Foundations for Better Enterprise Data Management
In this exclusive O’Reilly report, Actian CTO Emma McGrattan shares five foundational pillars — and a practical 90-day plan — to help data leaders build trusted, usable data that drives business value.
Fix the foundation. Unlock the value.
Why enterprise data strategies stall — and what high-performing organizations do differently.
Despite massive investments in cloud platforms, AI, and governance tools, most enterprise data programs still underperform. The issue isn’t the tooling: it’s the foundation.
In this exclusive O’Reilly report, Actian CTO Emma McGrattan introduces five foundational pillars every enterprise needs to make data trusted, usable, and scalable across domains and teams. Turning complexity into clarity and data into business value.
The report includes a 90-day action plan to help you assess, prioritize, and act.
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About the Report
Most enterprises are still struggling with the basics of data management. Fragmented architecture, inconsistent ownership, poor data quality, and governance that slows more than it supports — these are the real blockers to innovation, not AI adoption or tool selection.
This report delivers a clear, practical framework for building strong data foundations that scale. Whether you’re modernizing your architecture, enabling data products, or preparing for AI, this guide will help you focus on what actually works.
Written for data and technology leaders, this report is a must-read for CDOs, CIOs, CTOs, data architects, and analytics & transformation leaders.
What You’ll Learn
✔️ Why even mature programs still struggle with governance, trust, and access
✔️ The five foundational pillars—Architecture, Governance, Quality & observability, Metadata, and Access & security—work together to make data scalable, trusted, and usable.
✔️ How enterprise data marketplaces are reshaping discovery and accountability
✔️ What “good” looks like for modern metadata, observability, and ownership
✔️ A practical 90-day action plan to help you operationalize change now
Leverage Emma McGrattan’s real-world lessons from enterprises and lay the groundwork for AI, analytics, compliance, and faster decision-making—by fixing the fundamentals first.
“Data management isn’t about central control—it’s about setting up the right systems so teams can move fast, safely.” — Emma McGrattan, CTO, Actian
About the Author
Emma McGrattan
CTO, Actian
Emma McGrattan is the Chief Technology Officer at Actian, where she leads the strategy behind some of the industry’s most innovative data solutions. With over two decades of experience delivering mission-critical data technologies, she has helped organizations across industries design and modernize their data architectures, embed governance by design, and become AI-ready. A recognized thought leader and sought-after speaker, Emma is known for turning complex data challenges into clear, actionable blueprints. Her work bridges the gap between technology and business, enabling teams to move faster with trusted, scalable data. This book draws on her hands-on experience and no-nonsense approach to understanding and building data systems that actually work.
