{"id":969,"date":"2025-12-22T22:31:03","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T03:31:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/?p=969"},"modified":"2026-01-06T18:19:38","modified_gmt":"2026-01-06T23:19:38","slug":"data-architecture-the-differences","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/2025\/12\/22\/data-architecture-the-differences\/","title":{"rendered":"Data Architecture &#8211; The Differences"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"has-orange-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-313718108a154915c2e9b0a29b9fa347\"><em>By By W H Inmon<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-columns is-layout-flex wp-container-core-columns-is-layout-9d6595d7 wp-block-columns-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-7854cd4109ffa6a56ce3d71d26a2ffb5\">Classical data architecture is dominated by structured data. Structured data was the first type of data that people had to deal with, so it is natural that their explorations and observations centered on structured data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-decd03a60cffc57a887d907b30432783\">But as time passed, new types of data entered into the equation. The world woke up one day, and there was textual data, structured data, and analog data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-f40d67212ebd9a23f6f32ca401d93ec5\">Textual data came in many forms \u2013 emails, conversations, the Internet, spreadsheets, and so forth. Analog data too sprang up from many sources \u2013 telemetry equipment, thermometers, drones, and so forth.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-0152ea31f1fa52b3310dc65820fb6885\">Soon, the world of data was inundated with all kinds of data, of which structured data was only one type.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-23141df1a4bce78e51e4228fb27f9085\">At first the technicians of the world tried to ignore the non-structured data. But over time, it was realized that a mature data architect had to<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-column is-layout-flow wp-block-column-is-layout-flow\">\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-69306e76e2e40388931966dcb6d0edc7\">account for ALL the kinds of data that existed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8b702af736bcbcabbfc664c62a8e0176\">The reaction the data community had was to treat textual and analog data with the same tools and techniques that had been learned in the day and age of structured data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-61105e2039fd77a24807bd4eb6045afa\">The problem was that textual and analog data had very, very different properties and characteristics than structured data. Trying to manage textual and analog data as if it were structured was like trying to pull a moving van with a child\u2019s tricycle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6856e4fd713a4b9f36145126c22c68e7\">The match was simply inappropriate and was and is doomed to failure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-f046c8f0d8f34e352b2cfe3dca5d1a2b\">The properties of structured, textual and analog data are extremely different. The two most illustrative ways in which the differences in the properties of these types of data show up is in terms of:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-8a703b41c131f5a42b149700e254f660\">The sheer volumes of data.<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d948d58712e7a4081ebed549125545bf\">The percentage of the data that has business value.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"766\" height=\"586\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-09-at-5.29.38-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-970\" style=\"width:488px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-09-at-5.29.38-PM.png 766w, https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-12-09-at-5.29.38-PM-300x230.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 766px) 100vw, 766px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c85d9c7fef2c95a8f6fc86bb159bd2d3\">The diagram shows that there is a lot more textual data in the corporation than structured data in the corporation and that there is even more analog data than there is textual data. These differences are reflected by the orange boxes in the diagram.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-d9cf115764982076b28b7e27796e3991\">The percentage of data that has business value is shown by the black portion of the boxes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-084ea8b2a3e1f8247d3402276f0021d5\">Nearly all structured data has business value. Some structured data has a great amount of business value. Some have less. But nearly all structured data has some degree of business value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-df40e383f2b9505be4c24b295c5bcf1e\">Textual data has a mixture of non business value data and some percentage of textual data has business value. When a guy sends an email to his girlfriend \u2013 \u201cI\u2019ll pick you up tonight at 8:00\u201d there is no real business value here. And much of the text has no real business value. But some of the text has great business value. A customer says \u2013 \u201cI did not like my steak last night.\u201d&nbsp;The management of the restaurant needs to know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-da53b4995b52413fdbff8e25b0ac1e7a\">Depending on the business, from 20% to 40% of text has business value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e77bb04de0e33bb6919c54c41c6a0fec\">Analog data is a different matter altogether. Only a small percentage of analog data has business value. In order to understand this, consider a security camera sitting on a pole looking at a corporate parking lot.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-748bd33753c9b703a2b296437397fc00\">Day in, day out, the surveillance camera sits and observes the parking lot, taking individual snapshots at 1\/30th of a second each hour of the day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-994a44286449f595ec8470d3e80b4e32\">Day in, day out, cars enter the parking lot, depart the parking lot, and park. People get out of their cars and head for work. Month after month, the surveillance captures the comings and goings of the company&#8217;s workers. The snapshots taken during these times have little or no business value.