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Introducing erwin Data Modeler 14.0: The next step in a tradition of data modeling excellence

Sep 16, 2024 by Ryan Crochet

Continue to conquer data chaos and build your data landscape on a sturdy and standardized foundation with erwin® Data Modeler 14.0. The gold standard in data modeling solutions for more than 30 years continues to evolve with its latest release, highlighted by:

  • PostgreSQL 16.x support
  • Data Valt redesign
  • NoSQL framework rework
  • erwin ER360 enhancements
  • User interface improvements

This release comes packed with powerful enhancements designed to simplify and streamline your data modeling processes while offering even greater support for a diverse range of data sources.

erwin Data Modeler is more than just a data modeling tool; it serves as a comprehensive solution that addresses the four critical needs of today’s data-driven organizations:

  1. Data governance and compliance: erwin Data Modeler provides robust capabilities for managing and ensuring the accuracy and security of your data, helping organizations meet regulatory requirements with confidence.
  2. Migration and modernization: It enables seamless transitions between legacy systems and modern platforms, ensuring your data architecture evolves without disruption.
  3. Improved data visibility and understanding: erwin Data Modeler offers intuitive visualization tools that make complex data relationships easy to interpret, fostering better decision-making across the organization.
  4. Efficient database design and optimization: It allows users to create efficient, scalable database structures that meet the needs of modern applications, ensuring your data infrastructure is always performing at its best.

The next step in a tradition of data modeling excellence

  1. Data governance and compliance: erwin Data Modeler provides robust capabilities for managing and ensuring the accuracy and security of your data, helping organizations meet regulatory requirements with confidence.
  2. Migration and modernization: It enables seamless transitions between legacy systems and modern platforms, ensuring your data architecture evolves without disruption.
  3. Improved data visibility and understanding: erwin Data Modeler offers intuitive visualization tools that make complex data relationships easy to interpret, fostering better decision-making across the organization.
  4. Efficient database design and optimization: It allows users to create efficient, scalable database structures that meet the needs of modern applications, ensuring your data infrastructure is always performing at its best.

 

Feature Updates for erwin Data Modeler 14.0

Key Capabilities – Feature Enhancements Benefits – Why It Matters
Feature Updates for erwin Data Modeler 14.0
Git branching – Git repositories are now displayed in the user interface, including the available branches of the chosen repository. More accessible Git integration enhances support for a structured approach to managing data models, which is crucial for effective data governance.
AzureDevOps Git integration support – Now allows for connection to AzureDevOps repositories using PAT tokens and enables new content to be amended to existing files from the alter dialog. Enhances data governance through change management tracking, accountability, consistency and standardization by making it easier and more accessible to more Git hosts.
Improved Data Visibility and Understanding
User Interface Enhancements – erwin Data Modeler 14.0 comes with several UI enhancements to make data modeling easier and more customizable based on user preference. These include:

Multi-tab functionality – View all tabs from a single screen without needing to scroll left and right through multiple tabs with limited visibility in windows.

Truncated text resolution – Adjust resolution and screen settings without truncating text during modeling

Contemporary UI features – Includes enhanced description windows and color/theme customization for preference and/or ease of visualization

 erwin Data Modeler continues to evolve to enhance the user experience. These more contemporary updates to the UI will help with overall user experience, efficiency and speed when building models and allow the modeler to enhance the visualization based on the needs and preferences of the organization.
Reverse Engineering Configuration Process Improvements – Users can now store RE configurations that they might commonly use within the tool. Once the configuration settings have been entered once, it will remain within the RE Configuration List Dialog box for future use and can be exported to the Mart for other users within the organization to utilize as necessary. This enhancement will drastically reduce the need for redundant input of information when configuring the reverse engineering needed. Organizations can experience increases in efficiency and the ability to collaborate by sharing these configurations easily within the Mart.
Complete Compare – The new user-friendly complete compare process allows for comparing at the logical/physical level, logical level, physical level or database level through easy drag-down selection. Benchmark testing has shown that organizations can now expect complete compare results to be available up to 50% faster with these enhancements.
Cassandra DSE Search Index Enhancements – We have included the abilities to:

