In today’s digital world, data is the next big gold rush. Every enterprise has it, but most don’t have a data strategy in place that allows them to properly capitalize on data, even if they think they do.

Truly knowing how to properly manage and make use of your data is key to getting ahead of the competition and, as shared in a , it is a key business differentiator.

In the course of their study, IDG developed the Data Innovators Scale, which helps enterprises determine where they are on the path to an intelligent data strategy.

In this two-part series, we will discuss IDG’s findings, the top three moves businesses can make to better capitalize on data, and how can help you get started.

The challenges associated with data strategies

As shared by IDG in the report, the challenges that enterprises face in regards to data can largely be broken down into several key areas: complexity, security, and the time and resources needed to make appropriate upgrades.

Participants in a recent survey from IDG indicated the following enterprise data management challenges, including:

• 21% identified legacy architecture and on-premises constraints as a major IT challenge, with a further 25% identifying it as a significant challenge
• 19% identified existing infrastructure complexity as a major IT challenge, with a further 30% identifying it as a significant challenge
• 16% identified a lack of time or IT resources for innovation as a major IT challenge, with a further 28% identifying it as a significant challenge

In terms of complexity, much of this comes from aging, legacy architecture or technologies that limit an enterprise’s ability to adopt new solutions. Siloed infrastructures also contribute to difficulties capitalizing on data, with many enterprises putting off needed change due to the difficulty of moving and consolidating data.

Protecting data is also causing headaches. Enterprises who participated in IDG’s research noted ensuring data security as the number one challenge associated with managing data.

Other data concerns included:

• 18% of respondents listed data integrity as a major challenge, with a further 28% listing it as a significant challenge
• 16% of respondents listed compliance and privacy requirements as a major challenge, with a further 31% listing it as a significant challenge
• 15% of respondents listed aligning IT skillsets to support data strategy requirements as a major challenge, with a further 29% listing it as a significant challenge

Overall, it’s clear that many enterprises are struggling to properly capitalize on their data for a variety of reasons. While this means there isn’t a single solution that will work for every business, there are a number of methods that can be utilized to improve your enterprise.

The data innovator scale

As mentioned earlier, during IDG’s research they developed the Data Innovator Scale. The scale utilizes factors that represent the ways enterprises “adopt certain technologies to support their strategy and plan to put their data to work” to determine where a company lands on the Data Innovators Scale.

Factors utilized in the scale include:

• Whether enterprises move data well between locations
• Whether enterprises have adopted hybrid cloud
• Whether enterprises leverage a data platform driven by AIOps
• Whether enterprises use HPC to generate value from data
• Whether enterprises use HCI to generate value from data
• Whether enterprises believe current IT infrastructure will meet future needs

Of the enterprises that participated in IDG’s research, 21% were identified as early data innovators, 54% were identified as intermediate data innovators, and 25% were identified as advanced data innovators.

How to improve your data strategy

In our next article, we will discuss methods to improve your data strategy, as well as the ways HPE is utilizing its to help enterprises around the world utilize the power of their data to transform their business.

Are you experiencing challenges with enterprise data management?

The data in IDC’s study and the feedback from its participants makes it clear that enterprises across industries need a new way of managing and utilizing data to truly succeed in today’s . And these challenges are very real. The challenges facing organization today are a result of this convergence of a new technologies and tried-and-true legacy systems. As a global, edge-to-cloud company, HPE is utilizing intelligently designed solutions that ensure long-term sustainability for IT.

NEXT STEPS: Learn how HPE Infosight can help you take control of your enterprise data and leverage insights to drive business decisions in our tech brief below, “How AI in the Data Center Closes the Loop on Digital Transformation.”

The post Exploring the Challenges of Enterprise Data Management appeared first on IT Solutions Provider - IT Consulting - Technology Solutions.

In years past, database management was a slow, manual, and costly business, often requiring multiple solutions and significant storage and compute requirements. As a result, enterprises often suffered from inconsistent performance and increased costs.

