IDG Contributor Network: Data agility or scale: a false choice?

For decades, I have seen corporate data strategy swing back and forth like a digital pendulum.  Centralize – decentralize. Consolidate – federate. Inmon - Kimball. ERP – EUC (end user computing/desktop). Master data management – analytical sandboxes. Data center – cloud. Each swing is a multi-year, multi-million-dollar migration, after which the limits of the new approach often drive the company to reverse direction again.The forces driving the pendulum are two