We live in a technological age. And that’s not just referring to Western civilization, either. Worldwide IT spending continues to grow at a robust rate, as well.
The growth of information technology is impressive. However, it isn’t perfect. Countless companies are taking financial hits to the tune of millions of dollars every year due to poor data quality.
In other words, we may be in days of unprecedented growth for the IT sector, but the increase is coming with some pretty serious side effects. These inefficiencies impact decision-making, create overly complex data ecosystems within companies, and ultimately hurt the bottom line.
If you’re looking to get ahead of the DQ (data quality) curve, here are three suggestions for ways to improve your data quality… and reduce your infrastructure costs in the process.
Optimize Your Data
Companies are juggling a diverse set of growing data. This covers everything from supply chains to marketing and customers to pricing. As enterprises become more data-dependent, the need to knit their data together in a cohesive and beneficial internal infrastructure is growing at an exponential rate.
Larger companies can often pour millions of dollars into creating and perfecting their own IT infrastructure. They can develop processes and tools that help keep everything organized and communicating well.
So how can smaller companies keep up? Startups and SMBs (small- and medium-sized businesses) may lack both the manpower and moolah to keep their IT in good, working order — at least, if they’re left on their own.
And yet, smaller companies are being forced to adopt tech solutions at an ever-growing pace. This can lead to siloed information, uninformed decisions, missed opportunities, and lost revenue.
The good news is that there are data observability tools being developed to help companies of all sizes optimize their data so that decisions can be made based on trustworthy, reliable data. Data observability takes the concept of APM (application performance monitoring) tools to a new level.
The problem with APM tools is that they don’t provide the visibility required across an entire system. They also can become dated and can fail to integrate with newer technologies.
Data observability tools provide comprehensive, cross-sectional visibility across a company’s entire data pipeline. They support today’s modern analytical data systems to give data engineers high level visibility at a holistic level, allowing them to see predictions of issues before it’s too late.
This helps to streamline operations and improve the autonomy and productivity of data operations and in turn reduces the complexity and cost of a company’s infrastructure.
Shift to the Cloud
IT prophets have been pounding the drum on cloud-based services for years. They’ve pushed that the cloud is the future. But it turns out that the future got here a bit sooner than everyone expected.
The shift to remote work spurred on by the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has made cloud-based operations not just preferable. In many cases, they’ve become essential to success.
Many companies have planned cloud migrations in recent years, but it may be financially beneficial to accelerate these strategies. Getting as much data as possible into cloud platforms has some key data management benefits.
The biggest of these is data accessibility. It’s much harder to silo data if it’s in the cloud.
Of course, that doesn’t mean you should start shoveling all of your data up onto cheap, public cloud applications. On the contrary, you want to conduct a cloud migration properly. For instance, in order to pull off a successful shift to the cloud you want to:
- Define clear goals and objectives beforehand;
- Consider what you need to move onto the cloud;
- Choose between a single or multiple cloud environments;
- Consider available options, cloud architecture needs, a deployment model, and so on.
All of this takes place before you even begin to migrate applications onto the cloud. There’s no doubt that moving to the cloud is complicated in the short term. Nevertheless, going through the trouble of shifting to the cloud can have major long-term benefits, particularly when it comes to infrastructure costs, availability of data, and the efficiency of your team.
Steer Into Enterprise Systems
Enterprise software is an area of IT that is growing at a very fast rate. An enterprise system tends to the needs of an organization rather than that of individuals. In other words, an enterprise system helps to bring the various elements of each unique business together into an amalgamated whole.
It may seem counterintuitive to add more software in the name of reducing infrastructure costs, but it’s important to keep a long-term perspective. In this case, something like an IPaaS (integration platform as a service) works to unify the various apps and API endpoints within a system. It maps out data and helps the various elements within a system to communicate.
The application integration industry is already working toward adding an automated element into IPaaS solutions, too. Introducing cutting-edge automation opens these unifying systems up to be used by more than just IT and engineering teams. Marketers, accountants, customer service representatives, and others can also utilize these user-friendly systems and all of the data that they oversee.
IT infrastructure is an essential element of any modern company. Great or small, businesses cannot survive in the modern world without tech percolating throughout every aspect of their operations. The diversity of these applications creates the necessity to address infrastructure complexity and costs on a regular basis.
The good news is that there are straightforward solutions that can address these issues. Data observability can create a sense of clarity and direction with the data present in an existing system. Migrating to the cloud can enhance data accessibility for everyone involved, whether they work remotely or on-site. IPaaS solutions help applications interact and share data.
By integrating IT options such as these, you can improve your infrastructure’s efficiency. The quality of your data will also go up, and your employees will be able to be more productive.
Addressing IT infrastructure concerns isn’t an agenda item you want to kick down the road. It’s important to take action as soon as possible in the name of a smoother, more productive future for your company as it takes advantage of every possible aspect of its growing collection of data.
Laila Azzahra is a professional writer and blogger that loves to write about technology, business, entertainment, science, and health.