Image credit: Lingaro
PETALING JAYA: IBM Malaysia is recommending local organisations to base their existing business models on “data fabric” strategies to reap the benefits of digitisation while realising greater productivity and operational efficiencies.
Its managing director and technology leader, Catherine Lian said that data is the “livelihood of any business model” and unlocks new value through the insights it generates, while also transforming business processes, from supply chains to asset management and business analytics.
“The challenge arises when organisations do not have a real understanding or appreciation of data, and not knowing how to ‘connect the dots’,” said Lian.
“Various organisations have had challenges with data management due to the myriad of software solutions run by various departments – and more so spread across public clouds, private clouds, on-premises workloads and servers.
“While some organisations have tried to manage this complexity by migrating their data to a central repository, the reality is that the copy and paste model of data management is an inefficient and costly process,” she further said.
To address these challenges, organisations are using a new approach called a “data fabric” strategy.
Put simply; data fabric is an architectural approach to simplify data access throughout an organisation.
“With a data fabric architecture, businesses can continue to use the disparate data sources and storage repositories (databases, data lakes, data warehouses) that they’ve already invested in while simplifying data management,” she said.
“Data fabric serves as the connective tissue – helping to foster data sharing and accelerate data initiatives by automating integration, embedding governance and providing a comprehensive view of the data.”
Take manufacturing for an example; beyond product innovations, manufacturers are also looking to use data to improve production and logistics.
Most manufacturers have to deal with highly interconnected processes and data extending beyond their organisation and including partners, such as suppliers.
The complexity of this landscape makes predictions challenging and tested supply chains with the recent global pandemic.
A data fabric architecture helps manufacturers get a global view of data across the full value chain, along with key entities and relationships that can be used for impact and root cause analysis, optimisation and real-time decision-making.
To its end, IBM is introducing an intelligent data fabric in the next generation of IBM Cloud Pak for Data, an analytics platform that helps prepare data for artificial intelligence (AI).
“This single management architecture then provides business-ready data that supports applications, analytics, and automation of business processes.
“From a security standpoint, it’s important that an organisation’s data fabric encapsulates two critical perspectives,” explained Lian.
Firstly, data should be safeguarded at the “front door,” where users interact with data, that is, at the point of the application.
But it also needs to protect data at the “back door,” that is, at the place where it is generated and stored – and everywhere between.
“The importance of weaving together end-to-end data management with data security is critical to support both security and privacy, especially for sensitive data,” she said.
“Turning data into insights holds tremendous value and can power entire industries,” said Lian.
“Organisations need to create a strong data foundation capable of supporting security and privacy requirements they need to help protect against costly data breaches.
“That’s why IBM is recommending that organisations strategise on their data fabric architectures so that they can realise the fullest potential of data in safe and secure environments,” she concluded.
Source: https://www.thestar.com.my/business/business-news/2022/11/07/ibm-strong-data-fabric-strategies-key-to-digitisation