Information Management – Old Term, New Definition
Every now and then, there’s rumbling about integrating structured data – the stuff you find in databases – with unstructured data – the electronic stuff that, well, isn’t in databases, like text files and Web pages.
It’s not exactly a new topic, though the market does seem to be actually moving toward that point where vendors can offer actual solutions.
Still, it’s hard to find concrete discussions of this type of integration, which is why I was pleasantly surprised by a recent find on ComputerWeekly.com.
I learned three important things that will help you navigate this emerging market space, even if you’re completely skeptical about unstructured data.
First, even though we have terms like “knowledge management,” “business intelligence,” and any number of nomenclatures you could use to describe the integration of structured and unstructured data already – there’s still a new term to describe the integration of structured and unstructured data. Of course there is – isn’t there always?
The term is “information management” and, in cases where you want to be really clear you’re talking about both structured and unstructured information, you may also use “holistic information management.”
Now, I know information management isn’t a new term, but the usage is now more specific, a bit more defined. I mention that so you’ll know what vendors mean when they start to push their new Information Management platforms/solutions/suites. Here’s how the article explains it:
