Big Data, Transparency Among Top Data Management Trends, According to the EDM Council

The Enterprise Data Management Council recently released its annual "What's In and What's Out in Data Management" list for 2012. Overall, the list suggests that data management has moved past its infancy and into its "gangly teenager years," according to Mike Atkin, managing director of the non-profit industry association (edmcouncil.org).

This year's trends fall under the broad themes of regulation and the new goal of systemic analysis, maturity of the practice of data management, and infrastructure for data management. Some of the terms on the "What's In" list -- such as "transparency" and "big data" -- likely come as no surprise to professionals in the financial industry (see the entire list, below).

One of the more surprising terms on the "What's Out" list, though, is "return on investment." Atkin stresses, however, that just because a term is on that side of the list does not mean it's bad or completely irrelevant. "The conversation about ROI has shifted. There has been a shift in the nature of added value -- it's now leaning toward analytics and data visualization, and the ability to turn data into action," he explains.

"I give our industry a lot of credit," Atkin continues. He notes that data management in the financial industry has gone from being seen as "an ugly stepchild of IT" to being recognized as "a pillar of operations within a financial organization," along with IT, people and money.

Atkin adds that financial institutions are learning about data management as they go, and the industry as a whole seems to be working on it collectively. "We don't really know how to manage data as content yet," he says. "We're just figuring out how to deal with definitions, workflow, quality -- and we're learning that there's a lot to it."

[For more on the big data revolution, see related article.]

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