Unifying a Information Stack and Leveraging Self-Serve Analytics with Atlan
The Energetic Metadata Pioneers collection options Atlan prospects who’ve accomplished an intensive analysis of the Energetic Metadata Administration market. Paying ahead what you’ve realized to the following information chief is the true spirit of the Atlan neighborhood! In order that they’re right here to share their hard-earned perspective on an evolving market, what makes up their trendy information stack, revolutionary use circumstances for metadata, and extra.
On this installment of the collection, we meet Daniel Ferguson, Information and Analytics Director at PHMG, an audio branding firm that helps over 36,000 purchasers throughout 56 international locations sound their finest. Daniel shares how PHMG reworked their information stack from fragmented to unified, and the way Atlan has been an important piece in by monitoring lineage, managing studies, and easing workforce onboarding.
This interview has been edited for brevity and readability.
May you inform us a bit about your self, your background, and what drew you to Information & Analytics?
I was a DJ after which labored as a sound engineer constructing recording studios. Throughout my time as a sound engineer, I discovered myself within the technical and analytical facet of issues. After beginning a household, I wished a change. After promoting my recording studio, my mom, who managed a council workplace, supplied me a job and I began out within the name middle unit, dealing with calls. It rapidly grew to become obvious that I may do extra than simply calls, so I moved to the database workforce.
I began finding out for a level in Economics and Mathematical Science at The Open College whereas working on the council. Utilizing the talents learnt on my diploma I began to construct logistic regression fashions to focus on contacts within the name middle I had beforehand labored in. I proposed that, with only one particular person, I may obtain the identical outcomes as the whole workforce. My work generated 300% extra outcomes than the workforce’s mixed efforts by optimizing information assortment, addressing lacking data, and cherry selecting one of the best contacts. After that I used to be hooked on the facility of information & analytics.
I then constructed an organization offering information companies to different Native Authorities. Close to the top of my diploma, a consultancy in Scotland, Aquila Insights, supplied me a place. They labored with purchasers like Sony, Workplace Depot, and RBS, which gave me early publicity to the info career. From there, I superior within the discipline and ultimately joined PHMG. My journey into information was considerably unintentional, nevertheless it introduced me to the place I’m at the moment.
Would you thoughts describing PHMG?
We concentrate on audio branding. Consider logos like Netflix or Disney Plus, by sound alone, these manufacturers are immediately recognizable as trade leaders in leisure and streaming even when their visible logos should not in sight.
We additionally transcend conventional audio branding by growing customized music tailor-made to every group. We’ll take Atlan for example: What’s Atlan about? What do you signify? What’s the kind of rhythm that it desires to deliver?
This connection between music and identification is what attracted me to the corporate. We’ve been extremely profitable, working in 56 international locations with 36,000 purchasers.
May you describe your information stack, and the way it got here collectively?
After I acquired right here, we had been utilizing SQL servers with Excel spreadsheets. There have been restricted to no interactive studies, and each information request needed to be raised to the info workforce.
There was a must modernize the knowledge flowing into the corporate and implement the precise know-how to attain this effectively and reliably. I targeted on discovering know-how options that may streamline operations and cut back the necessity for extra engineers.
I used to be actually cautious with know-how choice, avoiding options for the sake of it, and never constructing from scratch. Whereas Azure Cloth presents a complete resolution, for instance, it’s nonetheless new and that comes with extra dangers, however is one thing I’m protecting my eye on. It’s essential to decide on one of the best instruments for the job and guarantee they work properly collectively. Investing in a seamless course of with these instruments lets you begin robust and show worth rapidly, with room to evolve as you scale.
In my board proposal, I highlighted two important instruments: Atlan and ThoughtSpot. I defined that whereas we may handle with out them, they’d make a major distinction. I wished governance to grow to be embedded in our processes, and that as an alternative of assigning information stewards with out clear path, we supplied actionable studies and comprehensible information. With correctly organized information, governance turns into simple, and Atlan streamlines this course of.
I chosen Snowflake for its robustness and cheap pricing, and Fivetran for its dependable pipeline efficiency, which successfully handles our information integration wants.
