Data management solutions with Snowflake: how to improve your overall data strategy

DATA IS THE CORE THAT HOLDS EVERYTHING TOGETHER.

Data is central to the success of any organization today but data itself has no inherent value without the proper strategies and capabilities to activate its potential. How companies manage, govern, analyze, and activate their data determines whether it becomes an engine for transformation or an underutilized asset.

Data management solutions with snowflake: how to improve your overall data strategy

Without a well-defined data strategy you're letting chaos enter your once fortified home, increasing the amount of errors that propagate throughout your business, and limiting your employees potential, taking away their weapons to excel in their roles.

Challenges around taming data's potential are well known.

• Silos obstruct a single view of the truth.
• Poor data quality leads to unreliable insights.
• Lack of governance and security poses major risks. And the gap in data skills continues to widen across most companies.

With a sound data management foundation and strategy built on governance , quality, openness, education, and analytics, organizations gain an accurate, timely and compliant understanding of their operations and customers. They are able to uncover opportunities, pivot quickly, and make data-driven decisions that fuel growth. Data management solutions are then of the utmost importance.

A single view of data, governed and secured, transforms how businesses optimize key goals through the advanced capabilities now available. The question is no longer how to manage overwhelming amounts of information, but how quickly companies can enable data's power to shape strategies and outcomes. With a vision of data's potential and the right platform, technology and skills, any business today can unlock its value through connected, trustworthy insights at scale.

But without a thoughtful strategy and approach to data stewardship, its potential will remain out of reach. Overall, data is the heart of digital transformation – but it requires a thorough, disciplined data management plan for capturing its possibilities.

The rise of data management solutions in the modern world

Data management solutions have become an essential part of the modern day business landscape. In our technologically driven world, companies and organizations are increasingly relying on data to drive decisions, inform strategies, and unlock valuable insights.

As such, data management solutions have risen in prominence in order to provide organizations with the secure, efficient, and cost-effective data management capabilities required to extract maximum value from their data. Data management solutions offer a variety of capabilities to enable organizations to effectively manage their data, including: data mining, data cleansing, data security, data integration, and data storage – just to name a few.

This comprehensive approach to data management provides organizations with an industry leading solution to optimize their data strategy from end-to-end. These solutions also provide improved IT scalability, allowing organizations to easily increase their data capacity to best meet their ongoing needs.

Improving data management solutions with Snowflake

Data is the lifeblood of any business, but managing it can become a bit of a challenge. Companies are turning to data management solutions to help streamline their data strategies and ensure that their data is secure, organized, and up-to-date. One of the most popular options is Snowflake.

Snowflake is a data cloud platform that provides the capabilities required to overcome these challenges and activate potential.

Snowflake data platform is built for performance, governance, and simplicity, Snowflake data solutions allows organizations to unite their siloed data into a single source of truth, securely control how information is accessed and used, and develop the skills needed for data-driven transformation. It is designed to easily integrate with the existing data pipelines of any business, allowing businesses to expand or contract their solution as needed.

Scalability also makes it easy for businesses to integrate new data sources as they come online and to ensure that their data is secure across multiple environments.

This data platform is designed to provide an efficient and cost-effective way to store and analyze data with data warehousing. It's cloud-based, which makes it easy to scale up and down as needed. Every user has their own database management system and storage, so there's no need to worry about managing multiple databases. Snowflake provides a secure environment for managing data, with high performance queries and the ability to encrypt data.

In this article, we will explore how Snowflake data cloud technology and approach can help establish the data management best practices that drive outcomes companies need. Through features like performance at scale, full governance, and an easy-to-use interface, Snowflake services enable:

• A seamless data experience across formerly disconnected sources
• Data management solutions Trusted, governed access to adhere to policies and compliance
• Empowering business users through education and simple tools
• Insight actionability via a platform built for advanced analytics in the cloud
• Ongoing optimization as business needs change over time

With Snowflake architecture, the capabilities are in place to overcome obstacles and activate data's power, but the vision for data's strategic impact must come from your unique goals and priorities.

By first focusing your strategy on the outcomes that matter most, and then determining data's role in achieving them, we can help you leverage Snowflake to build a solid data foundation for long term transformation and results.

Data governance

Lack of data governance poses major risks. Without policies establishing oversight, security, quality and lifecycle management, data's value remains limited. Governance enables compliance, responsible data use, and reliable analytics.

Data governance ensures data privacy and security through controls like encryption and access management. It sets quality standards for accuracy and consistency. And it defines retention policies based on business needs.

Failure to govern data leads to breaches, poor decisions from inaccurate data, and wasted resources from keeping data too long. Silos form when teams don't share data understanding.

