By Karim Azar, Regional Vice President of Emerging Markets for the Middle East and Turkey at Cloudera.
The last thing you want to see is your data quality sinking to a point where you cannot extract the vast amount of data, structured or unstructured. As we approach the new age of technology, something called hybrid cloud, an IT operating model that helps power different types of industries such as banking, healthcare, government and retailers.
As technology proliferates, especially in the hybrid cloud, more organisations are on the train, as an estimated 82% of enterprises have split their data and workloads between on-premises and public cloud. That shows a level of shiftiness to cloud technology as it not only makes managing data easy but also provides flexibility that provides cost-saving methods and more. Therefore, with exemplary data architecture, companies can’t get bogged down.
In today’s corporate world, the implementation of a hybrid cloud can be the key between success and failure, as yearly the number of implementations increase in the middle east region. According to a recent blog, 85% of Middle Eastern companies are either using or planning to use cloud technology, with 42% reporting that they have already implemented cloud solutions in their organisation. It’s forecast that 120ZB of data will be created, captured, copied, and consumed this year – a 24% increase from 2022 and by 2025, it will reach 175ZB.
Flexibility to navigate data
Even though the benefits of a Hybrid cloud are so tempting to implement, keep in mind that there is a need for a disciplined administration to manage all the data because if it is not managed well, it will create a data swamp as the data keeps on sinking and becomes not easily discovered. It is like trying to build a dam while the river grows in flow. There are a couple of ways that can help in making sure it doesn’t become a data swamp.
A data lake house should be well designed to incorporate flexible patterns from ingestion through processing and consumption, but again to a certain extent of flexibility, meaning not creating a new way every time there is a little difference between applications or platforms. That being said, when there is flexibility, it helps manage the vast amount of information, and we know that data can unexpectedly change, which can lead to complexity, and that is not the only reason but also the flow of data volumes and its high distribution.
Although disciplined governance is essential, the simplicity of the data makes the approach easy. One of the benefits of hybrid cloud approaches is that they can include one or multiple clouds. As a result, security and governance are handled steadily, and enough wiggle room exists to establish some governance rules and security controls individually.
Having a good architecture that can effortlessly identify and categorise confidential information throughout the organisation, regardless of the location, and also having to enforce the necessary protocols in harmony with company guidelines. Some possible measures that may be implemented are restrictions on user access and encryption. At the same time, data is stored and in transit, and the establishment of data categorisation, lineage, modelling, and auditing systems. The system can adapt to changing requirements by dynamically updating itself through tasks such as copying or accessing data and workloads in various clouds or locations.
Evolution of hybrid cloud
The IDC-IBM study highlights the expansion of a hybrid cloud environment in which companies would assess the merit of a deployment option (i.e., private cloud, public cloud, or on-premises) before selecting one. According to Harish Dunakhe, the research director for Software and Cloud in the Middle East, Turkey, and Africa at IDC, vendors who offer smooth operation across various clouds will possess a competitive edge. The present analysis suggests significant cognisance regarding the advantages of the hybrid cloud to enterprises. As this awareness continues to evolve, we expect firms to proactively embrace hybrid cloud solutions more extensively throughout their organisational structures to optimise returns on such initiatives.
Maintaining an unbiased approach to how applications and users interface with data lakehouse is an essential aspect that warrants recognition. Notably, not all applications can deliver a continuous stream of information, and it should be recognised that the information being transmitted to the source may arrive in various formats. It is unlikely for every data entering the data lakehouse to follow a uniform pattern throughout the entire process. Many companies are employing hybrid cloud technology to manage data and reduce costs. Businesses can achieve efficient data navigation and avoidance of data swamps by implementing a carefully planned data architecture. Moreover, by adopting hybrid cloud solutions throughout their corporate structures, businesses can enhance their investment returns and remain ahead of the competition in the dynamic technological environment.
