Data modernization is vital for businesses to stay competitive and make informed decisions in today’s digital age. As companies generate, store, and analyze increasing volumes of data, effective management and protection have become significant challenges. Data management encompasses various activities, from collecting and storing data to analyzing and utilizing it to drive outcomes. But, with data growing exponentially, it can be difficult for businesses to prioritize what data is essential and how to manage it effectively.
Data management has become an increasingly important priority for leaders. However, achieving modern data management goals comes with equally modern hurdles and roadblocks.
According to a 2022 Deloitte survey, technology industry leaders listed three primary challenges when attempting to manage data effectively. While most of the leaders surveyed stated assurance in their ability to navigate these challenges, they nonetheless admitted organizational struggles to overcome them.
This blog will explore data leaders’ three common challenges and how data modernization services offer effective and efficient solutions.
Data Management Challenges
#1: Collecting and Protecting Data
Collecting and protecting ever-growing volumes of data is the top challenge for data leaders. As data volumes continue to rise, it can be difficult to prioritize which data is necessary to maintain. To tackle this challenge, data leaders call for better technologies to help collect data, make sense of it, and make it meaningful.
Achieving a holistic view of the enterprise’s data landscape and identifying sensitive information are significant challenges. With increasing amounts of data to handle, managing policy implementation and audits becomes harder. Data leaders must implement strong data management policies to protect their data from threats and ensure that it is neither breached by outside forces nor accessed internally by those that do not need to use it.
#2: Shifting Regulations
Shifting regulations are a significant challenge for data leaders. Regulations continuously change, making it difficult to maintain the latest requirements. Many leaders feel resigned that inconsistencies will arise and new data-related regulations will lead to higher costs, increased complexity, and challenges to software development.
As part of the broader regulatory landscape, cross-border transfers and data localization issues worry data leaders. Some businesses are trying to avoid or minimize transferring data out of the country while others are establishing additional cloud data centers worldwide and developing new preferred partners. In this ever-changing regulatory landscape, businesses must be vigilant and adaptable to avoid unintentional violations.
#3: Cost and Complexity of Data Privacy
The cost and complexity of implementing data privacy measures is the third significant challenge faced by data leaders. Many companies are facing increased focus on data privacy due to customer requests and requirements, regulations, and expanded internal access. Data breaches can result in significant financial and reputational damage to businesses, so leaders must prioritize data privacy as part of an overall data management strategy.
Employing data privacy measures can be costly and complex. There are several factors to consider, such as data classification, authorization and access controls, encryption, and data retention policies. In most cases, budgets aren’t rising to keep up with security maintenance costs, forcing data leaders to balance the need for privacy with available resources. Despite the challenges, businesses must prioritize implementation to protect customers’ personal information and maintain trust.
The Benefits of Solving Data Management Challenges through Data Modernization Services
If you ask twenty people in the tech industry what data modernization means, you will likely get twenty different answers. While no two companies use data precisely the same way, some concepts and philosophies do serve as foundations of data modernization and transformation.
OneNeck understands data transformation, when broken down to its most basic elements, centers around collecting, transforming and storing data through utilizing modern services and consuming it in an automated manner. To achieve this, we base our data modernization services on five necessary technologies: The cloud, active metadata, automation, advanced analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML).
Businesses must ensure their data is accurate, reliable, and easily accessible. Data modernization enables organizations to improve data management practices and make better-informed decisions. Microsoft Azure offers a variety of services and solutions to help companies address the afore-listed critical challenges.
Data Collection and Protection Solutions
In today’s digital era, data is arguably a business’s most valuable asset. It is essential to ensure data collection and protection solutions are in place to manage it efficiently.
Azure’s data storage solutions, such as Blob Storage, Data Lake Storage, SQL Database, Cosmos DB (NoSQL) and Azure Synapse Analytics, provide scalable and cost-effective options for storing and analyzing large amounts of data. Blob Storage is ideal for storing unstructured data, such as images, videos, and documents, while Data Lake Storage is suitable for big data scenarios. SQL Database offers a fully managed relational database service that provides high performance and availability with built-in security features. Cosmos DB is a multi-model NoSQL store. Azure Synapse Analytics is a fully integrated service for ingesting and curating data, making it available for consumption via Power BI.
Besides data storage solutions, Azure offers robust data protection services to help businesses safeguard data against cyber threats. Azure Security Center delivers a centralized platform for managing and monitoring security across Azure, hybrid cloud environments, on-premises and various cloud platforms. Security Center also provides recommendations and threat intelligence to help organizations stay ahead of evolving threats.
Additionally, Azure’s sophisticated threat protection capabilities, such as Azure Advanced Threat Protection (ATP), help businesses detect and respond in real-time before they cause significant damage. Azure ATP provides cutting-edge security features, including behavioral analytics, machine learning, and threat intelligence.
Regulatory Compliance
Azure offers a range of compliance and governance tools to help businesses stay compliant and reduce the risk of penalties or legal action. Azure Policy creates, assigns, and manages compliance policies across Azure resources and ensures companies meet regulatory standards by automatically auditing resources for policy compliance and flagging violations.
Furthermore, Azure provides a range of compliance certifications, including ISO, SOC, HIPAA, and GDPR, that help organizations demonstrate compliance. Azure’s compliance certifications assure customers their data is managed and protected following regulatory requirements and industry standards.
Azure provides a single platform to amass data, ensuring data management practices comply with the latest regulations and standards. Businesses can streamline their compliance efforts and reduce the complexity of managing regulatory requirements. This all-in-one solution reduces the risk of costly penalties, legal action and damage to a company’s reputation.
Ensuring Privacy
Privacy-enhancing technologies are a staple of Azure. Utilizing Azure organizations can better protect sensitive data, prevent data breaches and leaks, and comply with privacy regulations, all while leveraging big data analytics and machine learning benefits.
One of the critical privacy solutions is Azure Information Protection (AIP). AIP enables businesses to classify, tag, and protect data. With AIP, companies apply labels to sensitive data that determine who can access it and how it can be used, enabling controlled access to sensitive data and preventing breaches and leaks.
Additionally, Azure Purview provides advanced data governance capabilities. Purview enables businesses to discover, classify, and manage data assets across hybrid cloud environments. Purview creates a comprehensive inventory of data assets, allowing organizations to protect sensitive information more efficiently, comply with regulations, and optimize data storage and usage.
Partnering for Success: Meeting Your Modern Data Management Challenges
Data modernization is a critical process for any organization looking to unlock the full potential of its data assets. Effective execution requires extensive planning, expertise, and the right tools. Through Microsoft Azure’s comprehensive suite of data management and analytics tools, combined with the knowledge and insights of an experienced cloud solutions provider like OneNeck, your organization can accelerate modernization and transformation initiatives, enabling greater efficiency, agility, and competitiveness.
At OneNeck, we are a trusted partner with extensive experience in data architecture and a Microsoft Gold-level Cloud Service Provider. Our IT proficiency ensures your organization navigates complexities, reduces technical commitments, and achieves maximum ROI from your data. If you’re ready to unlock the power of your data and modernize your data management infrastructure, contact us today to schedule a consultation and see how we can guide you to data modernization success.