  • Create search index for table in the model
  • Reverse Engineer search index from script
  • Forward Engineer into script and database
 These enhancements help to make data management analysis in Cassandra DSE more efficient and effective. Data accessibility is improved with quicker retrieval and ease of navigation and data analysis is enhanced with more comprehensive insights and trend identification.
Migration and Modernization
PostgreSQL 16.x Support – Full updated support for the latest version of PostgreSQL including RES support for all objects and REDB using JDBC support. Now provide full data modeling support for the most up-to-date release of PostgreSQL which is one of the most popular data platforms today.
Enhanced NoSQL denormalization automation – New enhancements to the denormalization process allow users to:

  • Easily de-normalize models from SQL sources to NoSQL sources
  • Normalize back to the original SQL model, rather than creating repetitive, empty or unnecessary additional tables
  • Separate logical/physical models for MongoDB, DynamoDB, Couchbase, Google Big Query, AVRO, JSON and Parquet. Although segregated, modifications can occur on either the logical or physical side of the model as necessary.
 Denormalization/normalization of models from SQL to NoSQL is crucial for organizations as data landscapes become more complex. As organizations are utilizing different platforms, the ability to jump from traditional relational databases to NoSQL databases that are ideal for scalability and handling large amounts of unstructured data is paramount. This provides the flexibility to take advantage of both types of databases and increases scalability.

These enhancements also help reduce redundancy and improve data consistency. Denormalization, by its nature, can introduce redundancy, but erwin Data Modeler has improved these processes to make sure that the process maintains data consistency and integrity.

Lastly, many new technologies require the use of both SQL and NoSQL database platforms. The denormalization and normalization capabilities here are crucial for easier adoption of new technologies and platforms in real-time as well as futureproofing the inevitable adjustments that come with dynamic and ever-changing data strategies.
Google BigQuery Enhancements – erwin Data Modeler 14.0 boasts several enhancements to integration with Google BigQuery:

  • Additional support for Primary Key (PK) and Foreign Key (FK) concepts commonly used to establish relationships between tables
  • Expanded property sets for almost all objects in Google BigQuery
  • Added comprehensive Remote Function capabilities with detailed property configurations
 Use of PK/FK functionality in data modeling establishes a structured and reliable database schema that supports:

  • Data integrity: Helps to ensure the relationships between tables remain consistent
  • Normalization: Helps in organizing data to reduce redundancy and improve data integrity
  • Query optimization: Improves the efficiency of queries by providing clear pathways for retrieving related data
Save as JSON files – Users can now save their data models in .JSON file format. Because of its interoperability, flexibility and tool compatibility, JSON is an ideal format for managing and exchanging data models in modern data environments.
Efficient Database Design and Optimization
Data Vault Redesign – To better enhance the user experience and performance in Data Vault, erwin Data Modeler 14.0 introduces a complete redesign to make it easier for users in Data Vault:

  • Standard and user-defined Data Vault components support – Allows for customized Data Vault components as needed
  • Seamless transition between Data Vault components – Easily switch from hub to satellite, link, bridge, etc. without complication
  • Copy/paste feature – Copy and paste elements within the model you are working in or into a new model (an erwin Data Modeler prompt will ask to convert to a Data Vault model or not in the new model)
  • Seamless bulk editing – Mass adjustment of characteristics in large volume models
  • Cloning of existing components – Quick, easy duplication of components
  • Theme customization – Change color schemes to the preference of the user
  • Conversion from Data Vault to non-Data Vault models without loss of data
  • Primary Key (PK) option for Data Vault components – Easily assign a component as a primary key
 This Data Vault interface redesign with the new ease of use and efficient model creation capabilities streamline workflow and enhance productivity.

The overall performance of the database will also increase because it will allow for improved accuracy and consistency by reducing errors that could happen when handling more manual task processes and the visual representation of the data models can make it easier to identify and address any issues or inconsistencies.

Lastly, these enhancements can help make the general user experience easier, reducing the need for a ton of experience and/or training which directly leads to faster time to value from the models being created within the tool.

Related Links

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Join our product team on October 10, 2024, for a discussion about the challenges you may be facing that the new features of erwin Data Modeler 14.0 can help solve!

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