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Data is the lifeblood of every business. It is the most valuable asset as it can provide valuable insight into how to drive better business outcome, uncover revenue opportunities and improve customer services. Enterprises are updating their IT infrastructures with modern technologies such as cloud, data lakes and real-time data streaming to empower advanced analytical processes as the speed in which data can be discovered and analyzed is critical for success.

DataOps is a new Data Management strategy that organizations are beginning to explore as it creates a collaborative process for managing data, people and technology in an efficient manner. As I explored in my previous column, a DataOps strategy is key for enterprises who wish to build out the proper, agile modern Data Architecture from a data integration and technology perspective, with real time data integration and automation being key technologies in accelerating data delivery for analytics. When delving into the people and processes aspects of DataOps, the essential aspect is collaboration.

Building Team Interactions Through ‘Marketplaces’

Many enterprises have various teams or business units. And within each of them, there are smaller groups that focus on specific activities such as data analytics. The challenge with this type of structure is the lack of interaction between teams – especially those working on data analytics . As a result, there is an overlap in work and creation of data silos. This inefficiency can also result in different groups analyzing the same data and ending with different results.

A DataOps strategy targets this inefficiency by creating a centralized data hub from which IT can control and govern how and who is using the data. Now, many of you may argue that by centralizing data access within IT can slow the process, but in reality, it has the opposite effect. When there is a modern enterprise Data Management solution in place, companies have seen a 25 times faster turnaround on data delivery requests and 40 percent reduction in data preparation costs. It exponentially increases the efficiency of data analysis!

But what does that mean for collaboration? Teams have a simplified and accelerated delivery of trustworthy and actionable data sets through a data catalog. Raw data that has already been transformed into usable form as well as those data sets and analytical results from previous analysis are all available in one location. Thus, teams can build upon and utilize what their colleagues have already done as well as easily locating data sources in one marketplace.

The beauty of a centralized data catalog or data marketplace is how it will lead to an increase in data trust and quality across the company. In many cases now, users are leery of any curated data sets as they don’t have insight into where it came from, how it has been transformed and by who in the organization. The data catalog displays all the metadata or data lineage of this information so users can be confident they have the most accurate information to make business decisions. When integrated with a modern data pipeline platform, such a ‘DataOps Catalog’ creates the place where data producers and consumers meet, facilitating agility and collaboration.

Educating executives with data

Executives need to make better insight driven decisions for efficient operations and through the DataOps management strategy they have access to reliable data. This allows executives to cultivate their Data literacy, a skill set that they need to understand data, make decision with it and communicate its meaning effectively.

These marketplaces provide a platform from which users can integrate data sets together to uncover the transformative insights that enable better business outcomes. When enterprises combine various data streams to have a fuller view of operations and customer services, analytical outcomes will have a greater meaning to executives seeking to make decisions at the speed of market changes.

Collaborative DataOps strategies using modern data cataloging and data integration technologies will only accelerate the data literacy efforts and put a business in a strong competitive position.