Styles of MDM framework

MDM can be essentially fitted into 3 styles of framework

1. Registry based approach: The MDM contains a reference to the actual data stores and doesn't contain the data itself. It has pointers to the respective source systems for the attributes it hosts. Data governance and integrity are left to the source systems to handle. Quick way to setup a MDM. The registry will decide where to pick up the data from at run-time. I haven't seen many companies implementing this model.

2. Centralized Hub: The master data is integrated from different applications, cleansed, standardized, corporate-governed, secured, authorized and published to different subscribers from one central repository. This hosts the entire MDM data. Takes a long time to setup, but its one of the most efficient systems of integrating master data.

3. De-Centralized Regional Hub: This is similar to the previous implementation, but the corporate data is maintained in a global MDM hub and the regional/ business MDM requirements are maintained in a local/regional hub. This clearly differentiates the corporate from the regional needs.

Choosing which model to vote for is one of the key elements for the success of an MDM project.