News
Data quality 'made complicated by information deluge'
Keeping a high level of data quality is being made difficult for companies by the huge amount of information they are having to process.
Writing on his OCDQ blog, industry commentator Jim Harris explained that "data is now everywhere".
He said that it has spread from just being found in spreadsheets and relational databases to "unstructured streams" such as Facebook, Twitter, blogs, videos and photos.
"The challenge is can we somehow manage to listen for business insights among the endless cacophony of chaotic data volumes and use those insights to enable better business decisions," Mr Harris went on to state.
Data deduplication 'continuing to mature'
Data deduplication processes are continuing to mature and develop, it has been suggested.
Writing for Computer Technology Review, Marc Crespi, Vice President of Product Management at Exagrid, explained that deduplication is still in its infancy as it only came to the forefront in the field of disk-based backup between 2003 and 2005.
As a result, data deduplication is not yet being used to its full potential by a majority of organisations, despite the fact it can be put to a variety of uses.
Mr Crespi said that different products help to tackle a variety of problems facing businesses, in areas such as primary storage and archiving.
"As the use of deduplication in various products continues to mature, customers will begin to choose the product and method that makes the most sense for the specific problem they are trying to resolve," he forecast.
Master data management 'has many benefits'
Companies which employ master data management processes will benefit in several ways, it has been suggested.
IT Business Edge columnist Loraine Lawson said she had recently been impressed with an article by IT World writer Pedro Cardoso, in which he outlined some of the reasons why master data management is a good idea for organisations.
This includes its money-saving potential in reducing costs for data integration work, as well as its ability to keep companies onside with compliance regulations.
It will also help companies carry out important work that may have been put off, in areas such as data governance.
"[Master data management] addresses data issues that will benefit business intelligence projects and business project management, plus it can help with service-oriented architecture," the article went on to advise.
Data quality 'important for international comparisons'
Better standards of data quality are required around the globe, an expert has stated.
Writing for the Financial Times, Eli Noam, Professor of Finance and Economics at Columbia University, said that it can be difficult to make accurate comparisons between different countries' economic performance in various industries.
He gave the example of a recent audit in China, which found more than 80 per cent of companies had falsified their production accounts to make them appear more positive.
Professor Noam said it is important for data quality issues such as these to be tackled at an international level.
"Otherwise, we will have a situation like in environmental studies, where data has been abused in several instances and has lowered the credibility and the effectiveness of a whole field," he warned.