Democratizing data to drive your business forward

Getting the most out of your data with an effective hybrid estate strategy based on compliance, cost-effectiveness, and culture

In many ways, data is the new currency of value creation within digital enterprises. And with IT estates becoming increasingly more hybrid and complex, CXOs need a prudent game plan for handling their data. This is why a comprehensive data democratization strategy should be a key initiative of any successful data-driven, forward-thinking enterprise.

The IT portfolios of mid and large-size enterprises have transformed into a mix of on-premises, multi-cloud, and SaaS (domain or feature-specific) applications. Additionally, thanks to the pandemic, there has been a marked increase in Cloud migrations – with almost 99% of organizations across a wide range of industries increasing their leverage of Cloud. And with intelligence now being embedded in all functions of the enterprise, it’s becoming more and more challenging for CXOs to manage hybrid data estates effectively. While increases in business acquisitions and divestments have driven a heightened need for the ability to effectively manage disparate data sets.

 As data is now central to enterprise business models and holds massive potential for driving new revenue streams, the leaders of tomorrow must focus on data estate modernization strategies that are centered on compliance (managing privacy, security, and regulatory adherence), cost effectiveness (connected storage and processing), and culture (fostering a data-driven culture).

 Compliance – managing privacy and security risks and navigating regulations

When it comes to compliance and regulations, the ever-dynamic nature of privacy and data security risks – coupled with regulatory obligations such as GDPR, PIPEDA, LGPD, POPIA, etc. – can keep legal counsel very busy. This is especially true when there is a potential movement of data across geographical boundaries, which could be subject to different privacy regulations. What’s more, according to Forrester, 63 percent of businesses suffered a breach over the past year – with a global mean of $2.4 million in damages per breach.

 To effectively defend their businesses here, CIOs need to integrate security and governance controls to manage all security policies across all data assets and workloads. Data governance practices should promote Shift Left initiatives and ensure that every actor in the data supply chain is kept accountable for data privacy – not just data custodians and controllers. 

 Effective cyber risk and attack trend monitoring

The inherent complexity of hybrid data estates can aggravate real-time cybersecurity monitoring efforts. Data flows between hybrid environments, different SLAs between Cloud providers, and reluctance from Cloud service providers to fully share and disclose the technical and administrative controls and security measures for information protection can add to the complexity of managing the cyber security aspects of hybrid estates. The focus should be on bringing intelligent automation into the integrated security monitoring of all disparate systems, along with setting the correct accountability and priorities.

 Data exchange and data sharing

For quite some time, organizations – especially those in highly-regulated industries – have been nervous about outsourcing services to other regions due to security and regulatory concerns around data sharing. Enterprises need to address issues of data ownership, data protection, and regulatory compliance when conducting cross-border data transfers. CXOs need to build a tenuous ecosystem of trust and ensure compliance by establishing the right governance and accountability, which are backed by regular audits.

 Cost-effective data storage and processing

Data aggregation and storage

At the moment, data is growing at a compound annual growth rate of 10.6%. An effective data strategy should enable cost-effective data collection and storage in its original format without losing any contextual information or sources of truth. Recent technology advancements have improved the efficiency of collecting data within the continuously growing “connected” landscape. Enterprises need to keep an eye on data storage costs and determine which workloads should remain on-premises and which should move to the Cloud. They should also be looking at data movement within hybrid environments and data backups for business continuity. Additionally, CXOs need to ensure real-time visibility for workloads running across environments, along with the right operational controls to balance costs and performance.

 Data processing

Managing the entire data supply chain pipeline with disparate systems is challenging from both operational and budgetary perspectives. A flexible data strategy should enable consistent handling experience across all data repositories within the hybrid estate – regardless of how individual systems view and access data – while maintaining data integrity, security, and efficiency. Data processing structures should follow application development best practices, including API-first development practices and optimal leverage of Cloud resource elasticity for computational operations.

 Fostering a “trust the data” culture

Business team members need to understand that data is central in their planning activities. They also need to see the value of data analytics in improving every decision, process, and interaction. The buy-in for a data-driven culture must come from the C-suite. CXOs need to push for a data-first culture across all teams. This means the promotion of a self-service culture by providing team members with a single source to search, discover, and understand relevant data assets, along with the provision of the right tools and upskilling to enable them to use data to capture value for the organization.

 Talent and people management

The success of any technology transformation is dependent on talent. With skills gaps currently over 25% in enterprises within the data space, organizations need solid ways to attract, motivate, and retrain their professionals, so they can manage, model, analyze, and draw inferences from data assets – both technically and functionally. It’s essential to encourage data usage by promoting a culture of experimentation – fail fast to learn fast. A successful talent strategy should not only focus on internal human capital but also enable partnerships with other organizations to address skill requirements efficiently and effectively.

 Democratizing the data that drives your business

In the ever-changing landscape of the digital economy, your data estate modernization strategy must be aligned with your business strategy – with clear traceability to the business outcomes you desire. Data should be viewed as an enterprise asset – rather than something that’s delegated to an individual team, domain, or functional asset. A data-driven culture requires relevant and unbiased data to be captured and regularly reviewed within the evolving business context. The right digital infrastructure is essential in democratizing access to data across an organization and eliminating silos. The growing convergence of products, software, and services mandates that data be treated as a product – and not just a platform to maximize the value and impact of data. This means that successful CIOs will need to invest in a robust data governance framework and continually review data management practices to effectively manage changes in technology, privacy, regulations, and their own business requirements. 

 In my next post, we’ll delve deeper into cost-effective data storage and processing and how you can make better use of your data. In the meantime, to learn more about how Capgemini can help your data democratization strategy, drop me a line.