Building a modern data platform – The Series – Introduction

For many of you who read my blog posts (thank you) or listen to the Tech Interviews Podcast (thanks again!) you’ll know talking about data is something I enjoy, it has played a significant part in my career over the last 20 years, but today data is more central than ever too what so many of us are trying to achieve.

In today’s modern world however, storing our data is no longer enough, we need to consider much more, yes storing it effectively and efficiently is important, however, so is its availability, security, privacy and of course finding ways to extract value from it, whether that’s production data, archive or backup, we are looking at how we can make it do more (For examples of what I mean, read this article from my friend Matt Watts introducing the concept of Data Amplification Ratio) and deliver a competitive edge to our organisations.

To do this effectively means developing an appropriate data strategy and building a data platform that is fit for today’s business needs. This is something I’ve written and spoken about on many occasions, however, one question I get asked regularly is “we understand the theory, but how do we build this in practice, what technology do you use to build a modern data platform?”.

That’s a good question, the theory is all great and important, however seeing practical examples of how you deliver these strategies can be very useful. With that in mind I’ve put together this series of blogs too go through the elements of a data strategy and share some of the practical technology components I use to help organisations build a platform that will allow them to get the best from their data assets.

Over this series we’ll discuss how these components deliver flexibility, maintain security and privacy, provide governance control and insights, as well as interaction with hyperscale cloud providers to ensure you can exploit analytics, AI and Machine Learning.

So, settle back and over the next few weeks I hope to provide some practical examples of the technology you can to deliver a modern data strategy, parts one and two are live now and can be accessed in the links below. The other links will become live as I post them, so do keep an eye out for them.

I hope you enjoy the series and that you find these practical examples useful, but remember, these are just some of the technologies I’ve used and are not the only technologies available and you certainly don’t have to use any of these to meet your data strategy goals, however, the aim of this series is to help you understand the art of the possible, if these exact solutions aren’t for you, don’t worry, go and find technology partners and solutions that are and use them to help you meet your goals.

Good Luck and happy building!

Coming Soon;

Part Seven – A strategic approach