What Is AWS Data Analytics and Why Is It Important?
Technology rapidly altered the way business is conducted, and the data revolution continues to impact how every business stays competitive. While it may be more important for large businesses to take advantage of AWS data analytics, the value of data is becoming increasingly apparent to smaller businesses as well.
Understanding What Data Analytics Is
To improve the performance of any business, it’s crucial to obtain and, more importantly, understand large volumes of data. It’s virtually impossible for even larger companies to compile and analyze huge volumes of data that directly or indirectly impact their organizations. Obtaining the resources necessary for those chores would be cost prohibitive. That’s where cloud analytics come into play.
Just about everyone understands cloud computing provides huge benefits for organizations, and data analytics is certainly one of those benefits. Amazon was a pioneer in providing data services and continues to be, arguably, the most important provider of those services.
AWS analytic products are now able to extract and better evaluate data from huge collections and put the information to productive use. Those services provide information that’s easily categorized in ways just about any organization can take advantage of.
Why Using Data Analytics Services Benefits Companies
As already suggested, it’s virtually impossible for an individual company to access, accumulate, and interpret the data needed to function efficiently without some type of outside assistance. AWS data options, including Amazon Athena, Amazon EMR, and Amazon Redshift provide platforms that quickly and efficiently provide access to incredible amounts of reliable data.
At the same time, Amazon’s products also include specific options to properly deal with Data Lake objectives for client companies. If you’re looking for discovery solutions to deal with large volumes of data, check out AWS Glue.
That data is generated by social media, E-commerce sites, CRM, ERP, and digital marketing venues. Organizations attempting to compile data from those (and other) sources would quickly become overwhelmed with the volume of information.
Another issue companies face is determining the accuracy of the data they collect. That’s not easy, and making mistakes could easily create serious consequences if the data used to make important decisions proves to be inaccurate. Analytic services help to verify the accuracy of information before it’s used.
While AWS data analytics isn’t free, the cost is far lower than trying to compile the same information independently. That means companies using the services receive a solid return on their investment.
Invest Where You Garner the Best Return on Investment
Regardless of the type of data being harvested, it’s far more efficient to take advantage of cloud services that have already collected the data than spending scarce capital to collect it without help. Remember that hiring staff members and investing in infrastructure isn’t cheap. Time is also a commodity that should not be wasted.
If you’re exploring ways to cut staffing expenses and still meet your company objectives, it’s hard to beat the results using cloud-based services provide. It’s also important to understand that there are times when using a combination of online and site-based analytics serves the company’s needs better.
However, there are also some downsides to cloud computing that must be addressed to avoid experiencing issues with the data. Working with a quality provider makes it easier to avoid technical issues, performance problems, and security threats.
Data Lakes and How They Boost Growth
Not all forms of data can be readily analyzed in helpful ways when using cloud services alone. In some cases, companies may not wish to do so for security reasons. In other instances, unique needs require users to take additional steps designed to provide the net results required. Data lakes are a proven way to do so.
Companies have the option to store both unstructured and structured data and use it in ways that better meet the company’s objectives. That analysis can be completed internally or using AWS, which means a company can make better use of raw or organized data options to deal with complex research issues.
If you’re on the fence about using AWS and a data lake to enhance your company’s performance, the data available indicates companies using data lakes and AWS outperform their competitors by nine percent. That’s impressive, and there’s no reason your organization can’t achieve similar results, especially with professional guidance.
At the same time, data lakes using AWS data analytic services can easily be monitored and optimized as needed. The size, governability, and data quality can all be monitored to ensure the information collected is providing value and not simply taking up space either internally or in cloud storage.
Focus on Quality
Most experts agree that data quality is vitally important when conducting any type of analysis. However, it’s also important to understand that perfection is not really possible. That means there are some metrics that may not be complete or suffer some degree of inaccuracy.
For example, incomplete data creates issues that cause its value to be compromised. The data included must be complete to have genuine value to the company. While minor discrepancies probably won’t create major issues, too many of those apparently innocuous errors could cause unfortunate decisions to be made.
The Final Analysis: Will Using AWS Data Analytics Provide Value?
Experts routinely recommend taking advantage of AWS data analytics, but not everyone is convinced the benefits are worth the expense. If you’re still on the fence, consider a few of the other advantages cloud services, including data analysis, provide.
Today, not everyone involved in research or analysis is located on the same campus. Using AWS services allows everyone involved in a project to communicate freely and collaborate on researching and evaluating big data.
Security is also an issue. Cloud services are historically less vulnerable to security problems than site-based data storage and communication systems. If you’ve ever lost data, it’s easy to recognize the value of cloud services that provide the latest security strategies.
Sticking to a budget is also an issue for companies, and that’s another area where cloud-based services prove to be beneficial. When the costs of keeping and analyzing data on site are compared with cloud services, it’s a lot easier to understand why companies are migrating to the cloud rather than continuing to invest tight capital in on-site equipment and hiring the staff necessary to maintain that equipment.
If you’re ready to explore how AWS data analytics will benefit your company and why it’s important, take the time to contact a provider like Nextlink to discuss how they can boost your productivity while, at the same time, keep costs under control.