For today’s enterprises, the story is a bit different. Modern solutions are built with efficiency and simplification in mind, often combining elements of automation and artificial intelligence (AI) to reduce the burden on IT.

Enterprises making use of public, private, or hybrid cloud environments can benefit from one particular solution: . Keep reading to learn our top 4 reasons why Nutanix Era is worth considering for your organization.

1. Nutanix Era offers simplified provisioning

As a management solution, Nutanix Era simplifies operations by extending the management solution across clouds and clusters. With one simple database management control plane for public, private, and hybrid cloud deployments, management is centrally located and provides additional visibility across the databases. This allows database administrators to apply best practices across all database types, reducing nonstandard provisioning. Through automation, Nutanix Era also reduces the need for manual, error-prone and tedious tasks, freeing up IT for more complex and innovative projects.

As shared in a recent , Nutanix Era increased the speed of database provisioning by 97 percent for the example organization used for the purposes of the report. This reduction, from an average of two weeks to just hours, improved database administrator and developer productivity.

Thanks to this increased productivity, database managers can also see a reduction in monthly overtime hours by up to 50 percent, offering compounded cost savings for the enterprise.

2. Nutanix Era offers seamless migration

As shared in the Forrester report, Nutanix Era, which is built on the Nutanix hyperconverged infrastructure platform (HCI) that uses a scalable node structure, makes migration seamless. Database administrators can easily swap nodes in and out as needed, eliminating the need for refreshes to be undertaken all at once as a larger, more labor-intensive project.

3. Lifecycle management made easy

In terms of backup and recovery, Nutanix Era offers enterprises the ability to backup and/or restore databases across clouds in just minutes and with point-in-time granularity. Enterprises can also backup once every 30 minutes with Nutanix Era, a frequency unheard of with legacy systems that have larger storage requirements.

When compared to previous solutions, Nutanix Era reduces the amount of storage required for database clones by as much as 60 percent, as reported by Forrester.

4. Nutanix Era offers increased cost savings over the competition

We’ve talked about the various operational benefits that enterprises will see when they make the switch to Nutanix Era, but now let’s talk about the financial advantages.

When it comes to database provisioning, the increased speed and productivity for database administrators is worth more than $371,000 over three years for the example organization used for the purposes of the report. Simplified database management further increases those savings and the reduced overtime hours are worth more than $119,000 during the same period in the study conducted by Forrester.

The reduced storage requirements and increased simplicity for lifecycle management also offers cost savings. According to Forrester, the study found the reduction in storage requirements can save enterprises up to $800 per terabyte of avoided storage. Over three years, this translated to more than $4.5 million in savings for the example organization.

Other cost savings can be found in reduced costs related to administration tool sets and licenses once all databases have been migrated onto Nutanix. In the study, Forrester found this to be worth more than $2.6 million to the example organization. Additionally, the automated database patching offered by Nutanix Era, which reduces downtime hours and the financial consequences associated with them, was worth more than $1.6 million to the example organization.

There are numerous other benefits of Nutanix Era which cannot be quantified, including improved employee user experience, and we encourage you to discover those for yourself.

Take a closer look at Nutanix Era

As a global leader in and a pioneer in HCI solutions, the Nutanix Era solution combines the best of the Nutanix portfolio to automate and simplify database management. As a boon to database administrators and IT leaders alike, Nutanix Era takes complexity out of database provisioning and lifecycle management. Our team of certified Nutanix experts can help you take a closer look at Nutanix Era. Ask us how your organization can begin to reap the same benefits found in the Forrester report. Contact us today to start a discussion.

NEXT STEPS: Say goodbye to IT management complexity and hello to IT simplicity! Are you ready for Nutanix Enterprise Cloud? The journey to software defined infrastructure often starts with the adoption of hyperconverged infrastructure, combining compute, storage, and networking functions in a single software-driven appliance. Learn more about our recommendations for the journey to SDI in our eBook below!

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