Data and Cloud Computing

Data modernization and cloud migration are two trends that are driving each other.

If you are to mark two of the most prominent changes in the information technology landscape of today, you would instantly put Big Data and Public Cloud as the top rankers. Today, most businesses have at least some of their assets or operations hosted on public/private/hybrid cloud networks.

The data migration trend isn’t a new move; Cisco predicted this as early as 2018, forecasting that about 94% of the total workload and computational instances would be processed on cloud-based data centers by 2021.

They weren’t wrong: Fortune Business Insights has revealed that the cloud storage market is set to reach a compounded annual growth rate of 26.2% (2021-2028).

Data modernization is acting as a catalyst in popularizing the adoption of cloud-based services. Deloitte highlights that about nine organizations out of 10 use clouds (whether public, private or hybrid) as a primary destination of data storage.

The world is moving towards seeking out the best data warehouse companies to manage their data. In fact, a report by Arcserve predicts that the world will have generated 200 zettabytes of data in total, out of which 50% would be stored on all sorts of clouds. These numbers are utterly baffling, to say the least.

The entire contemporary landscape of Big Data and Clouds begs the question: what makes clouds so popular with data?

Why the Modern Business Loves Clouds

Over 90% of the companies worldwide had already migrated their operations to the clouds by the end of 2020, according to a study conducted by 451 Research. The companies that hadn’t were already drastically behind the competition.

The best data warehouse companies (public or private clouds), in addition to managing Big Data that your company collects, handle many peripheral tasks and activities that give your business tangible advantages in the long run. Let’s see what they are.

The Insights Benefit

Data is the new oil.

It is a fact that each company generates huge amounts of data on a daily basis, which is both structured and unstructured. The trick to staying in competition and pushing ahead lies now in learning how to glean actionable insights from this collected Big Data.

According to Accenture, 79% of businesses admit that it may lead to the complete demise of organizations if they fail to leverage this Big Data in a meaningful way. So, how do businesses go about processing this constant inflow of data without any upper limit?

On-premises data warehouses may be a temporary solution, but they would drastically hinder the scaling up of operations and stunt your growth. Furthermore, such solutions rarely provide advanced data analytics support needed to transform raw data into usable information.

Cloud-based services like Cosmos DB and Azure Data Factory provide well-rounded solutions that allow data management and processing at scale. Your business can get easy access to all the insights it needs through adopting these popular public cloud platforms.

Some of the best analytics companies (like Knime and Databricks) are known to provide data intelligence by leveraging technological tools like machine learning through clouds in the form of Software as a Service.

There is boundless potential in gaining new, accurate, and focused insights from the data your business is collecting – all by moving to a public cloud and availing of its services.

The Flexibility and Scalability Benefit

On-premises data solutions may be the answer for small, fledgling businesses planning their growth trajectory in the next five years. However, the same setup does not fare too well with larger organizations that deal with varying volumes of data each day.

Hiring the best Big Data companies may look like an alternative; the truth is, a public cloud can provide your business with many more options and “sizes” that fit your company like a glove.

Based on the volume of data your business collects every day, every hour, and every minute, a public cloud setup adjusts the bandwidth assigned to your organization to accommodate the changes effectively. Automated load balancers provide optimum server availability to handle the computational requirements your organization would need at any time. All the best data science companies leverage such smart mechanisms to deliver great services to clients.

Such adjustments are nearly impossible to achieve through an on-premises solution: not only do they require heavy investment in infrastructure, but also in associated IT services. They just aren’t cost-effective at scale. The flexibility that comes with public clouds is unmatched.

Another important aspect related to Big Data is its accessibility. The pandemic showed the world of business a stark mirror: the on-premises solutions simply weren’t flexible enough to support remoteness or agility in operations.

As the organizational workforce stayed scattered, the centralized data ecosystem was found grossly incapable of catering to the service requirements. It is here that public cloud ecosystems have had a marked impact.

Bringing flexibility and agility into the equation, public clouds decentralize and democratize the data that organizations store on them. As a result, the workforce has immediate, handy data accessibility no matter which corner of the world they reside in.