To thrive in today's data era, governance is essential. With a sound framework, companies gain a holistic, trustworthy data view to support key goals. Overall, governance allows maximizing data's potential sustainably and responsibly. Executives should make it a priority, or risk threats that outweigh the costs, as ultimately, "data without governance is chaos."

Our data governance Snowflake approach

As Snowflake Consultants, we leverage the Snowflake Cloud Data Platform to help you enable governance at scale. With Snowflake, we provide:

• A single source of truth: We integrate all your data in Snowflake, giving a holistic view to govern with role-based and discretionary access controls. Policies are applied consistently across formerly siloed data.
• Scalable oversight: Snowflake’s performance and automation allow control and monitoring of huge data volumes. - Dashboards give visibility into access, quality and security events in real time.
• Policy-driven governance: We define policies in Snowflake’s meta-data to govern data from ingestion. Policies for privacy, security, quality and lifecycle are enforced automatically as data is loaded or queried.
• Continuous compliance: Snowflake’s advanced security, encryption and governance features aid compliance with GDPR, CCPA, HIPAA and more. Snowflake is designed with regulatory needs built in.
• Unlock data sharing: With strict governance, Snowflake enables data sharing across departments and with partners/customers. Secure data exchange at scale is a reality.
• Maximize data ROI: Snowflake’s performance, scalability and governance transform how you leverage data - at lower cost. ROI is realized through new efficiencies, insights and global collaboration.

We help to deliver Snowflake’s governance and compliance solutions, so you can achieve sustainable success with a governed data strategy.

Data quality

Poor data quality leads to unreliable insights and poor decisions. Without checks ensuring accuracy, validity and consistency, "rubbish in, rubbish out."

Data quality depends on the business need. Accuracy matters for analytics but less for archiving. Companies must define quality standards, then verify by sampling and employing tools to detect errors and gaps.

Lacking quality control, duplicated and incorrect data enters systems, skewing metrics and models. Resources are wasted cleansing messy data downstream. Frustrated data users struggle to do their jobs, resorting to standalone silos of "trusted" data or developing their own error-prone fixes.

Monitoring data at entry points and cleaning it then is most efficient. But ongoing checks and management ensure quality remains. Both technology and people play a role.

Data quality - Snowflake data cloud approach

As an enterprise data platform, Snowflake provides capabilities to assess, improve, and govern data quality. With Snowflake, organizations can:

• Define data quality business rules, metrics, and KPIs
• Get a baseline assessment of current data quality through auditing and profiling tools in Snowflake. Identify errors, duplicates, and other issues by analysing metrics and alerts for anomalies in your data.
• Implement continuous monitoring and alerting. Snowflake's governance tools and features enable visibility into data quality over time through the metrics you establish. Automated alerts can notify data teams when quality falls below key thresholds, so issues can be quickly addressed.
• Introduce accountability through governance. Role-based access control and oversight of changes ensure only authorized users can create/edit data and metadata. Embed quality checks in workflows so each person inputting or modifying data is responsible for its accuracy and compliance with rules.
• Deploy an end-to-end data quality solution. In Snowflake, all the capabilities required to improve quality—from auditing and remediation to monitoring and governance—are built-in and seamlessly work together. And Snowflake's architecture means scale to handle huge data volumes, enabling even the most demanding data quality and governance initiatives.

Data silos

Data silos form when data is isolated, limiting potential. Silos emerge from disconnected systems and organizational divides. Silos lead to incomplete customer views, redundant data, and analytical gaps. Data's truth depends on the source, undermining a single view to optimize goals.

Breaking silos requires technology integrating data and governance enabling access. But culture change is key; data must be shared. Collaboration across teams is essential.

Use cases prove data's power when integrated. With silos broken, efficiency, improved decisions, and growth emerge as data becomes a strategic whole, not parts.

Overall, no silos exist, only those companies create. Integrating data in an open, governed way mitigates risks to unlock potential. Executives should make breaking them down a priority, with rewards gained linking data across tools, teams, and goals outweigh the status quo.

Our data silos Snowflake approach

Snowflake provides capabilities purpose-built to overcome the technological, governance, and cultural challenges of silos through unified data, governance, and secure sharing. With Snowflake, companies can:

• Bring all data together into a single source of truth. Snowflake’s cloud-based architecture scales to handle huge volumes of diverse data, covering structured, semi-structured and unstructured sources.
• Enable governed access through role-based security. Control which data is available to which users/groups. Set permissions so people only see and use data relevant to their jobs.
• Provide data discovery and context for their users. Snowflake’s data catalogue gives stakeholders a means to find, understand, and request access to shared data sources as needed for their work.
• Gain new insights and opportunities from united data. When data is brought together, new connections emerge and value is created through the ability to use cross-functional information for analysis and decision-making at scale. Company-wide efficiencies are also realized from this reduced duplication.

