With so many potential approaches to managing the data needs of your business, choosing a single strategy and sticking to it can be taxing.
Ultimately it makes sense to look at all the options available before you come to a decision, so here are just 4 strategies to compare in order to help you find one that fits.
Strategizing to Escape Legacy Hardware Limitations
One common motivation for creating a new data strategy is specifically to move away from legacy hardware implementations which may be both a financial and operational burden on the business.
In this case you may be looking to move away from on-site storage which is bottlenecked by hardware and network resources alike, potentially moving to a cloud-powered equivalent. It might make sense to switch to an SQL server that is hosted remotely, for example. You can still use software to monitor your SQL server and make optimizations; you simply no longer need to worry about covering costs for upgrades and upkeep.
Strategizing to Improve Security
Your main concern when developing a data strategy may be the levels of protection that sensitive information is afforded. At a time when breaches are on the increase, no firm can ignore the threat of malicious actions leading to theft, disruption and reputational damage.
Factoring this in at the core of any strategy makes sense, especially as there are new types of encryption emerging and fresh approaches to common cybersecurity challenges being proffered by storage providers.
Strategizing to Streamline Acquisition
A good data strategy cannot simply set its sights on how information is stored and managed, but must also take into account the processes by which the data is acquired in the first place.
Cost is a significant factor in this case, and you need to be able to justify the expense of acquiring information that will be relevant to your operations by looking at how it will deliver value further down the line, whether as a result of increased sales, improved customer experience or some other measurable metric.
Such calculations can be complex and it is usually sensible to consult with an expert to come to an actionable conclusion since money is at the heart of every business matter and unless your data acquisition strategy makes financial sense, it will not be worth pursuing.
Streamlining acquisition is also heavily reliant on knowing which groups to target, as the more specific you can be, the better equipped you will be to whittle down the data sets you consider. Paying for market research as part of this process is an option, but you can also do your own digging by delving into social media stats, site analytics and other hives of information that are freely available.
Strategizing for Accessibility
Arguably the most important aspect of any data strategy is the level of access that it affords, not just to end-users but also to other solutions and services which may benefit from being able to leverage the information which your business accrues.
The emergence of APIs and the apps which take advantage of them has acted to quantify exactly how important accessibility can be in the context of data. To extract the full potential from your resources, you need to be able to distribute them efficiently and securely.
This is where the cloud can once again be seen as a cornerstone of many modern data strategies since it lets even small enterprises harness expansive data centers and cater to apps and users around the world without breaking the bank. Each data strategy must, of course, be unique, but such facts show that there is also the unity between them.
explaining data -DepositPhotos
