Interview with Julien Redmond
Welcome to another edition of Data Vault Friday! I’m Michael Olschimke, CEO of Scalefree, and every Friday at 11 o’clock, we dive into discussions about Data Vault, data mining, cloud computing, and any data-driven applications. Today, we have a special guest—Julien Redmond from Ignition Data in Australia, who’s been working with us as a partner. Julien has developed the IRiS Data Vault automation tool, and he’s here to share insights about this innovative solution.
In this article:
The Global IRiS Tour
Julien has been traveling the globe, promoting IRiS and ensuring that everyone knows about this groundbreaking tool. IRiS focuses on simplifying the data engineering aspects of Data Vault, rather than the modeling tasks, making it accessible and easy to use. Julien’s goal was to create a process so straightforward that anyone could learn it in less than a day. This simplicity allows teams to make Data Vault tasks repeatable and manageable, even for junior members.
What Sets IRiS Apart?
With so many Data Vault automation offerings available, IRiS stands out by addressing common pain points. The tool aims to minimize the steep learning curves often associated with other automation tools and facilitates seamless knowledge transfer between experienced and new users. It’s designed to integrate softly with existing data management platforms—whether that’s Microsoft Data Factory, AWS Glue, or other established tools—without disrupting current systems.
Seamless Integration
IRiS requires a minimal amount of metadata, which can be easily extracted from any modeling tool. This means there’s no new modeling interface to learn—just feed the metadata into IRiS, and it generates the necessary stored procedures and data definition scripts. This integration approach ensures that companies can leverage their existing platforms while adding powerful Data Vault automation capabilities.
Empowering Data-Driven Organizations
IRiS supports a range of target platforms like Databricks, Snowflake, and Microsoft tools, aligning with the growing trend of moving towards Lakehouse architectures. Organizations can incrementally move data into the Lakehouse based on specific use cases, promoting value-driven design and delivery. Julien emphasized that IRiS is lightweight, inexpensive, and comes as a single container—making it easy to deploy and use without significant overhead.
Learning and Community Support
One of the standout features of IRiS is its supportive learning environment. It includes an online training program with six hours of videos, a comprehensive playbook blending Data Vault methodology with practical user guidance, and access to a knowledge hub with tips and tricks. New users can get up to speed quickly, reinforcing their learning with a supportive community ready to help when needed.
Future of IRiS
Julien’s global tour reflects the excitement and confidence behind IRiS. As he visits partners worldwide—from Finland to the US—he’s spreading the word about how IRiS can transform Data Vault engineering, especially for organizations invested in cloud platforms. The response so far has been overwhelmingly positive, with teams appreciating how IRiS fits into their existing infrastructures while simplifying their workflows.
That wraps up this special session of Data Vault Friday! Thanks for joining us, and a big thanks to Julien for sharing his journey with IRiS. We’ll return to our usual Q&A format next time, so be sure to bring your questions. Until then, have a fantastic weekend!
Watch the Video
Meet the Speaker
Michael Olschimke
Michael has more than 15 years of experience in Information Technology. During the last eight years he has specialized in Business Intelligence topics such as OLAP, Dimensional Modelling, and Data Mining. Challenge him with your questions!