Data skills

Data skills unlock potential. Lacking talent, companies face a widening gap with impacts outweighing costs to close it. Data scientists, engineers, analysts translate data into insights powering strategy.

These skills turn "big data" into transformation. Lacking them, data can’t drive outcomes or ROI. Addressing the gap requires investment. A data culture valuing these skills is key.

With data skills, companies thrive digitally. Innovation, efficiency and growth emerge. Efforts yield returns through agility, customer gains and revenue. Using data-driven insights, organizations pivot fast.

For organizations today, data skills are essential.Though the gap is wide, the rewards of closing it are wider. Without the right talent and mindset, data itself has no value.

But with skills and vision, data becomes a strategic driver. Overall, no skills mean no progress - data transforms businesses with resources to activate potential. Executives should make developing data capabilities a priority or risk threats outweighing costs.

Data skills - Snowflake data approach

Data skills are essential for businesses to compete today, but many lack a program for developing and empowering talent with knowledge. Snowflake Data Cloud provides an ideal platform for data education and enablement.

Using Snowflake database, organizations can:

• Evaluate skills needed through monitoring how stakeholders leverage Snowflake's capabilities. See where gaps in data fluency exist, then design training programs to fill them. Starting with foundational knowledge for all, then advanced courses for key roles.
• Educate at scale with Snowflake's self-service training modules. These interactive learning tools teach stakeholders core concepts from data warehousing to security policies, and how to activate the platform's full potential. Develop skills tailored to how your business wants to operate with Snowflake.
• Enable hands-on learning through guided tool practice and case studies. Snowflake's user experience makes it easy to pick up, and ongoing education through live use cases helps skills stick. With Snowflake skills, more stakeholders can participate in the data experience. Curiosity spreads as people discover the power of data through a tool built for simplicity, scale, and actionability.
• Provide continuous learning through new feature training. Snowflake's regular platform updates are opportunities to engage stakeholders in ongoing skills development. Brief "what's new" courses keep knowledge fresh as the tool evolves to support emerging needs.

Data goals/strategy

Data's value depends on driving priorities. A visionless strategy wastes resources. Goals matter most. A good strategy links data to KPIs, gains buy-in, and fuels objectives.

It considers: Key goals. Needed data. Tools and skills to activate potential. Outcomes defining ROI. With a vision of value, data transforms from cost centre to strategic driver. The best strategies start with priorities, optimizing as new tools emerge.

Overall, put data to work for impact through a strong strategy. Begin with the goals that matter, then build data's role in achieving them. The rewards of a well-designed strategy far outweigh the costs of leaping without looking. For any company today, a data strategy is not optional—it's the map no business can afford to navigate without, and no investment in data will pay off without the vision to guide it.

Our data goals/strategy Snowflake approach

Snowflake Data Cloud platform provides capabilities to develop and execute data strategies that drive outcomes. Employing Snowflake database, organizations can:

• Gain visibility into how their data supports their key goals and KPIs. Understand where opportunities exist to further activate potential. Assess gaps in data, tools, and skills against priorities. This visibility enables crafting a vision for data's strategic role.
• Determine needed investments to fulfil the vision. Deciding how to enhance data sources, building connections across data, scaling analytics workloads, using machine learning - all while ensuring security, governance, and performance at every stage of any data's journey in Snowflake.
• Design an end-to-end data strategy with Snowflake at its core. A roadmap for quickly achieving wins through Snowflake's ease of use, as well as longer-term initiatives enabled by the platform's elasticity, governance, and advanced analytics functionality.
• Prove and champion the strategy through success and education. Snowflake makes data easy to explore and share, so people see its value to priorities quickly.
• Update and adjust as business needs change. Regularly review how your data supports the latest goals and KPIs. Tap into new Snowflake functionality to account for emerging risks and opportunities. Keep initiatives targeted to prioritize through ongoing oversight and optimization.

Talk to us

Our global team of data experts is not only trained in working with big data, cloud services and data strategy, but is also passionate about it. We offer custom solutions and consultations around data architecture, data governance, snowflake consulting services and data driven custom software development.

Our goal is to assist anyone in overcoming their data challenges in a rapidly evolving and increasingly complex world. To gain a competitive advantage, every aspect must be carefully managed.

With over 20 years of experience in industries such as automotive, pharmaceutical, retail, finance, and more, our team understands the complexities of each sector and how to navigate them. Our consultative approach enables us to better understand your organization's needs and goals to ensure success.

If you’re considering doing more with your data, reach out for a complimentary consultation!

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