In the era of Big Data, it’s important to understand data management. This information, if captured properly, could be driving your business, improving the experience for the customer or simply supporting your initiatives moving forward. Whatever the case may be, the way data is migrated, consolidated and managed must be clearly understood to ensure maximum value.
A recent Data Center Knowledge piece examined a report from the United States Government Accountability office (GAO), titled “Data Center Consolidation – Reporting Can Be Improved to Reflect Substantial Savings.” It seems an agency within the Department of Defense received an unpleasant report on its ability to reduce the bottom line in the budget. As a result, the Deputy CIO wanted to know more about migrating data and consolidating data centers across the agency.
According to the GOA report, of the 24 agencies and departments examined, only two agencies achieved success with realized savings and efficiencies from the migration to enterprise data centers. Only one agency successfully instituted a culture that supports continuous process improvement in an effort to seek new cost effective methods and tools to support data migration.
While the report points to problems in data management at the federal level, it’s also a good reminder that these things are happening across the board in public and private sectors. Too often, organizations are accustomed to doing things a certain way and won’t alter their mindset to effectively support new initiatives. The benefits are measurable and include data that is more scalable, reliable and better performing. At the same time, data consistency, efficiency and latency are also achieved.
One of the best ways to change the mindset is to examine current conditions. Organizations should be asking questions at all times to keep data properly managed. This includes asking the right questions and documenting answers in Service Level Agreements (SLAs). The questions include: what data is collected; how is data migrated; who accesses data and uses it; when is data accessed; what systems are tied to the data; how is data backed up; and what changes need to be made to the data. Furthermore, SLAs need to clearly define who owns the data, planned upgrades or outages and the maximum allowable downtime threshold.
To accurately affect change, consolidation strategies have to be implemented that are supported across the organization. This often means support has to come from the top down. All departments should have shared targets and should work together on common goals, as established in the consolidation strategy. As work progresses, it must be monitored and evaluated and changes made as necessary.
The key point is there must be a data management plan that is strategically designed according to the needs of the organization and executed according to overall goals. In doing so, success is more likely and overall performance is monitored as necessary to ensure that valuable data is protected.
Edited by Alisen Downey