As technology leaders, we know that data is at the core of every business, energizing its entire operational landscape. When harnessed strategically, data can become the force that propels a business far beyond its competitors. However, many organizations struggle with data silos, where data controlled by one business unit is isolated from the rest of the organization. Siloed data is often incompatible with other data sets, making it difficult or problematic for those in other parts of the organization to access and use.
The adverse impact of poor data management on every facet of the business ecosystem becomes even more apparent as AI adoption ramps up. Inaccurate or inconsistent data can compel businesses to expend significant time and money rectifying it in order to avoid both operational and reputational damage.
An enterprise data platform is the answer to these challenges.
To help you fully harness the value of your customer insights, an enterprise data platform provides a powerful way to dismantle data silos, enabling everyone in your organization to work from the same facts. This unified view of your data can then fuel the creation of personalized customer support or precisely targeted marketing campaigns.
Let’s look at the key features an enterprise data platform provides and the benefits it can bring to your business.
Features you should look for in an enterprise data platform
An enterprise data platform transforms business by simplifying how people connect with, manage and analyze their data. It can also deliver advanced capabilities — including enterprise-proven data integration, data management and analytics services — in a trusted, flexible and easy-to-use package.
Here are the top eight features a business should look for when choosing a data platform.
Unified data management: An enterprise data platform should seamlessly integrate, transform, orchestrate and store your data in a single easy-to-use platform. It should be suitable for both structured and unstructured data.
High concurrency: Users want to find what they’re looking for fast. An enterprise data platform should support simultaneous queries, transactions and analytical tasks without performance loss.
Real-time analytics: An enterprise data platform should have fast, in-memory processing for instant insights. It should keep datasets up-to-date without affecting query performance. Incorporating Hadoop, Kafka and streaming mobile and IoT data is a definite bonus. The platform should also connect to AIML (Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning) applications.
Advanced data integration: An enterprise data platform should support various data sources and formats for easy integration. Using advanced columnar storage will enhance data insight operations through advanced data analytics, making it ideal for efficiently processing large volumes of data and improving business intelligence.
High-performance query engine: A data management platform should be optimized for speed and efficiency to support easy, rapid data retrieval. It should separate computing and storage resources, enabling businesses to add desired resources independently to enhance flexibility and efficiency.
Data governance and security: The data platform should incorporate robust capabilities guaranteeing data integrity and compliance. Without sacrificing security, it should enable an organization to install and manage data both on-premises and across clouds (AWS, Azure, Google Cloud).
User-friendly interface: Operation by business users should be enhanced through intuitive dashboards and reporting with simple data display. Automatic rule generation helps to make sure data is a trusted and trustworthy asset.
Cost-effective scaling: A budget-friendly data enterprise tool will follow a pay-as-you-go pricing model for efficient resource management. By reducing the IT burden, a single platform will be more cost-effective than dealing with multiple tools.
Advantages of enterprise data platforms in IT operations
An enterprise data platform provides a unified experience for ingesting, transforming, analyzing and storing data — delivering ultra-fast performance for the most complex workloads using an offering businesses can set up in minutes.
Here are some of the key capabilities data experts, analysts and business users can leverage as they access and query data using an enterprise data platform.
Hybrid and multi-cloud
Hybrid and multi-cloud strategies integrate multiple clouds to perform a range of tasks. An enterprise data platform offers powerful data management capabilities for such environments, with benefits that include:
Customizing the private side of your cloud model to fit the needs of your organization
Distributing workloads across various cloud environments to increase resilience
Leveraging the public cloud for scalability and cost-efficiency
Eliminating vendor lock-in with hybrid and multi-cloud options
Streamlined workflow
With an enterprise data platform, data flows smoothly from integration to warehousing and then to analytics, with no need to import and export data from one system to another. With data silos eliminated, you can remove IT bottlenecks and provide self-service data analytics and business intelligence across your organization.
Improved communication between departments and team members boosts productivity.
Transparent access to consistent data streamlines task-tracking.
Reduction in complex tasks frees up team resources for other duties.
Improved data consistency
A data management platform ensures consistency across the data lifecycle, reducing errors caused by data transformations or system discrepancies. It delivers business results faster with secure integration of data from any source.
Consistent data across systems prevents discrepancies and improves decision-making.
Enhanced accuracy promotes trust and helps users find high-quality data quickly.
Eliminating data redundancies, streamlining processes, and optimizing IT infrastructure cuts costs.
Faster time to insights
By avoiding data transfers between platforms, businesses can analyze data more efficiently, quickly deriving meaningful insights and informing real-time decision-making. An enterprise data platform lets business analysts, data experts and business users leverage powerful, precise tools to access and query data.
Faster insights help organizations adapt better to changing market conditions, leaving competitors behind.
Timely decision-making increases operational efficiency and improves business results.
Real-time insights let companies respond quickly to customer inquiries and needs.
Enhanced data quality
Built-in data ingestion, cleansing and transformation features maintain high data quality in a data enterprise platform. Such a platform will work with all your analytical applications — supporting the needs of users with a wide range of technical skills and empowering them to access data and perform queries effectively.
Reliable data helps businesses identify new growth opportunities, reduce costly errors and boost revenue.
A well-executed data quality strategy can streamline business processes, improving productivity.
High data integrity standards help businesses ensure that they conform to industry regulations.
Conclusion
A superior enterprise data platform delivers data integration, management and analytics services in one flexible, easy-to-use platform. It integrates seamlessly and provides real-time insights into performance, making it a great option for businesses trying to improve company outcomes and manage their data procedures. These features are crucial to empower a range of user groups, including business analysts and data scientists, to extract useful information that informs strategic choices and enables data-driven outcomes. By leveraging these capabilities, businesses can stay ahead of the competition and make well-informed, risk-balanced decisions.
