5 questions to an automation expert

What made you join the training?

My leadership style is based on demonstrated competency. I believe leaders in a technical field such as enterprise information management must have hands-on knowledge of the tools, methods, and architectures their teams are using.

I have had the pleasure of meeting a number of the VaultSpeed folks at Dan Linstedt's annual conferences. Everyone at VaultSpeed has always impressed me as extremely knowledgeable and passionate about modern data architecture design. In the spirit of my company's motto, "data at the speed of business," I joined the training class to ensure I had the most comprehensive understanding of how to leverage VaultSpeed in pursuing this goal.

What were your expectations, and did the training meet them?

I expected to get an end-to-end view of how to use VaultSpeed, including best practices. I also expected to have an opportunity to ask questions and discuss real-world issues and the practical realities of using VaultSpeed to build Data Vaults.

I was not disappointed. The instructor had a deep and practical understanding of the tool and how to use it in real situations. I have been building Data Vaults without using automation tools for many years. I've encountered especially nuanced situations where the source data doesn't fit neatly into the core Data Vault architectural patterns. Our instructor was open and honest about where VaultSpeed might not (yet) be able to solve those problems and offered excellent guidance on how we might be able to use a combination of techniques both outside and inside VaultSpeed to tame the data.

Our instructor was also very receptive to taking these nuanced situations and "edge cases" as examples of where VaultSpeed could be improved. He even took a couple of them to the development team shortly after class. This confirmed what I already knew about the VaultSpeed folks. They listen to customers and are committed to their customer's success.

Did the course contain any eye-openers?

Well, the speed at which you can create a DV 2.0-compliant solution with VaultSpeed is definitely an eye-opener. I've tried to train and coach new developers to build data vaults without an automation tool and keeping them within the standard is a challenge. VaultSpeed provides guardrails without restricting what we need to create.

I already have some experience with VaultSpeed, but the biggest eye-opener is how rich the template language is. I cut my teeth back in the days of object-oriented analysis and design, and I'm all about reuse. I think that's one area where the "data" folks are still struggling. I design end-to-end information supply chains, and I want to deploy "reusable" data components into my Information Access Area so data consumers can more easily create new information products from existing, proven component parts.

VaultSpeed Studio and the template language give me the tools to build these reusable components and dramatically improve the speed and quality at the consumption end of my information supply chain. There are lots of new capabilities in the templates that I'm really looking forward to!

What major problem would you say VaultSpeed automation eliminates or reduces for you?

VaultSpeed addresses two important problems for me:

• First, the Data Vault architecture significantly shifts how data solutions are designed. VaultSpeed provides the infrastructure and "guardrails" to speed up teams' ability to succeed with Data Vault and stay within the standards and best practices.
• Second, it gives me the tools to build truly reusable data components. Now, my data/information consumers can compose information products largely without the need for custom development or data engineers at the consumption end of the information supply chain. This is a game changer in the data world.