re so focused on the light switch that we’re not
talking about the light

The architecture from 1988 we SHOULD HAVE BEEN USING
The general concept of a
separate architecture for BI
has been around longer, but
this paper by Devlin and
Murphy is the first formal
data warehouse architecture
and definition published.
101
“An architecture for a business and
information system”, B. A. Devlin,
P. T. Murphy, IBM Systems Journal,
Vol.27, No. 1, (1988)
Slide 101Copyright Third Nature, Inc.

But 30 years ago we did not expect so many different
models of deployment, execution and use. Needs change
DeployETL
Data Data Storage
Alerts / Reports/
Decisioning
Deploy
f
Data Streams Intelligent Filter
/ Transform Model Execution
Analytics for eyeballs and analytics for machines are different

Decouple the Architecture
The core of a data warehouse isn’t the database, it’s the
data architecture that the database and tools implement.
We need a new data architecture that is not limiting:
▪ Deals with change more easily and at scale
▪ Does not enforce requirements and models up front
▪ Does not limit the format or structure of data
▪ Assumes the range of data latencies in and out, from streaming
to one-time bulk
▪ Allows both reading and writing of data
▪ Makes data linkable, and provide governance where required
▪ Does not give up the gains of the last 25 years

The goal is to decouple: solve the application and
infrastructure problems separately, independently
Platform Services
Data Access
Deliver & Use
Data storage
This separates uses of data from each other, allowing each type of
use to structure the data specific to its own requirements.
Data access is already
somewhat separate
today. Make the
separation of different
access methods a formal
part of the architecture.
Don’t force one model.

Platform Services
Data Management
Process & Integrate
Data storage
Data management should not be subject to the constraints of a single use
Data management
has historically been
blended with both
data acquisition and
structuring data for
client tools. It should
be an independent
function.

Data Acquisition
Collect & Store
Incremental
Batch
One-time copy
Real time
Platform Services
Data storage
Data arrives in many latencies, from real-time to one-time. Acquisition
can’t be limited by the management or consumption layers.
Data acquisition should not be
directly tied to the needs of
consumption. It must operate
independently of data use.

The full analytic environment subsumes all the functions
of a data lake and a data warehouse, and extends them
Data Acquisition
Collect & Store
Incremental
Batch
One-time copy
Real time
Platform Services
Data Management
Process & Integrate
Data Access
Deliver & Use
Data storage
The platform has to do more than serve queries; it has to be read-write.

Food supply chain: an analogy for analytic data
Multiple contexts of use, differing quality levels
You need to keep the original because just like baking,
you can’t unmake dough once it’s mixed.

The data architecture must align with system components
because each of them addresses different data needs
Incremental
Collect
Batch
One-time copy
Real time
Manage & Integrate
Data Acquisition
Collect & Store
Data Management
Process & Integrate
Data Access
Deliver & Use
Separating concerns is part of the mechanism for change isolation

The design focus is different in each area
Ingredients
Goal: available
User needs a recipe
in order to make
use of the data.
Pre-mixed
Goal: discoverable
and integrateable
User needs a menu
to choose from the
data available
Meals
Goal: usable
User needs utensils
but is given a
finished meal

The data is in zones of management, not isolating layers
Raw data in an immutable
storage area
Standardized or
enhanced data
Common or
usage-
specific
data
Transient data
Relax control to enable self-service while avoiding a mess.
Do not constrain access to one zone or to a single tool.
Focus on visibility of data use, not control of data.

This data architecture resolves rate of change problems
storage area
Standardized or
enhanced data
Common or
usage-
specific data
Transient data
New data of
unknown value,
simple requests for
new data can land
here first, with little
work by IT.
More effort applied to
management, slower.
Optimized for
specific uses /
workloads. Generally
the slowest change.
Not fast vs slow:
fast vs right
Not flexibility vs
control: flexibility
vs repeatability
Agile for
structure change
vs agile for
questions / use

SQLServer
RDBMS
Example: data environment, mid-size retailer
Replication, batch ETL
to collect data
Web Application
Standard retail /
wholesale data
warehouse model.
Nightly batch model
from stage, contains
~ 1 TB of data
DW
New requirement:
Load all the online marketing and web activity for
use in analytic models (not simple web analytics)
Will add ~10 TB of data, continuous or hourly loads

SQLServer
RDBMS
Example: data environment, mid-size retailer
Replication, batch ETL
to collect data
Hadoop
Web Application
Persistent store,
data warehouse on
same DB in
different schemas
DW
Log file fetch & load for clickstream,
summaries sent to reporting env
Discovery work usually
done in Hadoop,
sometimes in database.

