Companies moving to the cloud are preferring modernized platforms, which begets the question whether the cloud is driving data modernization or it is the reverse scenario. These two trends are growing in parallel and the relationship between them is somewhat unclear, while both are vital for a successful growth of an organization. In fact, it has been observed that the cloud and data modernization are reinforcements one another.
Vendors are not only offering cloud-based solutions, but also building data modernization capabilities. On the other hand, leading organizations are doubling their data footprint annually, simultaneously looking to reduce costs, leveraging new forms of big data, and integrating machine learning algorithms & artificial intelligence. However, only organizations that move to the cloud and modernize their data at the same time get these benefits.
Steps To Ensure A Successful Data Modernization
It takes years for a successful execution of data modernization, however with proper planning and focus, organizations can iterate strategically and move methodically. Some key steps are:
Focusing on Change Management and Education
Successful data modernization does more than business improvement. It changes the lives of employees, enabling them to become more effective in their work. It rids the employees from the hassle of finding and collecting data, allowing them to efficiently leverage the data for making better decisions. This further fosters customer engagement and enhances performance of an organization as a whole. This is why, a concerted change management and education must be put in place to showcase how roles & responsibilities of employees will transform for the better.
Fueling Business Intelligence
Machine learning helps organizations move from traditional diagnostic & descriptive analytics to advanced prescriptive and predictive analytics. Such advanced capabilities are used for improving business outcomes across three key areas, namely, operations, products & services, and customers. Data modernization aligns well with all these areas, ranging from strategy & implementation to the elevation of business intelligence.
Maintaining Transparency in Desired Business Goals
In the context of broader initiatives of cloud migration, data modernization needs to take into consideration the specific long- and short-term business objectives. There is a higher need for organizations to maintain transparency in their desired business objectives. It is therefore critical to include key business stakeholders in the planning stage.
Avoiding to Cut Corners on Strategy
Orchestrating a faster, ‘lift and shift’ cloud migration is tempting, however, it must be noted that a rushed approach brings challenges that are complicated. This is particularly the case when efforts of an organization simply translates inefficient or obsolete processes to new platforms. Shifting bad processes in the cloud is considered to be a huge waste of investment. Organizations must better understand the contemporary landscape dynamics, while laying a multi-year, strategic cloud migration plan.
Data Modernization and Cloud Security Go Hand-in-Hand
Almost all approaches to data management will be eventually modernized. Almost all applications and data will be shifted to the cloud soon. It is already being seen that data modernization and cloud migration initiatives are well underway across medium to large enterprises.
It must be noted that data modernization and cloud migration are complementary or mutually reinforcing trends, as they seem to overlap yet underpin each other. As companies continue to transform huge portions of their business, modernization of data remains a top priority as the key step to fuel agility and intelligence into business operations and decisions.