The modern business environment generates large volumes of data every second, and it’s still increasing rapidly. This information is significant when business owners want to make important decisions. A company that leverages data has the advantage of recording higher levels of growth than those that don’t.
Due to this, every growing company is investing in technologies that help get value from their data. The main problem is that the data comes from multiple places such as the cloud, IoT, blogs, on-premise environments, and social media. The data is available in multiple types of files such as PDF, video, audio, images, and text. Implementation of data fabric makes it easier for companies to manage big data.
What does data fabric mean?
Companies today handle large amounts of data and data types stored in various locations. Many companies use in-memory data grids architecture to store terabytes of data purely in RAM. The IDMG is created to handle big data by enabling the required velocity, volume, and variability through its distributed structure. It enables the clustering and scaling of large amounts of data and enhances performance. This data keeps growing daily, which makes it harder for companies to store and process it for critical insights.
In a business environment where data is remotely distributed, implementing data fabric is a viable option. It is a modern data and analytics technology that supports business data management strategies. It uses a single architecture integrated with multiple sets of services and technologies. Its purpose is to deliver the right amount of data when and where needed. The architecture integrates and then enriches the data using the right methodologies that address analytical and operational tasks.
The apps and tools facilitated by data fabric are usually data-centric and may include APIs, Hadoop distributed file systems, Apache real-time streaming, and many other tools/applications. Data fabric enables companies to access in real-time the correct volume of data required at the right time and reduced costs.
Importance of data fabric to businesses
Every amount of data consolidated from local and multi-cloud environments is important to a business. The management can leverage the importance of data fabric in creating efficient organizational management practices that promote productivity. Business managers need to consider the role of AI in creating a logical data fabric. This is a fabric that enables access and unification of information delivery platforms connected to multiple data systems.
AI helps to eliminate data complexities and expose it in a business-friendly format. Businesses require strong data fabric mechanisms that can be integrated with modern AI and machine learning technologies that drive the real transformation of data management strategies. This strong embedded data fabric can deliver integrated data whenever and wherever it is needed.
Data fabric helps drive businesses fast
The core goal of every business is to create high-quality products that ensure a high level of customer satisfaction. This demands management teams that can make quick decisions based on accurate information and strong evidence. When it takes longer to manage or process data from multiple databases, the business misses critical opportunities. The data fabric architecture helps reduce data access time, allowing fast access to insights.
360-degree business intelligence
Business intelligence leverages technology-driven processes useful when performing data analysis and executing informed decisions. Traditionally, the decisions made rely on guesses that often fail. BI eliminates guesses and provides real-time and accurate information based on available data. The management can tell what decisions are required for the supply chain, marketing, production, and customer habits trends.
Data from a single source cannot provide detailed, accurate insights. Companies require a 360-degree BI obtained from data collected from every source. Most modern business environments have multiple teams that manage data platforms, data science, and data engineering and combine the insights to make decisions on various business aspects.
The greatest challenge these teams might face is processing large data from a wide range of consumers with varying interests and needs. This is one of the reasons why a 360-degree BI enabled by a logical data fabric strategy is required.
Leveraging on the power of hybrid cloud
Businesses today no longer entirely rely on the public cloud. They need to integrate it with other services that may include private cloud and on-premises architecture. This type of approach creates a hybrid cloud that consolidates a mixture of computing, storage, and a host of other services. Hybrid cloud architecture provides businesses with a wide range of benefits.
It helps reduce the cost of running a business while providing business continuity. With a hybrid cloud, a company doesn’t require spending money on multiple platforms or vendors. It creates an enhanced remote work support system and enhances scalability and control.
A company experiences better security due to enhanced risk management strategies. By leveraging the power of the hybrid cloud, it becomes easier to configure, maintain, and simplify the entire data structure. This is a key benefit that is provided by data fabric architecture.
Enhanced collaboration between business and data teams
A business team ensures the company vision is in the right direction. They create an agenda that is tied to the business goals and works as one strong unit. On the other hand, the data team discovers insights from data and shares them with the business team. The team uses this knowledge to make decisions and track progress.
When the data team lags in providing accurate information, the business team may fail in productivity. What can make it lag is the time taken to collect, store, retrieve, and process data. The overall time taken significantly improves when it leverages data fabric. It highly reduces the time required to analyze data and takes advantage of AI, deep learning, and machine learning technologies to get the most accurate insights. The business team gets insights in time and can take action fast if something goes wrong within the business.
Final thoughts on considering implementation of a data fabric architecture
Business systems today are becoming more complex and diverse. More businesses are considering remote work strategies that integrate highly distributed workforces. E-commerce today is leveraging evolving technology such as IoT that generate enormous amounts of data. It is becoming harder to manage this data which is why using data fabric is helping eliminate these challenges. The technology combines data from multiple sources to provide a 360-degree view in real-time.