All that is needed is an internet connection and a device with the required CPU and memory capabilities to run the interface.

The Collaboration Benefit

As the workforce grew scattered post-pandemic, it became a challenge for businesses to coordinate workflows and operations from a distance. Certain online tools (like Slack) were already available that induced some level of cooperation among decentralized teammates; however, it was still inadequate.

A meaningful collaboration can only result from communicating project data across scattered devices in real-time so project progress can be tracked effectively. In order to help all the teammates stay on the same page with the status of their projects, innovating better collaboration tools was imperative.

Enter: clouds.

Leveraging collaborative tools (apps, software, meeting platforms) deployed not as on-device implements but rather a Software as a Service through public clouds enabled businesses to achieve the level of collaboration they had been hoping for.

Public clouds tossed geographical restrictions aside. Whether each employee of a business was stationed in a different country or the same room – it didn’t matter. It was all corroborated by Forbes in their study.

They highlighted that 64% of the respondents said that cloud-based collaborative tools helped their business execute faster overall, as compared to processes executing otherwise. No wonder businesses are moving to top data warehouse companies for data migrations.

The same survey also revealed that 58% of the respondents said cloud-based collaboration could potentially improve business processes drastically.

Iterating the words of Erich Schoch (Cisco), collaboration over cloud ecosystems acts as one of the most significant catalyzers of business success. These are just a few benefits of leveraging Big data analytics companies for business processes.

The Benefit of “Survive and Thrive”

Data – big or small – has assumed a central position in the survival and prosperity of businesses. Learning and adapting to manage it effectively is the only way an organization can safeguard it against all possible scenarios of loss or harm.

The Diffusion Group effectively displays the dark consequences to a business that come from losing data: 60% of businesses (that lose their data to unforeseen events) tend to shut doors a mere six months later. Data needs to be stored in a place that remains far from avoidable risks.

The fact that public clouds (like Azure Synapse) have changed the way businesses push and pull data from their systems has many benefits yet to give. The reasons clouds have become so popular for data storage today cover many bases:

• Clouds are a safeguard for company data facing a ransomware attack on its physical systems
• Clouds keep the data safe in case the physical assets of a business sustain irreversible damage (fire, for example)
• Clouds provide the option of creating data backups of physical databases stored on-premise. This helps companies recover quickly on the occasions of data loss
• Cloud storage helps businesses minimize their downtime (due to loss or slow systems) so that they are able to retain their competitive edge
• The capability of “Do Business from Anywhere” is made possible through clouds and their highly accessible data repository systems

The Benefit of Savings

On-premise data infrastructure is a costly affair. Unless your business has exceptional turnover and the willingness to invest in a data bubble, managing your data yourself isn’t a cost-effective strategy. This is the major reason why top data warehouse companies are getting so much attention today.

Some of the costs associated with opting for a physical data solution are:

• Servers – as many as you would need to keep your business online while dealing with large volumes of data
• Real estate to house your servers, their peripherals, and associated electronics
• A dedicated IT team to look after incidences in the data infrastructure – hardware and software both
• Hardware and software costs, upgrade costs, installation costs
• Contingency expenses

This is all a bit much to invest in when moving your data to a public cloud could have all of this looked after by default.

Data and Clouds Go Hand-in-Hand Today (Conclusion)

There is a reason why so many cloud-based services exist today: the decentralized setup provides businesses with more wiggle room to strategize for growth better.

In fact, in a report published by Flexera, a few key findings highlight how businesses are prioritizing their migration to clouds:

• 70% are prioritizing offloading more workloads to clouds
• 59% are optimizing cloud-use costs
• 50% are strategizing towards making their business cloud-first

Whatever the cloud-migration initiative be, at the core of it lies one entity that governs everything: data.

Countless exemplary public cloud services exist today that help businesses leverage data at scale, like Power Bi, Azure data services for business analytics, Azure ML, and Altreyx, among others. Combining the power of effective data management and storage, these companies augment the data experience of businesses with advanced technologies like artificial intelligence and machine learning for better insights.

Data is future-focused today. Clouds can help keep it organized and ready for use whenever a business needs it.