Avoiding Data Governance Pitfalls

Data Governance Pitfalls
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Timothy Valihora draws on over 20 years of experience in technical architecture to develop and implement a wide range of data management solutions. Skilled in the use of software suites including IBM InfoSphere, IBM WebSphere, Oracle, and Cognos, Timothy Valihora possesses extensive knowledge in the area of data governance.

As businesses develop strategies to manage an ever-increasing volume of data, new regulations continue to define the standards that they must meet in keeping recent, relevant, and accurate records. As noted by Nicola Askham of ITProPortal, there are a number of simple mistakes that organizations should strive to avoid when implementing data governance strategies.

First and foremost, data governance should be a collective effort. While IT professionals will often have the vision and expertise to drive successful data management overhauls, the actual quality of a business’ data will not improve without new considerations at the point of entry. Furthermore, a business should view data governance as a company-wide operational shift rather than a temporary project. Simply consolidating data governance into a few items on a checklist likely will not generate the level of commitment needed from the entire organization to successfully manage its information.

The same holds true when data governance efforts are the result of regulatory pressure rather than internal innovation. Striving to comprehensively improve the company’s data governance rather than merely meeting the regulator’s minimum requirements will help to lessen the organization’s long-term workload by implementing efficient, lasting data governance protocols.

Understanding MPP Systems

Massively Parallel Processing
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Timothy Valihora is a technical architect experienced in various data management aspects including data integration and data warehousing. Timothy Valihora also prepossess a deep understanding of Massively Parallel Processing (MPP).

Massively Parallel Processing, or MPP, is a process by which multiple processors, or separate computers, perform different functions on a program simultaneously. Devices communicate via an interconnect arrangement that enables messages to be sent seamlessly from one processor or computer to the next. A step up from Symmetric Multiprocessing (SMP), devices on an MPP system each contain an individual copy of the operating system and applications, as well as individual memory.

An MPP system is ideal for data warehousing scenarios, where multiple devices may need to communicate in order to access large amounts of data for businesses. MPP is initially complicated to set up because it entails a large amount of time and thought to create optimal system functionality. However, once a system is in place, it allows on-location users and remote users to access information more effectivity and efficiently.

What is the IBM Information Governance Catalog?

With a background in utilizing the IBM Information Governance Catalog (IGC), Timothy Valihora specializes in Data Warehousing and Data Conversions. Specifically, at TVMG Consulting Inc., Timothy Valihora focuses on the architecture, design, implementation and programming of technical systems.

The IBM Information Governance Catalog is a streamlined way for organizations to manage their information technology (IT). With the growing dependence of small and large businesses alike on IT, the proper management of information and systems is paramount to business maintenance and growth.

To that end, the IBM Information Governance Catalog provides software that allows users to manage and understand assets utilized by their company, as well as set governance practices around this information. Utilization of the IGC can allow companies to manage projects, especially those heavy on IT usage, more efficiently, since individuals can easily access project information simultaneously. Use of IGC allows for improved handling of information integration, security issues, and privacy issues. Companies can also note effects of changes to information management with lineage reports and analysis available in the IGC.

An Overview of Massive Parallel Processing Technology

Timothy Valihora is a specialist in IBM InfoSphere Information Server. Mr. Valihora has been trained in data conversion, massive parallel processing (MPP), and other avenues of information technology.

For years, technology-driven businesses have relied on parallel processing to attain faster results. Parallel processing involves running the same task on more than one microprocessor to spread out the workload and speed up computations. For high workloads, MPP proves even more efficient…

MPP sees workloads distributed across even more computers. While two or three computers can handle average-sized computations, MPP comes into play when users need to crunch large-scale computations. Oftentimes, companies employ banks of dozens or even hundreds of computers for such work.

There are several approaches to MPP. In grid computing, users harness banks, or grids, of computers based in multiple locations to work toward the same goal. The collective grid of computers is referred to as a distributed system. In another approach, known as a computer cluster, banks of computers are closer in proximity, such as in two or three laboratories within the same building or campus.

Given its application, MPP is usually applied to expensive, high-end computers specially tuned for processing, network, and storage performance.

How Violin Flash Arrays Increase Performance

Timothy Valihora works as a management consultant and the president of TVMG Consulting, Inc.

In his role an IIS Parallel extender performance tuner – Mr. Valihora has utilized many different storage devices.

Persistent RAM:
Flash Arrays provide a convenient way for businesses to store their customer data. Like any other type of technology, some arrays operate faster, and thus more efficiently, than others. Violin Memory provides storage solutions that strike a balance between affordability and performance, and Violin flash arrays are no exception.

Violin’s flash storage platform simplifies storage by compressing data and removing the requirement of having a spindle writing to a physical medium. In tandem, applications perform faster, simultaneously saving businesses valuable storage capacity while offering them better performance. The company achieves this efficiency by cutting back on the power consumed by older storage devices – including solid state drives, as well as optimizing processing throughput.

In recent benchmark tests, Mr. Valihora was able to prove that an IBM InfoSphere DataStage PX job which was designed to sort 1 billion rows of data, performed 255% better on Flash (Violin) than Isilon Fast NFS.

Information Analyzer

Timothy Valihora, the president of TVMG Consulting, Inc., has over 17 years’ experience working with a wide range of server tools and operational platforms. His areas of expertise encompass a plethora of data warehousing and data conversion technologies. As an IBM information server expert, Timothy Valihora has done extensive work with the IBM data profiling tool Information Analyzer.

