Understanding the data integration process is central to self-service BI and data architecture design, consultant Rick Sherman says in an end-of-year look at data management trends.

As 2017 gives way to 2018, data management is buffeted by winds of change. Unstructured data is far more prevalent, the cloud is emerging as a bigger target platform, and the call for self-service BI from business users is heard more than ever. Despite the tumult, the data professional can’t lose sight of basics. One key is planning, advises veteran data management and BI consultant Rick Sherman.

SearchDataManagement caught up with Sherman, founder of Athena IT Solutions, to survey the data landscape. Long at work in the field of data warehousing, Sherman also teaches classes on the data integration process and data architecture at Northeastern University in Boston. In addition, he recently led sessions on data architecture at a Dataversity conference dedicated to the topic. Today’s tools are useful, he tells us, but knowing how to use them is still the top challenge to be faced.

>>>Read the interview