http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2006/03/unifying-data/ Andy Hayler, founder of Kalido and The Information Difference, gives his views on the enterprise software market. Issues covered include data warehousing, master data management, business intelligence and data quality. Thu, 16 Oct 2008 07:15:37 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.0.3 http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2006/03/unifying-data/#comment-68 Wed, 19 Apr 2006 19:37:00 +0000 http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2006/03/unifying-data/#comment-68 I agree that the difference between structured and unstructured data is somewhat blurry. For one, consider a CLOB sitting in a database. Is this structured? Are VARCHARs spanning 2000 bytes structured? Maybe, maybe not. The fact that they represent a column within a table is not enough to make that distinction. Similarly a text document or a JPEG file. I'd argue, if they hadn't structure, they would both be close to garbage. I agree that the difference between structured and unstructured data is somewhat blurry. For one, consider a CLOB sitting in a database. Is this structured? Are VARCHARs spanning 2000 bytes structured? Maybe, maybe not. The fact that they represent a column within a table is not enough to make that distinction. Similarly a text document or a JPEG file. I’d argue, if they hadn’t structure, they would both be close to garbage.

]]> http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2006/03/unifying-data/#comment-67 Thu, 06 Apr 2006 02:33:00 +0000 http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2006/03/unifying-data/#comment-67 Thanks for your comment. I can also think of very few examples indeed. Thanks for your comment. I can also think of very few examples indeed.

]]> http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2006/03/unifying-data/#comment-66 Mon, 03 Apr 2006 10:55:00 +0000 http://andyonenterprisesoftware.com/2006/03/unifying-data/#comment-66 I can remember an application we made in the mid 90ths. A perfume manufacturer wanted to keep track of it's competitor sales by buying GFK and Nielsen data. We added the images of the bottles which were used (the shape and looks of the bottle is very important) and even attached the TV commercials used in the differetn countries. In this way marketeers could look up the salesfigures of the competition and the most important sales "influencers". Otherwise I have indeed heard only a lot of talkign about combining structured and unstructured but surprisingly(?)very few examples I can remember an application we made in the mid 90ths. A perfume manufacturer wanted to keep track of it’s competitor sales by buying GFK and Nielsen data. We added the images of the bottles which were used (the shape and looks of the bottle is very important) and even attached the TV commercials used in the differetn countries. In this way marketeers could look up the salesfigures of the competition and the most important sales “influencers”. Otherwise I have indeed heard only a lot of talkign about combining structured and unstructured but surprisingly(?)very few examples

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