Is your data infrastructure ready to support the next decades? If not, it’s time to consider implementing a modern, Cloud-based data estate.

Cloud, AI, Analytics, Technology, Data Infrastructure

Your data estate – all the data your company uses to generate insights – needs to be accessible at all times. It also needs to be secure and scalable, with the ability to support future needs. In this article, we’ll discuss why modernizing your data estate and moving it to the Cloud is the right move.

What Is Data Estate Modernization?

First, let’s talk about modernizing your data estate. This includes your databases and other infrastructure, as well as the analytics and other data services you currently use. Essentially, data modernization applies new technologies to your collecting, structuring, storing, and maintaining process. As many organizations often have data scattered throughout the company – data that frequently resides on older solutions – it’s easy to see why data estate modernization has become a booming industry, estimated to hit $24.8 billion in a few years.

Why Move to the Cloud?

If you think about the pace of technology over the last two decades, it’s easy to understand why upgrading your data systems makes sense. But why move to the Cloud?

In one of our previous blogs, we’ve discussed the financial and business benefits of using Cloud-based computing. We won’t go into them in detail here, but we will hit a few highlights:

  • Cloud-based solutions are cost-effective, flexible, and highly scalable.
  • They can usually be deployed much more quickly than traditional on-premises infrastructure.
  • They support the movement and accessibility of data throughout an organization.
  • Using a Cloud service provider reduces some of the IT workload.
  • Cloud solutions can make it easier to integrate AI and advanced analytics into your workflows.

Considering all this, it’s clear why many organizations choose Cloud-first strategies to modernize their data estate. This leads us to our next topic:

Why Cloud Data Estate Modernization Makes Sense

According to the Cloud Security Alliance, nearly 70% of enterprises are currently migrating their ERP application data to the Cloud. Sectors like finance, retail, manufacturing, and consumer goods are the leading early drivers of this trend, but it can certainly benefit organizations across industries. So, let’s consider seven key benefits arising from Cloud data estate modernization:

  1. Process Efficiency: Not only do Cloud-based data systems shorten the time it takes for data to become available to business users, but they also reduce a company’s technical debt – letting IT teams focus more on strategy and less on routine maintenance and data processing tasks.
  2. Enhanced Insight Availability: Cloud-based data environments enable companies to quickly get pertinent insights to the relevant teams and departments. As mentioned earlier, they also readily integrated with Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and other advanced data analysis tools.
  3. Competitive Edge: With the latest data readily available, brands can analyze trends and quickly adapt to market changes, outmaneuvering slower rivals.
  4. ROI: Although modernizing data estates comes with a price tag, its benefits of shorter decision times and smarter, more effective decisions provide a significant return on that investment.
  5. Innovation and Agility: Innovation and agility aren’t just for customer-facing initiatives; companies can use their data to improve internal processes and become leaner and more efficient.
  6. Compliance and Security Risk Management: Depending on your current setup, updating to a modern data environment can help you implement tighter security measures and maintain compliance with new data and privacy protection rules.
  7. Rollouts and Scalability: The Cloud is famed for its flexibility, making it easy to start a smaller analytics initiative in one department and – when its success has been demonstrated – quickly roll out that solution to other areas.

Is Data Modernization Critical to Success?

In most cases, the answer is a resounding “yes”.  Companies are refreshing their data environment in response to changes in the data landscape, the desire to increase security and compliance, the advent of better technologies, and the need for greater flexibility and capacity. But they’re also doing it to help their organization meet its business goals. In our modern business world, it’s hard to do that without data.

Authored by: Dr. Anil Kaul, CEO of Absolutdata

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