Christopher Brookover

About Christopher Brookover

Data is like garbage. You’d better know what you’re going to do with it before you collect it.” - Unknown25+ years in technology, focused on all things data. Data is hard! From ingestion to consumption, ensuring users have the data they need, when they need it, and how they need it. Data is hard. From generating data APIs, streams, executive dashboards, AI-ready data, active metadata, generative BI, or tomorrow’s data craze, data is hard. There are a few core principles that I follow when defining a data strategy and architecture. These tenets ensure trustworthy and predictable data:> Define on the right; Enforce on the leftAll data processed should align to a business value. The business (right) must define the data required to produce the value. To create that data, we need to enforce quality, standards, and integrity as close to the source (left) as possible.> Data ContractsEvery data asset processed needs a data contract. A data contract defines the asset technically, but with a business context as well. It includes data quality rules, glossary terms, schema, and additional metadata. It allows for the decoupled integration necessary to build a flexible and responsive data platform.> Configurable FrameworksMetadata is everything. A configurable framework is essentially code that generates code based on specific configurations. They reduce engineering work, increase data quality, and introduce predictability. These can be built for various purposes, including ingestion, API creation, and orchestration. And of course, they can be replaced with AI.> GovernanceAnd always Governance. The business owns the data, so they own governance processes, who can access what, and how they can access it. Technology’s role is to provide a centralized portal for data discovery, to facilitate access requests, and to provide observability.

Experience

1. Director Enterprise Data Architecture and Engineering

   IEEE

   Dec 2024 — Present

Education

• University of Phoenix

  Bachelor of Science - BS, Information Technology

• Southwest Tennessee Community College

  Associate of Arts and Sciences - AAS, Computer Engineering Technology/Technician