(US and Canada) Ron Thompson, Chief Data Officer and Deputy Digital Transformation Officer, NASA, speaks with Michal Klaus, CEO, Ataccama, about maintaining the balance between democratization versus centralization of data, convincing data scientists to work with governed data sources, and the human-centric approach toward data fabric.

Thompson states that maintaining the balance between democratized and centralized data is the secret sauce for success. He shares that being a CIO is easier than being a CDO, which is more of a change-agent role.

Thompson notes that they have various space technology data domains, but NASA’s current approach is the end-to-end integration of data services across the organization. He affirms leveraging the data fabric to put in architectural standards and build out data services that are efficient and effective across the enterprise. He states that it spans multi-cloud environments while fetching data.

He believes balancing mandates and compliance work while blending disparate data sets help answer unknown questions.

Thompson notes that NASA has a history of working with brilliant minds. He adds that in the “technology first” scenario, they are at a stage where a good inventory is required. He refers to data fabric as their enterprise data platform.

Hence, he emphasizes mindfulness to avoid taking down the innovative spirit but promote a reduction in barriers. Thompson believes that once data analysts and scientists are in the enterprise data platform, they will understand the value and gravitate naturally.

Highlighting the nature of data fabric, Thompson states that the enterprise does not always look for a data fabric approval stamp in all operations. However, it is the IT recommended path, and he describes it as “guard rails.” He asserts it adds value to the mission and believes that using a human-centric approach to achieve end goals is the way forward in the digital transformation journey. 

Loose data fabric is more like data mesh, says Thompson. He affirms that by observing the data fabric, they know there cannot be a single repository for everything. He states that they cannot replace everything as an enterprise but align with the evolving innovation cycle.

In conclusion, he states that data will always be sitting out in containers and environments waiting to be linked in. But first, the foundation needs to be built, and by eventually integrating with innovation and technology, the value of NASA as an agency will increase.