Click to learn more about author Itamar Ankorion.
Enterprises are struggling to keep pace. With a daily average of 2.5 quintillion bytes of data created, business users and executive teams are barely able to stay afloat in the growing amount of data incoming from IoT devices, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning technologies. This data growth change is only expected to increase, leaving companies grappling on how to manage it all in an efficient manner.
It is clear that today’s global data overload is not going to end and that executives must adapt to the rapid pace at which data impacts their business. To do so, they must first understand the variables driving the speed of change.
While what is affecting businesses can be narrowed down, it is not a singular item to be considered. Rather, it is due to the intersection and overlapping of three distinct dimensions: business needs, technology development and exponential growth in data. Where these areas combine, businesses are in the best position to thrive and be ready for future developments.
Agility Keeps Enterprises One Step Ahead of Competition
To stay ahead of the competition, businesses must operate quickly and be able to pivot their strategies. Managing the correct data in real-time amongst all the information collected from different platforms allows companies to gain a competitive edge over those that are slow to respond to market changes.
Firms that don’t embrace change quickly are the ones that fall behind, or worse – forced to close their business. Take the latest news of retail brick and mortar stores closing; these are large enterprises that failed to embrace the online shopping movement as quickly as their competitors. By effectively analyzing data and then using the outcomes to make effective business decisions, enterprises can increase manufacturing floor yields, transform the online shopping experience or improve customer relationships.
Modern Technologies Provide Flexibility and Adaption
Successful enterprises are those that have embraced the newer technologies and adopted modern Data Architectures such as Cloud, Data Lakes, Real-time and Streaming Analytical approaches. The legacy Data Warehouse and Business Intelligence platforms of old cannot provide business users with the right data quickly or in a manner that is ready for analysis. By adapting to and adopting newer solutions that allow for data to stream in real-time, enterprises are ensured of the agility and business insight to outpace the competition.
You may believe that these modern Data Architectures are only in use at newer or larger companies. However, adoption of these enabling technologies is accelerating and happening regardless of company size or vertical around the globe, from world-renowned banks and education technology firms, to healthcare, retail and manufacturing organizations and beyond. These organizations may have just launched or been operating for decades, but what they all have in common is their desire to leverage data as efficiently as possible to improve their businesses. Through the adoption of Cloud, Data Lakes and real-time streaming technology, enterprises have the opportunity to streamline strategic data and analytic initiatives and enable better insights faster.
Data is the Foundation of All Successful Enterprises
Underneath modern technology layers and agile business operations is the data dimension. This is the most critical component for success in ‘modern enterprise’ initiatives.
Data is what drives real-time insights and decisions that in turn allow for agile operations. Information from all sources must be brought together at scale, including legacy databases to the most recent IoT device. The key is that this data must be refined and integrated together – a challenging task if you are looking at high volumes of data in various formats.
Modern Data Architectures and Data Integration platforms that work with Cloud, Data Lake and streaming technologies are becoming increasingly popular as a means for creating the right data situation for analysis. Enterprises need adaptive and scalable infrastructures to keep relevant in the data-driven economy as they develop their business. These architectures allow business users to have a comprehensive view of operations in order to respond faster and efficiently to market changes.
Enterprises require agile, modern Data Integration platforms that offer real-time streaming data from every touchpoint – from 30-year-old databases and Data Warehouses to current Cloud applications. With a cohesive modern Data Architecture, enterprises can move and use data at the speed of change to enable real-time actionable insights that impact the bottom line and transform their operations for today’s modern age. Business that cannot keep up with the speed of change are doomed to fail.