D – is for Data. As you adopt a hybrid model with data in SaaS and IaaS and potentially PaaS platforms (along with your Data Center) the chance that some of your key data will be siloed in one form or inconsistently replicated across more than one form is virtually guaranteed. You will need to keep your key data synchronized and managed across all platforms.
PRIDES of Digital Transformation: What you need to solve for when you undertake a Digital Transformation Initiative. P=Protection … R=Resourcing … I=Identity … D=Data … E=Experience … S=Security.
D – is for Data. As you adopt a hybrid model with data in SaaS and IaaS and potentially PaaS platforms (along with your Data Center) the chance that some of your key data will be siloed in one form or inconsistently replicated across more than one form is virtually guaranteed. You will need to keep your key data synchronized and managed across all platforms.
One of the biggest barriers to effective cloud adoption is connecting, synchronizing, and relating data, applications, and processes among cloud and on-premises systems. The added complexity of hybrid makes it difficult to effectively share and use business data across the organization.
Data silos are common challenges across industries. The key to successful Digital Transformation is the proficient acquisition and aggregation of data from all systems and the automation of the related manual processes. Using aggregated data from both on-premise and cloud-based systems will help capture and expose value unrealized in traditional models of interfacing applications. The traditional approach of extracting, transforming, and then loading into a Data Warehouse can be replaced with light touch API-enabled connections across your hybrid environment. The light touch enables agility by easily updating the integration points when there are changes to the underlying data structures.
There are Integration Platforms available as a Service (IPaaS) which is a hosted service offering in which a third-party provider delivers the infrastructure and middleware to handle a company’s data integration via private or hybrid cloud. An IPaas can be used for exchanging common data between and among a company’s applications, for example to use the same source data within both ERP and CRM systems. iPaas can also be used to exchange data externally with business partners.
Data Integration is a critical business objective because it delivers greater efficiency and consistency across the organization. Data in silos prevents the organization from seeing critical business insights into the health of the organization and can cost IT a great deal of time in maintaining disparate data sets and in transforming data when data sets need to be merged. Adopting IPaaS services provides the ability to utilize a single, holistic source of data throughout multiple applications and business processes without a significant investment of time and capital to purchase and configure data integration software internally.