SQLServer
This data architecture uses the 3 zone pattern
Hadoop
Web Application
RDBMS
DW
storage area
Standardized or
enhanced data
Common or
usage-
specific data
Transient data
All reporting data
and analytics
output is sent to
the DW where it is
can be accessed.
Cleaned,
summarized or
derived data is
stored in DB
Raw data is stored
in two places:
relational and small
sets in DB, log
collection in Hadoop

The concept of a zone is not a physical system. It’s data architecture
Apps
DW
The biggest decision is to separate all data collection from
the data integration from consumption.
Physical system/technology overlays are separate, depend
on the specific use cases and needs of the organization.
Dist FS
RDBMSs
Decompress &
process device logs
RDBMS
RDBMS
multiple
Discovery
platform

Data has to be moved, standardized, tracked
There is a lot of data policy and governance to think about
Collect Manage & Integrate
Data Acquisition
Collect & Store
Data Management
Process & Integrate
Data Access
Deliver & Use
CRM
User reg
Orders
Leads
Cust
Cust
Cust
Cust
Master DW
Mktg
Campaign
analysis
Rec
engine

What about the technology? Do I need an <X>?

TANSTAAFL
When replacing the old
with the new (or ignoring
the new over the old) you
always make tradeoffs,
and usually you won’t see
them for a long time.
Technologies are not
perfect replacements for
one another. Often not
better, only different.

You need to see the full context in order to build a platform.
The analytics environment is more than just silos of activity
transactions
data
warehouse
applications
analytic
models
events
BI
discovery &
analysisdiscovery
platform
collection access discovery delivery
modeling
Data scientists
& Engineers
Stakeholders
Users,
Customers
Machines
There are multiple audiences involved.
It’s rare for anyone to see the full picture.

Data scientists
& Engineers
Stakeholders
Users,
Customers
Machines
Environment and workflows: Modeling / Analysis Loop
transactions
data
warehouse
applications
analytic
models
events
BI
discovery &
analysisdiscovery
platform
modeling
This is the view of the people who
build (and deploy) analytic models.

Data scientists
& Engineers
Stakeholders
Users,
Customers
Machines
Environment and workflows: Execution Loop
transactions
data
warehouse
applications
analytic
models
events
BI
discovery &
analysisdiscovery
platform
modeling
This is the view of the people who use
the results or interact with the models.

Data scientists
& Engineers
Stakeholders
Users,
Customers
Machines
Environment and workflows: Monitoring and Managing
transactions
data
warehouse
applications
analytic
models
events
BI
discovery &
analysisdiscovery
platform
modeling
This is the view of the people who manage the
business goals (and the models – as analytics
is operationalized, it becomes the same thing).

125
Blended Architectures Are a Requirement,
Not an Option
Data Warehouse + Data Lake
On Premise + Cloud
RDBMS + S3 + HDFS
Commercial + Open Source
You can’t just buy one thing platform from one vendor. We aren’t building a
death star.
Each of the zones is likely to have products specific to that zone’s usage. The
uses differ, the people using them differ, shouldn’t the tools should differ too?

Manage your data
(or it will manage you)
Data management is where
developers are weakest.
Modern engineering
practices are where data
management is weakest.
You need to bridge these
groups and practices in the
organization if you want to
do meaningful work with
data. Remember Conway’s
Law when you build.

1.It’s not about storing data, it’s about using it
2.Use drives architecture. Understand the uses,
what you are designing for, to drive decisions.
3.Put data at the center, not technology. Don’t let
the tech define what you can do or how you do it.
4.The death star is not the answer. The data model
is not a flat earth. You are not building a monolith.
5.Know your history. Avoiding wheel reinvention
saves time, money, careers.
Conclusion

“Now is not the end.
It is not even the
beginning of the end.
But it is, perhaps,
the end of the beginning.”
Winston Churchill

Mark Madsen is the global head of
architecture at Think Big Analytics,
Prior to that he was president of Third
Nature, a research and consulting firm
focused on analytics, data integration
and data management. Mark is an
award-winning author, architect and
CTO whose work has been featured in
numerous industry publications. Over
the past ten years Mark received
awards for his work from the American
Productivity & Quality Center, TDWI,
and the Smithsonian Institute. He is an
international speaker, chairs several
conferences, and is on the O’Reilly
Strata program committee. For more
information or to contact Mark, follow
@markmadsen on Twitter.
About the Presenter

Todd Walter
Chief Technologist - Teradata
• Chief Technologist for Teradata
• A pragmatic visionary, Walter helps business leaders,
analysts and technologists better understand all of the
astonishing possibilities of big data and analytics
• Works with organizations of all sizes and levels of
experience at the leading edge of adopting big data, data
warehouse and analytics technologies
• With Teradata for more than 30 years and served for more
than 10 years as CTO of Teradata Labs, contributing
significantly to Teradata’s unique design features and
functionality
• Holds more than a dozen Teradata patents and is a
Teradata Fellow in recognition of his long record of
technical innovation and contribution to the company

Architecting a Data Platform For Enterprise Use (Strata NY 2018)

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