Enterprise Data Management (EDM) is an important process in big data for understanding and controlling the economics of data in your enterprise or organization. Although EDM is not required for big data, the proper application of EDM will help to ensure better integration, control, and usability of big data.
EDM is a comprehensive approach to defining, governing, securing, and maintaining the quality of all data involved in the business processes of an organization. EDM establishes policy about and ownership of key data types and sources as well as helping to create a strategic context for the technology underpinnings of data life cycle management. The primary object of EDM processes is to sustain a single version of the “truth.”
While your organization’s version of EDM may vary slightly, the tenets remain true: Data must be modeled, managed, and secured so that you can trust the processing results as part of your decision-making activities. It should also be noted that the absence of EDM in your organization is not a barrier to adopting big data.
While not as effective, Enterprise Data Management can be performed at a departmental or even a project level. With that in mind, you need to examine where adoption of big data can impact enterprise data management practices. After you begin thinking about using big data in combination with your systems of record, you must have a good handle on the governance and stewardship of the overall data management environment.
You will be making decisions about your big data business strategy, so it is critical that the data elements that you are comparing or analyzing are accurate, meaningful, and secure.