Click to learn more about author Hiral Rana.

Data has for years acted as the building blocks upon which all urban civilizations now stand. This proved even truer during the COVID-19 pandemic, when unimagined chaos ensued around the globe, sending multiple businesses into closure.

On the flip side, the epidemic also presented a silver lining for online businesses, as the world went digital for all its needs – from food to companionship to jobs. There was a rapid increase in database management services, as businesses hastened to make urgently yet carefully curated decisions based on the available data. The Data Science field took leaps and bounds, all the while making the encumbering process that much simpler for its users.

And to say that said users didn’t enjoy it would be a lie!

Simultaneously, ahead of this haze of number crunching and trend analysis, there lie some key dos and don’ts of database management for online businesses that you can count on this year to optimize your productivity and achieve enhanced results. Let’s take a look.

Dos

1. Hire specialists

We understand that many online enterprises have an online-only presence, with no brick-and-mortar facility. What we also understand is that data integration often becomes a tougher task due to the geographical distances between employees. An easy way to overcome this is to keep investing time in upgrading the skills of your existing employees as well as hiring specialists who get you the best results in the least amount of time.

2. Migrate to multi-cloud architectures

As Varada CEO Eran Vanounou predicted, data warehouses are not going to disappear. But with the introduction of cloud-based systems, they certainly are taking on a new look, with fresh facilities and modern capabilities like that of being serverless. Data lakes are becoming a new legacy technology and can provide simpler and easier-to-manage means of extracting business intelligence that is both usable and cost-effective. It means this can definitely count as a good time for moving to cloud architecture.

3. Simpler reporting

Hiring specialists and mitigating to a simpler, self-service structure is one thing, but it is equally important that their reporting is understood even by those who are not well-versed with the process. This can be easily accomplished by data visualization, or the use of infographics. While one may argue that designing these images is also difficult, there are plenty of infographic layouts available online that make this task effortless.

Don’ts

1. Stick to manual data integration

According to Fraser Harris, vice president of product at Fivetran, the increase in volume – as well as sources – of data has led to a proportional rise in the need to process it, which given the magnitude is possible only through automation. The size of this information bracket is just going to grow, and the smart thing to do would be to move to automated data integration at the earliest.

2. Independent but isolated working

What most companies fail to realize is that data integration and data silos are interconnected and the creation of more silos is going to affect the speed and ease of its unification throughout. According to a study by CompTIA, 82% of companies admit to having high to moderate quantities of these data pits and how to collect them all in a single, compiled dataset still evades most. A collaborative approach is in the works for many, which allows industry units the freedom to operate while keeping an eye on the all-inclusive business systems.

3. Underutilization of available data

In a survey by Invesp, 87% of companies – both online and offline – reported that their available data was not being utilized to its fullest potential. Seeing as online businesses are sitting on data worth millions and billions through their continuous operations, it is of absolute necessity to use this information wisely and optimally within due time.

Wrapping Up

Just a few key dos and don’ts are listed above – not to say there aren’t many more. There are no fixed ways to guarantee results, but using these simple measures will certainly help online businesses become more data-driven and grow considerably through a post-pandemic 2021.