Data warehouse in the cloud looks bright

With the continued growth of data within the corporate world, aka “big data”, the need for data analytics, data storage and computing is increasing at an unfathomable rate.

This need can become costly and difficult for companies to keep up with. It is with this in mind that I ask the question: What does the future of data warehousing look like?

To that end, this is where “the cloud” shines and why it will be the future of business infrastructure. With so many data points being produced within minutes, it's essential for companies to prepare for the future.

Data warehousing in the cloud is now a faster, more efficient option that can help companies store and process their data globally and find the hidden insights they need to make insightful decisions.

With the continual evolution of technologies available in the cloud, more robust solutions to data storage and management are enabled. In early years, data lakes were on-premises; however, businesses are moving their data lakes to the cloud as an infrastructure-as-a-service, and as offerings grow, this is becoming more and more popular.

Cloud technologies are allowing users to store and therefore analyse more data. Different layers can be made available to different levels of users for analysis and goal-seeking.

Data has been heralded as the most valuable currency of the digital age. It is of utmost importance to get the most value out of the data that is scalable, virtual, efficient and reliable.

That's why every business wants to understand its data and use it to its advantage. This is where business intelligence (BI) in the cloud comes into play.

BI in the cloud enables integrated analytics to combine data from disparate sources, such as transactions, to analyse a company's performance and future forecasts. The end goal of integrated analytics is to combine the data from different sources with minimal effort with the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning to get the desired end result.

With so many data points being produced within minutes, it's essential for companies to prepare for the future.

In contrast, analytics applies statistical tools to data that is already organised. Combine this with the cloud to have a scalable, virtual solution with the added benefit of going global. The cloud enables a cross-platform experience and access to these services that will have more computing power.

Scalability is a huge feature that is impacting the business that is moving to the cloud. The business can scale up or down with ease and only pay for what it uses. This makes it easier to grow a business and is more cost-effective.

With remote working becoming more of a requirement rather than a benefit, it is also necessary to be able to adapt to this changing world of working globally. This adds greater speed and efficiency to the workforce.

One of the most recent trends in data warehousing is that the landscape is changing. Data warehousing systems have been around since the 1960s; however, with the introduction of technologies such as big data and machine learning, new opportunities are presented for storing and analysing data, especially with the cloud movement.

Business needs to assess where the challenges will lie as adaptation is key. In this case, undertaking a SWOT analysis will be beneficial. Early training in the cloud is essential, along with choosing the right cloud partner.

Consultation from experts putting down the guidelines and approaches that are custom-tailored for a specific organisation is recommended.

If the best practices of migrating that environment are not followed correctly, the business will run the risk of incurring unnecessary additional costs.

The business needs to identify which applications to migrate. Does it have the need to migrate an end-to-end cloud solution? Or is the business going hybrid?

Things to consider are licensing and also where the data needs to reside. Customisation also needs to be kept in mind. The business can also assess what systems are at the end of their life and can therefore be discontinued and move to an upgraded solution in the cloud if still required.

The objective of a data warehouse in the cloud is to be able to make sense out of all the data that a business gathers, as well as to store that data in a secure manner while still being cost-effective and scalable, to help the business move forward into the future.

Data warehouse in the cloud is in my opinion looking bright. The opportunities that it enables, including for businesses to get the most value out of their data in a shorter turnaround time, are fulfilling a great need that all companies have today.

It helps to make sense of loads of information, giving the business users more power to make informed decisions in real-time, providing analytics and processing capabilities to achieve it within a cloud solution that also provides scalability.

By transitioning into the cloud and following a planned strategy by balancing the expected benefits and following a planned approach to reducing risk, the business has the potential to unlock more growth and possibility.