In this special episode, Ole Olesen-Bagneux welcomes Emma McGrattan, Actian’s CTO, as the new co-host of Enterprise Wide Search. Emma shares her journey from coding her first game at age 12 to leading global data innovation at Actian for over three decades.

Together, they explore:

• Emma’s early experiences with technology and her path into data engineering.

• The pervasive role of Actian’s technology in everyday life, from morning routines to global transportation systems.

• The evolution of data management: from conserving storage space to enabling AI-driven decision-making.

• Emma’s favorite cities and the cultural insights she’s gained through her travels.

  
  

🎧 Join us as we delve into Emma's experiences and perspectives on the podcast, setting the stage for future explorations of enterprise data.

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I talked to Chief Data Architect, dr. Anna Ibrahim on Episode 07 - and this conversation marks a new direction for my podcast, as I will talk more concretely about the Meta Grid in the episodes going forward.

As you will hear, Anna has deep technical understanding and - just as important - organizational experience to testify that the Meta Grid is already out there. In this conversation, we discuss the wealth of metadata repositories, that each at least in principle leverage different, distinct capabilities - albeit they contain the same metadata.

However, Anna precisely addresses that this is not always the case, that there is an overlap of capabilities delivered by metadata repositories, and points to the paradox that vendors try to position themselves as unique, although they actually deliver redundant capabilities.

Nevertheless, we expand the topic to include not only vendors, but also consultancies and internal employees - this reality that I call the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly (all three parties can play all three roles).

Also, at least for the next couple of months, I have decided to publish episodes on my podcast a little less frequently, but deeper and slightly longer conversations. I simply have to finalize my book, Fundamentals of Metadata Management (O'Reilly, 2025).

In conclusion, I am very happy I got to have this conversation. I think that tech- and consultancy companies should listen to this episode. For each industrial company I sare to claim: The Meta Grid is already there.

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Episode 06 is out! I spoke to Solomon Kahn that is the CEO of Delivery Layer and co-founder of Top Data People. We spoke about both companies, however my key interest in reaching out to Solomon is Delivery Layer. It's sort of a reverse Customer Data Platform (CDP) and I think that's surprising, but relevant, way to be searching data.

I also spoke about data influencing with Solomon. I really don't like being called a data influencer, but Solomon totally embraces it, saying that knowledgeable people should fight for influence. I like that! Finally, we talked about the tech scene in New York, that is interesting in the sense that this is the place where the biggest tech customers are.

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Episode 05 is out! What does Team Topologies look like in practice? This cool, flexible organizational setup that enables fast flow for IT? Usually data scientists realize they need data engineers... But in this amazing use case, we discuss the opposite: Data engineers becoming data scientists because the data infrastructure simply works!

Eduardo da Silva has tried exactly this inside bol.com, with the input and feedback from co-author of Team Topologies, Manuel Pais. I interviewed Eduardo and Manuel and this conversation was eye-opening and very stimulating. I was simply surprised that something so smooth and powerful can happen, and you can hear my excitement.

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To Scott Taylor - my data story about the Meta Grid

The preface of my book Fundamentals of Metadata Management

Scott Taylor asked me to send my data story on the Meta Grid, so he could comment on it, and - I’m thankful Scott! Here it is: The following is the current preface of my book Fundamentals of Metadata Management, to be published with O’Reilly in 2025. It contains two paragraphs, About this book and Why I wrote this book. Everyone, including YOU, can read and comment on my Substack version of The Meta Grid Notes. I read all comments!

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Episode 04 is out! What is the Metadata Warehouse? Martin Sahlen is on a mission to make data teams data driven. And if there is one thing I have seen in my career, it's data teams working in the dark, with no KPIs of their activities - very little search features on themselves - a total paradox! And that's the idea behind the Metadata Warehouse.

Martin is the CEO of Alvin, and if you want to hear what the sponsor behind this podcast is all about, here you go - I partner with Alvin, because I believe in Alvin's ideas!

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