Otherwise known as the WebSphere Information Analyzer or the InfoSphere Information Analyzer, IBM’s Information Analyzer is widely used for data quality assessment and data quality monitoring. It also has a number of data rule design and analysis capabilities. The product specializes in helping users derive more meaning from their complied data through a better understanding of data structure and relationships.

The four main profiling functions of Information Analyzer are column analysis, primary key analysis, foreign key analysis, and cross-domain analysis. These advanced analysis and monitoring modalities are designed to help organizations classify and assess all manner of digital information.

Teradata

An IT professional and management consultant with a career that spans 17 years, Timothy Valihora currently serves as the president of TVMG Consulting, Inc. He specializes in all facets of computer data warehousing and data conversions. In addition to his familiarity with a wide range of IBM data management applications, Timothy Valihora is an established Teradata expert.

A fully scalable relational database system, Teradata is commonly used to manage a number of major data warehousing operations. It is able to execute complex queries with less than 256 joins. Combining symmetric multiprocessing technology with communication networking, the system can facilitate interconnectivity to create large parallel processing networks.

The Teradata database management system is a product of the Teradata Corporation, a Miamisburg, Ohio, computer software company that supports dozens of analytic data platforms, applications, and related services. Components of the Teradata database management system range from Basic Teradata Query and Open Teradata Backup to MultiLoad, FastExport, ODBC, and Tpump.

IBM’s InfoSphere FastTrack

Timothy Valihora is an IBM Information Server (IIS)-certified consultant and IT specialist who specializes in data conversion and data warehousing. As the president of TVMG Consulting, Inc., Timothy Valihora helps clients in Canada and the U.S. facilitate data integration and development processes with products such as IBM’s InfoSphere FastTrack.

Data warehouses help businesses manage information to develop insight into sales, products, and customer trends. However, while most data warehouses are time consuming to implement, InfoSphere FastTrack streamlines communications and accelerates the conversion of data. The software includes many features, such as a centralized platform for data integration, a drag-and-drop feature for arranging information, and established data profiles to assist with mapping and searches. Additionally, its integrated Microsoft Excel like interface enables FastTrack to offer a user-friendly import/export feature. Employing these elements, FastTrack increases responsiveness and efficacy to improve collaboration between IT professionals and businesses.

In recent years Mr. Valihora has specialized in supporting the “Grid” system – in terms of DataStage/QualityStage (IBM’s Grid Toolkit for DataStage, the SUN Grid Engine, IBM’s Platform LSF etc.) – and also has worked extensively with Information Analyzer, Business Glossary, Metadata Workbench and Information Services Director.

Tim Valihora is one of the very top DataStage job performance tuners/technical architects in North America.

Mr. Valihora has over 6000 DataStage PX/QualityStage jobs – currently executing in production environments – in Canada and the US.

MPP Computing Systems – A Brief Overview

Timothy Valihora draws on nearly two decades of experience in information technology to provide management consulting services to such notable firms as Southern California Edison, Hilton Grand Vacations, and AMC Theatres. Certified in IBM’s InfoSphere Information Server (IIS), Timothy Valihora is well versed in the technical aspects of data management, including massively parallel processing (MPP) computing.

Also known as “shared nothing” or “loosely coupled” systems, MPP systems consist of several separate central processing units (CPUs) working simultaneously to execute one program. These systems are often used for applications that allow users to search several databases at once, such as decision support systems and data warehouse applications.

MPP systems are similar to symmetric multiprocessing (SMP) systems in that both involve several processors running one application; however, SMP systems share one common operating system and memory.

Over the years, Tim Valihora has conducted over 125 successful installs of IBM Information Server across a wide array of operating systems (Linux, UNIX, Windows) + many patches, fixpacks and upgrades etc. Many of these installations involved complex server topologies and high availability hardware architecture (including active/active Websphere Application Server etc.)

In recent years Mr. Valihora has specialized in supporting and implementing “Grid” architecture in terms of DataStage/QualityStage (i.e. the Grid Toolkit for DataStage along with resource managers such as the SUN Grid Engine, IBM Platform LSF etc.) – and also has worked extensively with Information Analyzer, Business Glossary, FastTrack and Information Services Director.

Tim Valihora is one of the top DataStage job performance tuners/Technical architects in North America.

Mr. Valihora has developed over 6000 DataStage/QualityStage jobs – which are currently in production environments – across various client sites – in North America.

Along with specializing in Grid implementations of IIS – Mr. Valihora has focused increasingly on technical architecture and performance tuning in the more recent years of his 20 year career in Information Technology.

What is an SQL Server?

Timothy Valihora is an experienced technology management consultant who has held positions with South California Edison, Merck, and the American Medical Association. He currently serves as the president of TVMG Consulting, Inc. Over the course of his 17-year career, Timothy Valihora has established himself as an expert in the management and operation of SQL servers.

Pronounced “ess-cue-ell server” or “sequel server,” an SQL server can refer to any database server that employs Structured Query Language. Used to request and access information within the database, this particular form of query language was invented by IBM in the 1970s. It was accepted by the American National Standards Institute in 1987 and is currently used in a great many database management systems.

As a tool for managing and storing information, the SQL server acts as both a relational database and a management system. The relational database stores information in a structure called a “table,” which is laid out like a spreadsheet using rows and columns. The SQL server’s management system allows users to structure, manage, and manipulate all stored data.