Show Me the Business Value

Business value is measured by the success of profit and revenue. In data management, this translates into the ability to monetize data. Pain points in data management often lead to cost-intensive business operations or the loss of business opportunities, impacting revenue. Data Fabric architecture addresses common complexities in distributed data management, such as data silos, data protection, and data democratization. Data Fabric is able to tackle a diverse set of pain points via its core building blocks – Data Governance, Data Integration, and Self-Service. Each building block has an area of specialty that works cohesively with the other building blocks, leading to higher profits and cost savings.

This chapter defines what digital transformation is, the role of data monetization, and Data Fabric’s value proposition. It reviews the benefits of Data Fabric architecture and its applicability across organizations. By the end of this chapter...

Digital transformation

Digital transformation is the journey in which organizations seek to leverage technology and data to achieve financial returns. This is typically done by using technology to harvest data with automation, quality control, and meaningful insights. The outcome is a modern business model that creates new business opportunities. It offers a value-driven, customer-focused approach. The quicker you execute the data insights derived, the faster you achieve value, whether in the form of profit or operational efficiencies that drive down cost. There is constant pressure to execute rapidly or risk losing business to competitors. Organizations that implement a digital mindset understand the tremendous value and the survival need to become digital. Businesses that do not grasp this are in danger of getting left behind, while digital companies thrive and keep up with a fast-paced market. An article on the MIT Sloan Management Review agrees with this premise.

… among...

Data monetization

Organizations leveraging data in their business aim to achieve financial return in the form of revenue or cost savings. They use facts backed by data to set an execution strategy on the who, what, where, when, and why. The business objectives are to derive significant and actionable insights from data leading to monetization. Gartner defines data monetization as follows:

…process of using data to obtain quantifiable economic benefit. Internal or indirect methods include using data to make measurable business performance improvements and inform decisions. External or direct methods include data sharing to gain beneficial terms or conditions from business partners, information bartering, selling data outright (via a data broker or independently), or offering information products and services (for example, including information as a value-added component of an existing offering).

(https://www.gartner.com/en/information-technology/glossary/data-monetization...

Data Fabric’s value proposition

Each building block in a Data Fabric architecture (Data Governance and its knowledge layer, Data Integration, and Self-Service) introduced in Chapter 1 offers a monumental amount of value from its sophisticated approach and focus. Figure 2.1 provides a summary of the value statements in Data Fabric’s building blocks.

Figure 2.1 – Business value via Data Fabric’s building blocks

Let’s discuss the value behind the Data Governance building block.

Trusting your decisions with governed data

Data Governance is a staple in achieving a successful data monetization strategy. In Data Fabric architecture, Data Governance is focused on producing high-quality, trusted, secure, discoverable, and understandable data. Data consumers rely on trusted data to address their business needs.

Let’s review the value proposition across the Data Governance pillars.

Protecting and securing critical...

Data Fabric for large, medium, and small enterprises

Large, medium, and small enterprises can derive value from Data Fabric architecture. It offers deep Data Governance that protects and secures data with high-quality, embedded automation, efficient Data Integration, and Self-Service. It is use case agnostic across a diverse set of industries. A Data Fabric solution offers a robust and scalable platform that can handle the evolving needs of businesses and manage data efficiently and effectively. A Data Fabric architecture-based solution is flexible and composable, which offers organizations the ability to start small or big depending on the business priorities of an organization. There can be different entry points for organizations of all sizes, which we’ll discuss in the following subsections.

Large enterprise organizations

Typically, large enterprises have complex architectures, commonly referred to as spaghetti architectures or big balls of mud. They are extremely...

Summary

In this chapter, we discussed the business value of Data Fabric architecture. We spoke about the value proposition of each of Data Fabric’s building blocks. We have also posited Data Fabric architecture as a strategic approach to successful data monetization. The Data Fabric building blocks – Data Governance, Data Integration, and Self-Service – work together to deliver data that can lead to highly profitable revenue and operational efficiency. We have also reviewed real-life examples showcasing millions of dollars lost by organizations not having the right data architecture and strategy in place. We have also discussed the value Data Fabric architecture can offer large, medium-sized, and small organizations. Data Fabric can substantially provide a huge return on investment across organizations focused on digital transformation.

In the next chapter, we will review Data Mesh architecture and discuss how the Data Fabric and Data Mesh architectures are...