The Business Problem

Kello James, the CTO of Canaxia, has enlisted us to form a data architecture strategy that is closely aligned with his company's business objectives. Kello has asked the team to look at the following:

• Use of current databases for data mining of customer and competitor information

• Protocols used for EDI and XML-based Web services for integration with Canaxia's business partners

• Providing a unified view of customer information to all points within the organization

• Ensuring that the organization's data maintains integrity and is not exposed to misuse by hackers, business partners, or other parties

The organizational context (Figure 11-1) provides input into the data architecture and is the primary tool for the management and sharing of enterprise data. It enables architects, data modelers, and stakeholders to identify, classify, and analyze information requirements across the enterprise, allowing the right priorities for data sharing initiatives. Data architecture states how data are persisted, managed, and utilized within an organization (as shown in Figure 11-1). Data architecture also describes the following:

• How data are stored in both a transient and permanent manner

• How components, services, and other processes utilize and manipulate the data

• How legacy systems and external business partners access the data

• How common data operations (create, read, update, delete) should occur in a consistent manner

Now, let's see how we can help make Kello successful.