Unifying a Information Stack and Leveraging Self-Serve Analytics with Atlan
The Lively Metadata Pioneers sequence options Atlan prospects who’ve accomplished an intensive analysis of the Lively Metadata Administration market. Paying ahead what you’ve discovered to the following information chief is the true spirit of the Atlan group! So that they’re right here to share their hard-earned perspective on an evolving market, what makes up their trendy information stack, modern use circumstances for metadata, and extra.
On this installment of the sequence, we meet Daniel Ferguson, Information and Analytics Director at PHMG, an audio branding firm that helps over 36,000 shoppers 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 reviews, 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 heart 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 learning for a level in Economics and Mathematical Science at The Open College whereas working on the council. Utilizing the abilities learnt on my diploma I began to construct logistic regression fashions to focus on contacts within the name heart I had beforehand labored in. I proposed that, with only one individual, 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 choosing the most effective contacts. After that I used to be hooked on the facility of knowledge & analytics.
I then constructed an organization offering information providers to different Native Authorities. Close to the top of my diploma, a consultancy in Scotland, Aquila Insights, supplied me a place. They labored with shoppers like Sony, Workplace Depot, and RBS, which gave me early publicity to the info occupation. From there, I superior within the area and ultimately joined PHMG. My journey into information was considerably unintended, nevertheless it introduced me to the place I’m as we speak.
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 business leaders in leisure and streaming even when their visible logos are usually not in sight.
We additionally transcend conventional audio branding by creating customized music tailor-made to every group. We’ll take Atlan for instance: What’s Atlan about? What do you symbolize? What’s the kind of rhythm that it needs to convey?
This connection between music and id is what attracted me to the corporate. We have now been extremely profitable, working in 56 international locations with 36,000 shoppers.
May you describe your information stack, and the way it got here collectively?
Once I bought right here, we have been utilizing SQL servers with Excel spreadsheets. There have been restricted to no interactive reviews, and each information request needed to be raised to the info workforce.
There was a have to modernize the data flowing into the corporate and implement the correct know-how to realize this effectively and reliably. I targeted on discovering know-how options that might streamline operations and scale back the necessity for added 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 answer, for instance, it’s nonetheless new and that comes with further dangers, however is one thing I’m retaining my eye on. It’s essential to decide on the most effective instruments for the job and guarantee they work effectively collectively. Investing in a seamless course of with these instruments means that you can begin sturdy and display 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 turn into embedded in our processes, and that as a substitute of assigning information stewards with out clear route, we supplied actionable reviews 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 reviews, 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 reviews, lowering the necessity for fixed modifications from the info workforce.
For orchestration, I take advantage of 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 vital 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 overview in depth code.
Atlan lets us observe and monitor what we’ve constructed, together with information lineage and property. It’s invaluable for reviewing reviews while not having to ask for code particulars—simply navigate by Atlan to see the report’s historical past. New workforce members may perceive report building 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 state of affairs, it was essential to combine it from the beginning, somewhat than as an afterthought. This allowed us to study and develop Atlan alongside our present programs, somewhat than making an attempt to drive it into our pre-built setup.
I at all times make it a degree to fulfill with management groups at occasions to gauge their angle and willpower, and I don’t know of every other gamers which are 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 additionally their dedication to addressing my challenges and bettering our state of affairs.
How are you planning to harness Atlan to boost 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 reviews and metrics are constructed from this information mart. In Atlan, we outline assemble all the pieces, so as soon as a metric is outlined, we will write the SQL to extract it from the mart.
We then create curated tables for shopper providers 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 programs that depart clear breadcrumbs for others to comply with. Atlan performs an important function 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 challenge 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 examine reviews 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’ve any recommendation to share together with your friends who’re beginning out in managing and organizing their information property successfully?
Companies at all times speak about being information pushed, however they don’t speak in regards to the property that really drive the info. We would like data to move in our group, however data can not move 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 improper, 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 start out by figuring out our most vital tables and specializing in what was vital. As an example, we discovered one desk important for all the pieces we constructed, permitting us to prioritize it. We then assessed our reviews and found that some we thought have been vital have been related solely to particular reviews, not the broader context.
As we get delicate information, we will additionally instantly flag it. If we get audited, we will merely pull up Atlan and say, “Hey, that is what we’ve. That is how we handle our information. That is what our information property are.” So, for these dedicated to being data-driven, they should take care of their information property and perceive what their information property are.
Picture by Adi Goldstein on Unsplash
