Sometimes you can tell as much about a man by his family as by his work. Such is the case of Bill Inmon, dubbed the "father of data warehousing." Inmon is president and CTO of Forest Rim Technology of Castle Rock, Colorado. His father, now 91, still tends the ranch in West Texas that's been in the family since 1870. And while it may seem as though Inmon and his two siblings each took different career paths - his sister is a lawyer, his brother is an artist - they have all chosen, and become successful, in independent, self-employed pursuits.
The key word is independent. "We're all so ornery that no one will have us work for them," Inmon chuckles.
That may be true, but it's interesting that all three careers require the ability to make order out of chaos, to take something unformed and give it structure (as does ranching in West Texas). It was also that independent, somewhat contrary, spirit that put Inmon at the forefront of data warehousing. Before the idea coalesced in his mind, he says, "Everyone was making promises about relational technology. I took a stance of healthy skepticism, which made me very unpopular. People wanted to believe that relational technology was going to save the world for them."
Naturally, even negative feedback didn't dissuade him. "It forced me to ask, if relational technology isn't the answer, then what are the questions?" He started wondering about how to best integrate data from multiple sources; how to modernize historical data; and how to incorporate data at a lowest level of granularity. "From these basic questions came the understanding of what a data warehouse should be." (His passion for the evolution of data warehousing continues; his latest book, Tapping into Unstructured Data: Integrating Unstructured Data and Textual Analytics into Business Intelligence, was co-authored with Anthony Nesavich.)
No question there's a bit of contrarian in Inmon. But that's a trait in many pioneers, whose imaginations are always sprinting ahead, searching for a better alternative. But being a contrarian does not make him contrary. His clients find him both approachable and engaging. He travels sans entourage (unless you count his wife, who frequently accompanies him), and is a welcome member of technical communities around the world.
And if he was really ornery, he wouldn't have spent 50 out of 52 weeks on the road last year, split almost equally between client engagements and conferences. He would have completely avoided one of his least favorite places, the Denver International Airport, and hunkered down in Castle Rock, where the closest house is 200 yards away and the nearest neighbors are wildlife. But he doesn't - even as an independent spirit, he's a workaholic.
Inmon genuinely enjoys working and interacting with people, bridging the chasm between people and his vision of the future of data warehousing technology. In the next issue of Satori, in part two of this profile, we'll look at how Inmon brings this vision into the business world.
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