Strong data modeling solutions can help organizations create high quality data models, change structures and produce detailed documentation. Moreover, data modeling solutions also help companies visualize and manage business data across platforms and extend that data to users with varying job roles and skill levels across geographies and time zones.
According to Craig S. Mullins, DBTA columnist and president and principal consultant with Mullins Consulting, Inc., “One of the biggest challenges facing organizations today is making sure that the right information gets to the right people. It requires attention, diligence, and planning to ensure that data is used appropriately and accurately. Unfortunately, few organizations treat data as the corporate asset it truly is.” Mullins notes that data architects can design the best possible data model, but that does not ensure that developers will use the information the way it was intended or that business analysts will immediately understand the relationships between different data elements. “An integrated solution for modeling can help reduce this problem by streamlining information exchange and contextualizing the data model to minimize errors,” Mullins notes. “When models are used by all data stakeholders - whether for application development, extract, transform, and load (ETL), business intelligence (BI), or business usage - organizations can effectively communicate disparate requirements in context. For example, a data architect passing a logical data model to a development DBA needs to ensure the design is properly implemented in the database so the business rules are enforced. With an integrated approach, models and the underlying metadata are smoothly and accurately passed across functional boundaries.”
Increasingly, data modeling products offer a range of important capabilities such as ways to compare models and then synchronize them, reverse- and forward-engineer systems, visual interfaces for improved ease of use, ways for data assets to be visually documented and reused, and native support for new and emerging database platforms. Many data modeling solutions also provide features to help users map and understand their information architecture to prepare for technology upgrades and process improvements, as well as understand the impact of changes before they are implemented for better appreciation of risks and challenges.
HERE ARE THE WINNERS OF THE 2016 DBTA READERS' CHOICE AWARDS FOR BEST DATA MODELING SOLUTION:
Winner:
erwin
Winners' Circle by Danny Sandwell, Director of Product Marketing, erwin Data Modeling
It is both exciting and validating to be selected as the number 1 data modeling solution by DBTA’s discerning readers for the third consecutive year in a row! At erwin, we are proud of the value ... read on.
Finalists:
Navicat Data Modeler
SAP PowerDesigner