In the contemporary digital age, data has emerged as an invaluable asset. Harnessing its power, however, requires businesses to modernize their data management strategies. The focus of this blog post, inspired by CTI Data’s presence at the Informatica World conference, is not limited to mere migration. Instead, our emphasis is on a broader concept: comprehensive modernization. This approach represents a transformative shift in how data is stored and processed, fundamentally altering how data is utilized and valued within an organization.

Traditional Data Management: On-Premises Storage and Data Appliances

In the past, businesses relied on on-premises systems and data appliances for storage. Data appliances, such as Teradata, Netezza, Oracle Exadata and Exalytics, SAP HANA, and MS SQL Server PDW, combined database management, storage, and compute functionalities into all-in-one machines. While functional and reliable, they grapple with inherent limitations. Limited scalability restricts their ability to handle the exponential growth in data volumes experienced by modern businesses. Coupled with high infrastructure and maintenance costs, these traditional systems often strain an organization’s resources.

Moreover, on-premises systems offer limited flexibility tied to specific hardware or locations, slowing decision-making and impeding innovation. As the modern data landscape evolves with vast data volumes and diverse types, businesses need help to extract timely insights from their data using traditional systems. This struggle underscores the urgent need for data management modernization. Transitioning to more flexible, scalable, and cost-effective data storage and processing solutions is necessary for businesses aiming to thrive in the digital age.

Transition to Cloud Storage

With its scalability, cost-efficiency, and flexibility, cloud storage presents a solution to the limitations of traditional storage systems, enabling businesses to adjust their data storage needs dynamically. Businesses can adopt cloud transition strategies, including a lift and shift, refactoring, and replatforming.

A lift and shift involve moving applications and data to the cloud with minimal changes, quickly and with less disruption, though it might not fully leverage cloud benefits. Refactoring requires a complete system overhaul for cloud-native applications, maximizing cloud benefits but at a higher cost and potential disruption. The replatforming approach falls between these two, which allows for specific system improvements during migration, optimizing benefits while avoiding a disruptive total overhaul. Each business must choose an approach that aligns with its specific needs, resources, and strategic goals, striking a balance between maximizing cloud benefits and managing migration-associated costs and risks.

A Holistic View of Data Management: Evolution, Transition, and the Future

Data management has undergone significant transformations, shifting from traditional data warehouses to data lakes. Data warehouses have limitations in terms of data modeling and reliance on centralized IT and Data Warehouse teams for the schema-on-write approach. This dependence results in slower and costlier processes, leading businesses to seek alternative solutions like data lakes.

Data lakes empower IT teams to focus on data ingestion, while business users can explore and derive value through the schema-on-read approach. Schema-on-write involves structuring data before writing it to the warehouse, limiting adaptability and requiring IT involvement. In contrast, schema-on-read allows storing raw and unstructured data, enabling flexibility and agility for various use cases. It also accommodates structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data, providing a comprehensive view and enabling deeper analytics and insights. Data lakes emerged as a solution for businesses to navigate and extract value without heavy reliance on IT teams.

Furthermore, data processing methodologies have evolved. Traditional ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) processes involve extracting, transforming, and loading data into the target system. However, scalability and processing time limitations have led to the adoption of ELT (Extract, Load, Transform) processes. In ELT, data is loaded first, then transformed as needed, enhancing scalability and efficiency. This combination of schema-on-read with ELT processes aligns with the capabilities of data lakes, allowing flexible exploration and analysis of diverse datasets.

A significant stride in data processing modernization is the transition from PowerCenter to Informatica Cloud, a transformation CTI Data is well acquainted with. Having led numerous successful migrations, CTI Data brings valuable firsthand experience in designing and advising clients on their modernization journeys. Our expertise ensures a smooth and efficient transition, unlocking the full benefits of modern data processing.

As we look towards the future, data lakehouses emerge as the next frontier in data management. Merging the best features of data warehouses and data lakes, data lakehouses offer businesses a unified platform for all their data needs. Despite potential challenges in transitioning to data lakehouses, their flexibility, scalability, and enhanced analytical capabilities make them an attractive prospect for businesses ready to fully leverage their data in the digital age.

Navigating the Transition: Strategies for Successful Data Modernization

Successful data modernization requires a strategic approach, beginning with assessing existing data management practices, defining clear modernization goals, and then systematically implementing the transition. This process is where CTI Data’s expertise comes into play.

Take, for instance, our work with a client facing challenges with data silos and diverse data formats. Our seasoned data professionals designed and implemented a modern data platform incorporating a data lakehouse. This new system broke down the silos, integrating disparate data sources and various data formats—structured, semi-structured, and unstructured—into a unified, accessible system.

This solution streamlined the client’s data management processes and enabled them to conduct comprehensive analytics, leading to more informed decision-making and improved business outcomes. The client was able to harness the potential of modern data management practices, which resulted in significant cost reduction and increased operational efficiency.

Involving technology partners and data professionals like CTI Data in your data modernization journey is crucial to leveraging the potential of modern data management while minimizing risks and disruptions.

Embracing the Future of Data Management

As we navigate the data-driven digital age, embracing data modernization is no longer a choice but a necessity for businesses. The potential impact of data modernization on business performance, decision-making, and overall competitiveness is significant. The experiences of numerous businesses, including those shared at the Informatica World conference, have shown that the journey towards data modernization, though challenging, can be enriching. It is an investment in the future, a commitment to embracing the power of data, and a step towards becoming a truly data-driven enterprise. Therefore, businesses must shed any apprehensions and embrace the shift toward modern data architectures.

Contact us today to learn more about our consulting services to accelerate your digital transformation and modernization initiatives.

Bianca Firtin is a Lead Consultant at CTI, Data & Analytics Practice.