Unleashing the potential of data

The COVID-19 lockdown demonstrated the value of cloud in enabling people to work when and where they needed to. It supported legions of remote workers with tools ranging from video conferencing to file sharing and Software-as-a-Service.

But the cloud presents an even greater opportunity for businesses, and that is the opportunity to unlock the value of data that is currently residing in disparate systems. This will pave the way for data to become more accessible and shareable, addressing the needs of digital transformation and the realities of the new data landscape. 

Today, businesses are democratising access to data as they become more aware of its value. Where previously, dealing with data used to be the purview of IT or business intelligence teams, now different functions within the organisation such as marketing, sales and operations are making use of it to achieve their productivity and business goals.

Data is also being shared to magnify its value. Data sharing can help businesses to reduce inefficiencies, increase collaboration and create new opportunities. For retail organisations, for example, it can help drive innovation in customer engagement and loyalty programmes. In the financial services sector, it can give organisations a more holistic view of their customers for credit risk assessments that support decision making.

However, many organisations are still unable to unlock the full value of data because of the siloed architectures that restrict data access and sharing. Data warehouses, data hubs and web portals which have been created to facilitate the use of data have, unfortunately, added to the complexity because they require data to be extracted, transformed and loaded (ETL) before it can be used. This involves collecting the data, often from disparate sources, and converting it to a format that can be written into a target database before it can be analysed to generate insights and create value.

The process can be costly, time-consuming and impedes agility. It also adds wastage with the effort and cost involved in duplicating the data. 

The cloud presents an opportunity to address these bottlenecks. Ubiquitous cloud connectivity makes it an ideal platform for organisations to share, connect and harness data. This allows for a new model for data access and sharing that can help eliminate silos and many of the pain points that stand in the way of value extraction.

The creation of a distributed data access and sharing layer in the cloud will enable enterprises to securely access, share, integrate and re-purpose data without having to put it through the traditional ETL process. 

The distributed data layer works by wrapping, joining to and reusing data in existing database silos. This enables the organisation to harness its existing investments, minimising wastage and duplication of storage.

By removing the need to extract and copy the data to another system, it also overcomes complexity and creates a single reusable version of truth. This strengthens governance and allows data to be re-used with confidence, unlocking business agility and service innovation. 

The distributed data layer also allows organisations to share data more easily – both internally between functional units and externally with their partners and extended ecosystem, enabling them to respond more quickly to changes in the market. 

In the public sector, the distributed data layer allows agencies to bring together the data they need to create and deliver citizen-centric services. In healthcare, it allows for a single point of entry into a chain of related patient data, giving healthcare providers a holistic view of the individual to improve decision-making and deliver better treatment outcomes.

With access to data from disparate sources, machine learning can also be applied to drive automation. In the logistics sector, for example, the data can be used to create “digital twins” of physical entities and tasks, enabling real-time visibility and automation of fulfilment processes.

As businesses expand and the volume and variety of data continues to grow, the distributed data model leveraging the cloud really starts to shine. The elasticity of the cloud means that organisations can start small and scale easily as data-driven projects take off. For global companies, data sharing can help bring dispersed teams together to work on projects, without having to replicate data insights for different regions.

By eliminating the need to extract data before it can become useful, the distributed data model removes duplicate costs and improves access to data for improved productivity and service innovation. With this, the promise of data-driven value creation, long held back by data silos, can finally be delivered. 

We can help unlock the value of your data.