Data Modernization:

 

Data technologies in recent years has popularized both structured and unstructured storage. This is fueled by applications that are embracing cloud resources. The two trends are happening simultaneously and are reinforcing each other.

Data modernization means moving data from legacy databases to modern databases. It comes at a time when many databases are doubling their digital footprint. Unstructured data is the biggest contributor to this growth and includes images, audio, video, social media comments, clinical notes, and such others. Organizations have shifted from a data architecture based on relational enterprise-based data warehouses to data lakes based on big data. If the survey from IT spends is to be believed, a great majority of organizations are already on their way towards data modernization with those in the Finance service firms leading the way. These organizations reported data security planning as part of their data modernization activities. They consider the tools and technology that are available in the marketplace as the third most important reason in their decision making.

Drivers for one-time data modernization plan include security and governance, strategy and plan, tools and technology, and talent. Data modernization is a key component of, or reason for, migrating to the cloud. The rate of adoption of external services in the data planning and implementation is about 44% for these organizations.

The perceived obstacles to implementing data modernization include budget/cost constraints, lack of understanding of technology, lack of consensus among decision-makers, absence of clarity on success metrics, and such other causes. Cloud is already a dominant storage location for nine out of ten of these organizations and it is both a means and an important consequence. A majority of these organizations have all their important applications and data in the cloud. Application and data can be moved independently but many organizations are putting it on modernized platforms at the same time and moving them from on-premises to the cloud. Traditional IT architectures and on-premises data centers often come with their own cost concerns which makes cost a key driver of cloud migration. Those organizations that have combined cloud migration and data modernization could deliver on their strategic goals.

This leads to the assertion that almost all data management approaches will likely eventually be modernized and almost all data and applications will be in the cloud. Cloud migration and data modernization will continue to mutually reinforce each other. Since these two trends support and overlap each other, most companies will do well with both trends.