System of Record And Source of Single Truth Are Not The Same
I recently blogged about the importance of distinct and isolated subsystems where real-time data transactions that apply to a particular business data entity are processed, known as a System of Record. Someone referenced that post and incorrectly implied that I was suggesting a Single Source of Truth. I didn't delve deeper into Single Source of Truth in that post to keep it concise. Still, I was careful to suggest "how important it is to separate operational systems from analytical systems" and that analytical systems "must support multiple independent Systems of Record." And in fact, I diagrammed information refinement and how it progresses within enterprises. That diagram isolated Systems of Record from a Single Source of Truth and isolated Operational Systems from Analytical Systems. In this post, I want to detail how and why a Single Source of Truth is different from Systems of Record.
