Noel Yuhanna

Principal Analyst Serving Enterprise Architecture Professionals

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Noel covers big data, data warehouses, data fabric, data integration, data virtualization, Hadoop, Spark, in-memory, translytical, NoSQL, cloud, ETL, big data integration, data management, data tools, and data security for enterprise architecture professionals. His current focus is on new and emerging markets, modern data architectures, cloud and hybrid cloud deployments.

Previous Work Experience

Noel has more than 25 years of experience in IT and has held various technical and management positions. He came to Forrester through its acquisition of Giga Information Group in 2003. Prior to joining Giga, Noel spent several years at Exodus Communications and led a group responsible for planning and implementing mission-critical enterprise applications including ERP, CRM, and other internal apps. Prior to Exodus, he served as a principal consultant, benchmark specialist, and data architect for Amdahl Corporation. He worked on several very large database applications and deployed high-availability and high-scalability solutions for Fortune 100 companies. He was responsible for running the world’s fastest TPC-B benchmark on Informix at Amdahl in 1994 and built the first commercial terabyte-sized database on Oracle in the early 1990s. He worked on nCube MPP Database in the early '90s and helped enterprises scale their mission-critical applications. At his first job at Eicher Goodearth Corporation in the mid-1980s, he started working with COBOL programs and later expanded his knowledge toward data modeling, programming, and administration using RDBMS technologies.

Noel has spoken at numerous industry conferences around the globe and is quoted frequently in industry publications such as CNET News, Computerworld, eWeek, InfoWorld, InformationWeek, Forbes, Search.com, The Wall Street Journal, and The New York Times. He has taught several technical and management workshops on big data, data management, data integration, building scalable apps, in-memory platforms, and data virtualization.

Education

Noel holds a bachelor's degree in business and a postgraduate degree in business administration. He is the author of an Oracle book published by Manning Publications in 1999.

Print Bio

Noel Yuhanna

Principal Analyst Serving Enterprise Architecture Professionals

Read Noel's blog posts

Previous Work Experience

Education

Noel holds a bachelor's degree in business and a postgraduate degree in business administration. He is the author of an Oracle book published by Manning Publications in 1999.

Research Coverage

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Noel Yuhanna's Research

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For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: Big Data Fabric 2.0 Drives Data Democratization

Advanced Level: Data Practices For Insights-Driven Businesses

May 9, 2019Noel Yuhanna

Business users want faster and easier access to trusted data to make accurate business decisions, while technology organizations want to simplify data management. Three years ago, Forrester invented the tech category "big data fabric" that addresses these goals and continues to evolve to support data democratization. Our updated big data fabric architecture, version 2.0, reflects new technology enhancements and highlights new opportunities for businesses. Enterprise architecture (EA) pros should use big data fabric to democratize data across the enterprise.
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: Best Practices: Cloud Database Migrations

Leverage Tools To Minimize Risks And Accelerate Migrations

March 22, 2019Noel Yuhanna

Cloud databases have exploded on the scene as organizations look at faster and more scalable deployments and lower their costs. However, cloud database migrations are not simple lift-and-shift; they require careful planning, technical skills, and tools to succeed, especially when dealing with large and complex deployments. This report provides best practices to help enterprise architecture (EA) professionals manage a successful and less disruptive cloud database migration process.
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: The Forrester Wave™: Big Data NoSQL, Q1 2019

The 15 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

March 14, 2019Noel Yuhanna

NoSQL has become critical for all businesses to support modern business applications. In our 26-criterion evaluation of NoSQL providers, we identified the 15 most significant ones — Aerospike, Amazon Web Services (AWS), ArangoDB, Couchbase, DataStax, Google, IBM, MarkLogic, Microsoft, MongoDB, Neo4j, Oracle, RavenDB, Redis Labs, and SAP — and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps enterprise architecture (EA) professionals select the right one for their needs.
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: Future-Proof Your Data Management Architecture

Seven Strategies To Consider In Keeping Your Architectures Current

March 13, 2019Noel Yuhanna

Changing business requirements and new technologies drive constant change in data management architectures. Without an effective data management strategy, organizations won't meet the growing business demand to deliver trusted and secure data for business applications and insights. This report shows enterprise architecture (EA) pros how to invest in future-proofing their data management architectures to respond more quickly to customer needs and competitive threats and to enable the delivery of innovative products and services.
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: The Forrester Wave™: Cloud Hadoop/Spark Platforms, Q1 2019

The 11 Providers That Matter Most And How They Stack Up

February 13, 2019Noel Yuhanna, Mike Gualtieri

Cloud Hadoop/Spark (HARK) platforms accelerate insights by automating the storage, processing, and accessing of big data. In our 25-criterion evaluation of HARK providers, we identified the 11 most significant ones — Amazon Web Services (AWS), Cloudera, Google, Hortonworks, Huawei, MapR, Microsoft, Oracle, Qubole, Rackspace, and SAP — and researched, analyzed, and scored them. This report shows how each provider measures up and helps enterprise architecture (EA) professionals select the right one for their needs. Note: Cloudera and Hortonworks completed their planned merger on January 3, 2019, and will continue as Cloudera. This Forrester Wave reflects our evaluation of each company's independent HARK platforms prior to the completion of the merger.

