(US and Canada) Michael Stonebraker, Founder, CTO & Visionary, Hopara, and Ken Smith, Co-CEO and Founder, Hopara, speak with Ricardo Crepaldi, Director Business Intelligence, Big Data and Integration, BASF–Germany, about the value of accumulated legacy code and the need for DIY for a data-driven organization.

How can companies dig out value from accumulated legacy systems?  Stonebraker cites Cisco as an example. They would acquire smaller companies, take their data and leave the systems. Cisco integrated the data during the merger and acquisition stage instead of creating silos that could cause complications in the longer run.

“They took the time to do data integration, and that clearly is the long-term optimal thing to do. But short-term, it’s not optimal because you keep running the acquiree’s legacy stuff, but that creates yet more legacy stuff. So, your predecessors often make short-term, suboptimal decisions and you’re stuck living with them,” Stonebraker says.

Regarding the importance of do-it-yourself (DIY) engagement for a data-driven company, he says that for such a scenario, it is necessary to empower the data users who are generally not professional programmers. 

“If I’m a data user and I have to get a professional programmer to help me, that’s going to slow me down immensely as well as cost money,” Stonebraker says. “So, if we want to empower an organization to be data-driven, then DIY — that’s the only way it’s going to happen. And you’ve got to invest in tools that are easier to use and don’t require a professional programmer. And you’ve got to invest in end-users to make them as smart as they can be. The data-driven enterprise is not likely to be completely successful without empowering leaf-level folks to do it themselves.” 

On the data visualization side of things, Smith says, there has been a major shift in the way remote professionals view things. That’s because folks working from home are looking at BI dashboard charts and graphs one minute, and then they’re playing with their kids a few minutes later.

“Their eyes are being trained in a much different way. You’re talking with a whole new generation of people who are used to much more dynamic media,” he explains. “So, your data visualizations need to be much more engaging. They need to have pan and zoom, like Google Maps on steroids. That visualization is going to be really critical.”