Part 5 in the “Digital Platform” series that explores how organizations can rethink their IT infrastructure to take advantage of the increased efficiency, automation, and agility enabled by the latest intelligent technologies.
A key conundrum lies at the heart of every CIO’s decision-making process. Simply put: how to manage and leverage data in the best way possible that maximizes growth and innovation?
But of course, today’s information landscapes are no simple matter. Organizations face a glut of data from a myriad of sources, further complicated by a hodgepodge of disparate storage systems that include various multi-cloud vendors and on-premises repositories. Adding to that information headache is a growing array of digital endpoints, from mobile connected smart devices to social and business networks to public API ecosystems.
How can businesses forge ahead as intelligent enterprises if they are struggling to sift through sprawling data stored in different systems? Or if they are lacking the flexibility to quickly consume data needed to respond to shifting demands and market challenges?
A strategic approach to this data challenge
At SAP, we believe that the availability of trusted data provides much needed operational stability within an organization. But stability alone is not enough; a harmonizing layer of agility that can consume and share this trusted data is indispensable for spurring intelligent growth and innovation. A digital foundation can provide both data management and as-a-service application development, not only unifying data systems and processes but readying customers to continuously adapt to evolving business and technology conditions.
A stable, unified data landscape
The forward-thinking approach is to deploy a platform capable of executing data practices for strong security and governance that brings stability to and confidence in data systems and processes. Fragmented IT landscapes can be overhauled by integrating disparate on-premises and cloud-based systems to unify structured and unstructured data, analytics, and business processes across the organization. A data management solution can supply the intelligent enterprise with all the tools it needs—including access and process controls, data privacy encryption, masking, and anonymization functionality—to manage and orchestrate all corporate data on a single platform.
Support for business innovation
Toward that end, an integrated cloud platform can provide essential as-a-service components and development tools. The cloud enables new applications to be rapidly created, or current applications extended, to analyze and share the trusted data that sits within the digital platform. This layer of agility is essential to organizations that aim to make meaning of data both within and outside the enterprise by putting it into the hands of decision-makers to drive business innovation.
Deliver a unified foundation for the intelligent enterprise that accelerates process innovation and harnesses the value of data across connected business applications and ecosystems. Learn more.
And please listen to the replay of our “Pathways to the Intelligent Enterprise” Webinar, featuring Phil Carter, chief analyst at IDC, and SAP’s Dan Kearnan and Ginger Gatling.
Read more about an enterprise approach to data management in the “Enterprise Data Strategy” series.
The post Foundation For The Intelligent Enterprise: A Digital Platform appeared first on Business Intelligence Info.