For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: Create A Road Map For A Real-Time, Agile, Self-Service Data Platform

Road Map: The Data Management Playbook

November 20, 2018 Michele Goetz, Noel Yuhanna

Data bottlenecks create business bottlenecks. The days of provisioning data simply to meet the requirements of systems of record are over. Business stakeholders at the executive and line-of-business levels need data faster to keep up with customers, competitors, and partners. Information from the past won't support the insights of the future — businesses need real-time data. This report shows enterprise architects how they can use data to transform their organization and keep pace with the speed of business. This is an update to a previously published report; Forrester reviews and revises it periodically for continued relevance and accuracy.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Forrester TechRadar™: Enterprise Data Integration, Q1 2010

Data Integration Technologies Evolve To Address New Challenges

February 4, 2010Noel Yuhanna, Rob Karel

Today, enterprises face increasing data integration challenges, largely because of growing data volumes, data protection issues, data migration complexities, the need for real-time information, integration of structured with unstructured data, and the limitations of existing data integration technologies. Business users want quick access to reliable real-time information to help them make better business decisions. As a result, information architecture and application development professionals find themselves on a never-ending quest to improve data's quality and timeliness. To provide insight into the vast array of options available to meet today's data integration challenges, Forrester investigated 11 technologies used to support a wide variety of data integration requirements, including change data capture (CDC), data access, data discovery, data quality services, data replication, data services platforms, distributed data caching, enterprise information integration (EII), enterprise services buses (ESBs), extract, transform, and load (ETL), and master data management (MDM). We found that data quality services, data services platforms, ESBs, and MDM continue to mature with widespread adoption, while CDC, data access, data replication, and ETL have reached the Equilibrium phase. Data discovery and distributed data caching are in the Survival phase, and EII stands alone in the Decline phase.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: The Forrester Wave™: Information-As-A-Service, Q1 2010

IBM, Informatica, Composite Software, And Denodo Technologies Lead, With Microsoft And Red Hat Close Behind

February 10, 2010Noel Yuhanna, Mike Gilpin

In Forrester's 123-criteria evaluation of information-as-a-service (IaaS) — also known as data services — vendors, we found that IBM, Informatica, Composite Software, and Denodo Technologies led the pack because of strong data services features and capabilities such as data services modeling, real-time integration, data quality, and transformation, to support most use case scenarios. IBM, Informatica, and Composite Software have proven track records of supporting enterprisewide data services implementations. Denodo Technologies provides a broad set of data services features and capabilities and a strong delivery framework. Microsoft and Red Hat are Strong Performers; each offers a viable option, especially for customers considering a Microsoft stack or open source, respectively. Oracle no longer positions a product in the IaaS market despite having a leading IaaS product that it gained through acquiring BEA Systems in 2008.
For Application Development & Delivery Professionals

REPORT: Forrester's Data Management Reference Architecture

Align Data Management Roles To Create Stronger Business Value

February 2, 2011Noel Yuhanna, Gene Leganza, Rob Karel, Boris Evelson, James G. Kobielus, Leslie Owens

The continuing explosion in data volume, increasing numbers of business users, growing data complexity, compliance requirements, need to support global operations, and growing need for real-time access are motivating enterprises to get more control of data management strategy and data architecture. More importantly, more and more businesses use insight derived from data as a key corporate asset for competitive differentiation. Enterprises need effective data management architecture to support their changing business requirements and ensure that they always use trusted and secure data for key processes. But myriad choices and new data requirements inundate data architects, enterprise architects, database administrators, and data quality specialists. Forrester's data management reference architecture provides a framework, including architectural patterns and building blocks, to guide these data management stakeholders in managing strategy and architecture.
For Enterprise Architecture Professionals

REPORT: The Anatomy Of A System Of Insight

January 5, 2018 Brian Hopkins, Michele Goetz, Noel Yuhanna

Your big data strategy is likely too little, too late. Customers are changing their expectations too quickly, and data lakes are becoming swamps. Insights-driven disruptors are using systems of insight to steal revenue from competitors and grow year-over-year at a double-digit pace. This report breaks down the components of a system of insight into a reference architecture and provides examples so enterprise architects can start helping their firms innovate their technology capabilities. This is an update to a previously published report.