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e1c32ba63f317496bfb75b04d7d106b6\">Then one day a car break-in occurs. In one short three minute time frame, a thief finds a car, breaks into it, and steals the contents of the car.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c3898fd323fd4d63c913018b9134b7b4\">Of the months and months of snapshots taken, only a few seconds are of real business value and interest. On a percentage basis, the vast majority of the snapshots have no business value. But for those few moments when there is business value, the value to the business is extreme.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e76633d9fa5dd54f72233c28f04cbd51\">The very different properties of the types of data mandate that there be very different treatments of the data in the data architecture of the organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-c93825515e3311c188abb16788bd5c72\">For a treatment of modern data architecture that understands the different types of data that need to be encompassed, take a look at the newly issued book <a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.com\/Data-Architecture-Foundation-Bill-Inmon\/dp\/1634626354\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\">DATA ARCHITECTURE: BUILDING THE FOUNDATION<\/a>, Technics Publications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-e42e1726225648be40da303ac1059043\">Find out what a modern approach to data architecture looks like.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-media-text is-stacked-on-mobile\" style=\"grid-template-columns:25% auto\"><figure class=\"wp-block-media-text__media\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"650\" height=\"814\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-4.24.04-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-914 size-full\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-4.24.04-PM.png 650w, https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-4.24.04-PM-240x300.png 240w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 650px) 100vw, 650px\" \/><\/figure><div class=\"wp-block-media-text__content\">\n<p class=\"has-orange-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-ca8c5e7c7f46dd1e73b0a4daf88339ad\"><strong>Notable Works by William H. Inmon, Pioneer in Data Architecture<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-6456111743c3f5986260c1e0a875b954\">Bill Inmon lives in Denver with his wife and his two Scotty dogs \u2013 Lena and Rollie. It is summer and Lena and Rollie delight in playing in the back yard. Lena has found a path into the tomatoes but she hasn\u2019t shown the path to Rollie yet. It is Lena\u2019s secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-50d8647670123fe670b75be80576c24b\">Bill Inmon wrote the book HEARING THE VOICE OF THE CUSTOMER and TURNING TEXT INTO GOLD for Technics Publications. Bill\u2019s latest book is MODERNIZING MEDICAL RESEARCH: AI AND MEDICAL RECORDS, Technics Publications.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n<div style=\"height:100px\" aria-hidden=\"true\" class=\"wp-block-spacer\"><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-blue-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-dc4441a923f3306c286cd692d7ae69ed\" style=\"font-size:26px\"><strong><em>Join Our Data Community<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center has-black-color has-text-color has-link-color wp-elements-9bdac29360d2b62aa9e765a3bc163366\">At Data Principles, we believe in making data powerful and accessible. Get monthly insights, practical advice, and company updates delivered straight to your inbox. Subscribe and be part of the journey!<\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-buttons is-content-justification-center is-layout-flex wp-container-core-buttons-is-layout-16018d1d wp-block-buttons-is-layout-flex\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-button\"><a class=\"wp-block-button__link has-orange-background-color has-background wp-element-button\" href=\"https:\/\/lp.constantcontactpages.com\/sl\/XIYDUv9\/DataDecisionsPathways\">Subscribe Now<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"946\" height=\"630\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-6.34.01-PM.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-1087\" style=\"width:450px\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-6.34.01-PM.png 946w, https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-6.34.01-PM-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/Screenshot-2025-06-02-at-6.34.01-PM-768x511.png 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 946px) 100vw, 946px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By By W H Inmon Classical data architecture is dominated by structured data. Structured data was the first type of data that people had to&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":971,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17,13,260],"tags":[110,111,83,112,77,80,87,109,107,108],"class_list":["post-969","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-big-data","category-data-architecture-modeling","category-hot-topic","tag-analytics-strategy","tag-big-data","tag-data-architecture","tag-data-value","tag-data-warehousing","tag-digital-transformation","tag-enterprise-data","tag-modern-data-architecture","tag-structured-data","tag-unstructured-data"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=969"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1218,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/969\/revisions\/1218"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/971"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=969"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=969"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.data-principles.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=969"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}