A 2022 IDC survey of more than 500 senior IT decision makers reveals critical concerns in data management, with more than half (52%) believing data management spending is unsustainable. became. This alarming trend highlights the significant challenge that businesses face today: effectively managing the ever-increasing volume and complexity of data.
As data is now a critical asset, rising data management costs are placing a significant financial burden on businesses, requiring innovative strategies to address these rising costs.
For example, as companies adopt digital transformation, they often face challenges related to cloud computing. The cloud offers great flexibility and a wide range of services, but unlike traditional on-premises servers, which have predictable costs, they can also lead to unexpected cost increases. As data volumes increase, costs associated with cloud storage, processing, and management are rapidly becoming unmanageable, leading to unsustainable charges.
However, these costs are not simply related to data volume. It also arises from complex data processing and system inefficiencies. Additionally, different storage options and additional charges for moving data between cloud providers or on-premises systems can make budget planning more complex. Therefore, it has become critical that businesses be able to balance the benefits of the cloud with the ability to manage unexpected costs.
Reduce costs and provide better insights
One innovation that's gaining traction is a “logical” approach to data management that prioritizes access and use of data over physical location.
This method leverages data virtualization to abstract and consolidate data from distributed sources into a unified, easily accessible, and understandable format. By decoupling logical views of data from physical storage, logical data management facilitates aggregation and analysis of data from multiple sources without extensive data replication, streamlining data analysis and business intelligence processes. Masu. It can also strengthen governance, security, and compliance across various systems.
Organizations that take a logical approach to data management are in a unique position to leverage the rich pool of metadata extracted from applicable data sources. This provides businesses with detailed insights into data consumer activity and the data sources themselves, giving them a comprehensive view of their entire data landscape. This perspective is critical to making informed data strategy decisions aimed at optimizing performance and cost.
Integral to this approach is active metadata, which provides dynamic, contextual insights into how the data is being used and how the system is performing. Active metadata is key to understanding data access patterns, workload demands, and the overall efficiency of data processes. These insights are especially valuable for businesses that need to effectively predict and manage data management costs. The combination of active metadata and logical data management gives companies a deeper understanding of their data environments, leading to more informed decisions and greater control over data management practices. .
How FinOps drives the benefits of logical data management
Applying logical data management principles to financial operations (FinOps) allows businesses to predict typically volatile cloud infrastructure costs, optimize data strategies, and manage costs while maintaining performance. The convergence of FinOps and logical data management represents a significant shift towards more sustainable and efficient data processing in today's digitally driven business environment.
This is because FinOps represents a cultural and operational shift in how cloud spend is managed. We combine systems, practices, and principles to bring financial responsibility to variable spending models in the cloud. FinOps also enables businesses to track, analyze, and optimize cloud spending for maximum efficiency and effectiveness.
For example, consider a healthcare provider grappling with rising data management costs. Partnering with a vendor that provides detailed metadata analysis can give providers insight into data usage patterns as their dashboards highlight inefficiencies in data storage and retrieval processes. Using this information, the company can streamline operations and leverage the power of FinOps to achieve significant cost savings without compromising data accessibility or security.
FinOps and logical data management integration
Integrating the insights provided by FinOps principles and a logical data management approach creates powerful synergies. FinOps brings structure to financial management, while metadata insights from logical data management platforms enable targeted strategies for cost optimization and performance improvement.
The role of logical data management platforms is becoming increasingly important as enterprises grapple with the complexity of managing growing amounts of data. The core value of these platforms is that they simplify data access by providing a central location to access an organization's distributed data assets. This centralization is a huge benefit, making it easier for businesses to effectively manage and leverage their data.
Once complete, active metadata provides dynamic insights into data usage and system performance, providing a better understanding of data access patterns and workload demands. When this capability is integrated with FinOps principles, companies can develop more sustainable, efficient, and cost-effective data management strategies. Even better, this combination lays the foundation for a more agile and responsive data management architecture that addresses the immediate concern of rising cloud data costs and can adapt to future needs and challenges.
About the author: Kevin Bohan is Director of Product Marketing at Denodo, a data integration and management provider.
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