In the
business intelligence and data warehousing industry we are continually inundated
with new product categories and killer apps that are going to revolutionize what
we are doing and finally enable a "single version of the truth."

And,
they’re going to do it cheaper than we have ever been able to do it in the past!

Yeah,
right. (And I’ve got a bridge to sell you.)

You can
easily gather a list of these miracle solutions by looking at various data
warehousing and business intelligence (DW/BI) magazine or vendor websites.
You’ll find DW/BI appliances, OSS (open source software), SaaS
(software as a service), SOA (services oriented architecture), MDM (master data
management), CDI (customer data integration), CPM (corporate performance
management), in-memory OLAP (on-line analytics processing), EII (Enterprise
Information Integration), EIM (Enterprise Information Management), and real-time
BI.

Keep
digging and you’ll find even more. Sometimes these categories or technologies
go by another name or acronym (just to confuse matters more).

Are any of
these truly revolutionary? Do any really deliver on their hype?

Often these
products or technologies do indeed provide business and technology value, but
maybe what is delivered doesn’t match the expectations presented by the media,
analysts and vendors.

Are these
expectations purely built on pretty Marchitecture slides? Are the customer references from "regular"
customers like you? Or are they from companies that are eager early adopters or
serial buyers of many different products anyway – always searching for the next
killer app?

Most importantly, will you really realize the supposed gains because you
bought these new products? Or will it be because you implemented your latest
DW/BI project differently? Oftentimes, a project is successful because of the investment
in time, resources and commitment to
the DW/BI effort – not because of a magic tool.

Sorry vendors, but your new
product may have been merely incidental to the project’s success rather than
the reason for it. But, you’ll still write case studies proclaiming that your
tool is DW/BI’s latest salvation.

This is the kick-off to a series of posts on hyped products and trends.
We will look behind the curtain to discuss what is real versus myth.

Please feel to comment on what technologies or trends you would like to
discuss. A word of caution: this discussion is NOT meant to trash specific
companies, technologies or products.