Working with big data is a challenge that every company needs to overcome to see long-term success in increasingly tough markets. Dealing with big data isn’t just one issue, though. It is dealing with a series of challenges relating to everything from how to acquire data to what to do with data and even data security. Here are ways to tackle six big data challenges that any company can use to make big data management much easier.
Large-Scale Data Management
Large-scale data management is a fundamental aspect of modern-day business operations, especially since companies rely more on customer data than ever. With the volume of data generated by organizations growing at an unprecedented rate, effective data management has become increasingly crucial. Big data can be a major investment and a major liability if mismanaged.
Setting up and managing large amounts of business data includes multiple elements, such as data storage and the organization and management of data within a data warehouse. More than that, companies need to find effective ways of creating systems that scale as their data reserves grow. This is a major problem for most businesses since data warehouses can fill with data quickly, straining available resources and making it difficult to put that data to use.
Effective data management requires sophisticated methods to make management easier on a wide scale. Organizations that find the right methods are the ones that usually thrive, and the ones that don't tend to fail.
Scaling Analytics Systems
Once data is collected, it is not useful to the company until it is analyzed, and the results show what management needs to understand something important. Simply put, companies need ways of analyzing data. However, the more data they have, the more robust their analytical systems need to be. Companies need to be able to scale analytical systems as they acquire more data over time.
Fortunately, scaling analytical systems is getting easier as developers expect companies to grow exponentially. They build systems that are designed to help companies scale so that they won’t switch to a competitor’s systems.
This also goes hand-in-hand with increases in data storage and data management. You can often find systems that manage all three aspects of data management within the same interface, making scaling internal operations to match big data needs much easier.
Integrating New Technologies
Every big company goes through a period where they need to change technologies and rebuild their internal systems infrastructure. Integrating new technologies is essential for keeping organizations competitive and efficient since it is easy to fall behind competitors that readily adopt new systems that can significantly improve performance.
One vital aspect of implementing new technologies is systems integration, which is the process of connecting different parts of an organization's infrastructure. It means connecting the different hardware, software, and communication protocols together into a single functioning company-wide system where all of the company’s operations can be managed.
A systems administration team is required to ensure that new technologies are performing well and that company systems stay secure. There are many third-party systems available on the market that are designed to easily integrate with other options. In fact, many of the leading third-party options specifically work together with specific programs, making them an effective ecosystem for your company before you even switch to a new system.
Turning Data Into Useful Business Intelligence
Turning raw data into useful business intelligence requires the implementation of data analytics procedures. Businesses can collect various types of data, but making sense of it can be a daunting task without proper analysis tools.
Data analytics tools help businesses turn raw data into useful insights into a wide range of fields, including target markets, competitors, business opportunities, and how to make the company more efficient.
Every business needs access to analytical tools to make big data useful. Otherwise, that data becomes a big mess that no one can put to meaningful use. The cost of collecting and storing data can be enough to break a company if they don’t get something useful from all of that expense and effort.
Data analytics tools are becoming widely available. The key is finding a system that can return the kinds of insights that companies need. This is where AI tools and resources can shine. Not only do they handle large data sets quickly, but they can also automate many of the data analytics processes that companies rely on. Implementing new systems that can take large sets of data and churn it into valuable insights is one of the most important things that a CIO or CTO can work on. The more efficiently that data is produced, the more valuable the insights become.
Cost Management
Above all else, the biggest issue that all tech-focused staff members have to think about is cost management. Integrating new systems, churning data into insights, and managing data storage are all cost-intensive processes. Everything that you do with big data can cost money, which is why controlling those costs is such an important part of big data management.
Costs tend to be a problem with big data because of the high resource requirements. Storing gigabytes of data and having programs search that data for insights repeatedly can be expensive. Fortunately, those costs are decreasing with third-party systems like Amazon AWS.
A third-party system can help bring all of the big data management practices into one ecosystem. This makes pricing far more predictable and manageable. That way, companies can effectively budget their data management costs based on the resources that they need to use in a given month.
Learn More About How To Put Big Data To Use
Leveraging big data in your company can be a daunting process, but you can get help. At KitelyTech, we work with companies to set up internal systems, including big data systems, so that they can get the most out of their data. Call us at (800) 274-2908 to discuss how we can help you put big data to use in your company.