I carried out PowerBI for govt studies, and ThoughtSpot for our self-serve information wants. I’m a giant fan of ThoughtSpot, as a result of it permits customers to regulate their very own studies, lowering the necessity for fixed modifications from the info workforce.
For orchestration, I exploit Airflow to handle pipelines, and DBT with GitLab for our code repository and CI/CD processes.
Why was Atlan a superb match? Did something stand out throughout your analysis course of?
In my earlier group, I attempted utilizing open-source with DataHub, however its upkeep and improvement required important funding. Atlan stood out as a result of it’s plug-and-play, mechanically constructing out miners that reveal beforehand unknown insights. It identifies and explains scripts we weren’t conscious of, saving time and lowering technical debt from having to manually assessment intensive code.
Atlan lets us monitor and monitor what we’ve constructed, together with information lineage and belongings. It’s invaluable for reviewing studies without having to ask for code particulars—simply navigate by Atlan to see the report’s historical past. New workforce members can even perceive report development by Atlan.
For me, Atlan was a key piece of the puzzle.
I researched Collibra, Alation, and Atlan extensively, and Atlan was the clear selection. It felt designed for medium-sized enterprises and required minimal engineering effort. Given our scenario, it was essential to combine it from the beginning, somewhat than as an afterthought. This allowed us to study and develop Atlan alongside our current methods, somewhat than making an attempt to pressure it into our pre-built setup.
I all the time make it some extent to fulfill with management groups at occasions to gauge their angle and dedication, and I don’t know of every other gamers which might be doing it in addition to Atlan. I used to be genuinely impressed by Atlan’s management workforce — not solely their ardour for the product but in addition their dedication to addressing my challenges and enhancing our scenario.
How are you planning to harness Atlan to reinforce your information stack? What thrilling use circumstances and objectives do you keep in mind?
We’ve invested in an information vault mannequin for our information warehouse, which feeds into an operational information retailer, what I name the info mart. All our studies and metrics are constructed from this information mart. In Atlan, we outline the best way to assemble all the pieces, so as soon as a metric is outlined, we are able to write the SQL to extract it from the mart.
We then create curated tables for shopper companies and gross sales organizations, enabling them to self-serve by way of ThoughtSpot. For detailed insights into the development and rationale of those metrics, we retailer that data in Atlan, which turns into our catalog.
As new folks come on board, I be certain that there’s no want for a handover. By default, we doc our processes as we go and construct methods that go away clear breadcrumbs for others to comply with. Atlan performs an important position on this. We direct new workforce members to Atlan to assist them perceive how all the pieces is constructed and what it’s constructed from. Atlan doesn’t simply spill out the code, it highlights the important thing objects, their utilization, and their significance.
One other main venture entails making a complete glossary inside Atlan, serving as our single supply of reality. This atmosphere permits enterprise customers to entry all company metrics and look at studies from Salesforce, PowerBI, and ThoughtSpot, all linked round key KPIs.
We’re additionally at present refining our information lineage and mannequin descriptions. As we create new information fashions, we replace descriptions incrementally somewhat than in bulk. This ongoing effort helps be certain that our information fashions are well-documented and simply comprehensible.
Do you have got any recommendation to share together with your friends who’re beginning out in managing and organizing their information belongings successfully?
Companies all the time speak about being information pushed, however they don’t speak in regards to the belongings that truly drive the info. We would like data to movement in our group, however data can’t movement if it’s not organized constantly. And for me, instruments like Atlan are making it considerably simpler for us to arrange and talk what information issues.
Don’t get me unsuitable, Atlan isn’t a silver bullet. It gained’t repair poor group inside your information warehouse. Nevertheless, it does present a centralized place to outline and assess your processes, serving to you determine which of them are efficient and which of them want enchancment.
Atlan helped us decide the place to begin by figuring out our most important tables and specializing in what was vital. For example, we discovered one desk vital for all the pieces we constructed, permitting us to prioritize it. We then assessed our studies and found that some we thought had been vital had been related solely to particular studies, not the broader context.
As we get delicate information, we are able to additionally instantly flag it. If we get audited, we are able to merely pull up Atlan and say, “Hey, that is what we’ve. That is how we handle our information. That is what our information belongings are.” So, for these dedicated to being data-driven, they should take care of their information belongings and perceive what their information belongings are.
Picture by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash