Data as a By-Product

The picture above is a slag dump, a common sight around the Pittsburgh region when I was a kid.  I remember being mesmerized sitting in the back seat of the family car driving along Ohio River Boulevard gazing at this hellish display from the J&L Aliquippa Works - especially at night. 

Slag is a byproduct of a blast furnace cast.  The primary product, pig iron, is sent to a basic oxygen furnace where it's converted into steel ingots.  The slag goes to a dump site like the one pictured above.

However, slag is not without value.  It makes a great compacting base.  There are many properties along the Monongahela and Ohio Rivers built on it - industrial/office parks, malls, condos, golf courses and other recreational areas.  Also useful for gravel driveways.

Raw data has similar value potential.  Dumping raw data into a data vault is a low cost, low risk effort prepares your data for the day when a key stakeholder decides that the data is needed.  Repeatable, automatable, with foundational governance activities baked in, my Ingestion Factory pattern will position your data programs to be responsive to inevitable changes and unforeseen priorities.  It sets the foundation for building out valuable data products at the speed of business demand.

The dashboard first mentality continues to subvert quality outcomes.  When your C-Suite suddenly decides they need insight from data nobody was thinking about yesterday, an Ingestion Factory slag dump will come in mighty handy, and you'll find yourself cutting far fewer corners.  Moreover, if you haven't yet ingested everything you need to meet the latest demand, having an Ingestion Factory in place is a competitive advantage to accelerate the work of your data analysts and data visualization pros.