Data Intelligence is the Future of Data Governance

 

Data-driven decisions and insights: This is what businesses have aspired to for 10 years or more. It’s hard to read an annual report that doesn’t mention it. Entire professions have grown up around it— the Chief Data Office being a prime example. So why do we feel like we are falling behind in that journey?

According to a recent Harvard Business Review article, fewer individuals—a mere 24 percent to be exact—would rate their organisations as being data-driven. That’s down from 38 percent before the pandemic started. With more and more organisations transforming to digital processes, why is it that fewer individuals at those businesses report that they’ve felt the value of being a data-driven organisation? 

Data Governance Is Key to Being Data-Driven 

I believe that the answer is simple and comes down to knowing where the right data is located, being able to understand it, being able to trust it, and being able to get access to it. As more data is created, and more cloud applications are spun up, more data and more silos emerge—leading to people feeling they are less ‘data driven’. Thankfully, there is a modern solution to this problem, and it lies with a rather mature concept in data: governance. 

The Evolution of Data Governance: From Compliance to Data Intelligence 

You may wonder how data governance can solve this challenge. Many people associate data governance with its roots in regulatory compliance. Traditionally, governance has emphasised deep understanding of a narrow set of data assets and tight access controls before sharing that data. Data intelligence starts from the opposite point of view—sharing the data. 

By definition, data intelligence starts from a broader spectrum of data—often “all” available data in the enterprise, or at least what is in the data lake, cloud data warehouse, and enterprise systems—that could be useful to any analyst, data scientist or decision maker. Who needs data and for what purpose, where does that data reside, and what controls need to be placed on the data before sharing it? But data intelligence is still grounded in the key principles of governance, that is, who is allowed to use the data and for what purpose? Really, data intelligence is the logical evolution of governance as data becomes democratised and shared freely—and safely—across the enterprise and beyond. 

What is 'data intelligence, you ask? Well, if you ask our good friend Stewart Bond at IDC, he’d tell you that, “Data intelligence leverages business, technical, relational, and operational metadata to provide transparency of data profiles, classification, quality, location, lineage, and context; Enabling people, processes and technology with trustworthy and reliable data.” 

Simply put, data intelligence helps you to find your data, understand it, trust it, and access it. Sounds familiar, right? Context is intelligence. It’s understanding the context in which data is being used: for example, in order to make intelligent recommendations to users such as data scientists, data intelligence starts by governing analytic models and providing the context of associated data sets to train and feed those models. 

The Future of Data Governance: 2022 and Beyond 

Transforming data governance programs for teams who can deliver intelligence about your data in 2022 and beyond is your challenge. But it’s a challenge worth embarking upon—and we’re here to help. Not just as a technology that supports your mission, but also as trusted advisors who can help connect you with a collective community of experts to assist you on your journey. 

On August 4, at our first-ever Cloud Data Intelligence Summit, we’ll bring together data leaders from organisations such as Franciscan Alliance and McGraw-Hill Education to share their insights. We’ll feature Hyoun Park from Amalgam Insights to share how data intelligence improves AI. We’ll share our thoughts on the state of the market. And most importantly, we’ll introduce you to the new Cloud Data Governance and Catalog. 

What Is Cloud Data Governance and Catalog? 

At the recent  Cloud Data Intelligence Summit, we showcased the newest offering from Informatica: Cloud Data Governance and Catalog. This cloud-native, holistic solution to data and analytics governance brings together capabilities across cataloging, lineage, stewardship, quality, AI model governance, and more to help you find, understand, trust, and access your data. 

You can see how this new technology can help you advance from data governance to delivering data intelligence to your organisation by viewing the content of the summit on demand amd of you have any questions please contact us on [email protected] 

Author:

David Corrigan GM, Data Governance, Quality & Privacy at Informatica

Katherine Holden

Associate Director, Data Analytics, AI and Digital ID, techUK

Katherine joined techUK in May 2018 and currently leads the Data Analytics, AI and Digital ID programme. 

Prior to techUK, Katherine worked as a Policy Advisor at the Government Digital Service (GDS) supporting the digital transformation of UK Government.

Whilst working at the Association of Medical Research Charities (AMRC) Katherine led AMRC’s policy work on patient data, consent and opt-out.    

Katherine has a BSc degree in Biology from the University of Nottingham.

Email:

[email protected]

Phone:

020 7331 2019

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