Informatica has played its New Year predictions card in the shape of some strongly worded comments on business data responsibility and information management considerations for the months ahead. Pointing to new and emerging data protection and compliance rulings, Informatica VP of technology for EMEA region Mark Seager says that 2011 marks a new era for data management, as organizations are increasingly more culpable for the data that they manage.
"The explosive growth of the digital universe is instrumental in forcing companies to take responsibility for their data. Businesses are beginning to recognize the strategic value of timely, relevant and accurate data and will continue to focus on this as we move into 2011,” said Seager.
In line with Seagar's suggestions, industry analysts also predict a data management surge in reaction to the increasing use of social media applications at the enterprise level. Over the past 18 months, one of the biggest challenges for many companies has been taking tentative steps into the world of social media and creating a brand presence. The next challenge will be to is likely to involve finding effective ways to analyze the data they are now able to gather from these communities in more sophisticated ways.
Informatica's Seagar also points (somewhat logically) to the effects of cloud computing now that it has arguably become a far more integrated element of enterprise IT structures. "During 2011, data will continue to make the move to the cloud and it is essential that companies continue to align their data management strategies with this growing trend. Cloud technology is now an ingrained element of business infrastructures, which must be treated with the same level of investment and coordination as on-premise databases. Private clouds are an entrenched technology but as data moves beyond the firewall, in order to retain control and realize the benefits of the cloud, companies need to avoid business and IT interests taking different paths. Alignment is key to keeping data integrated and in sync so business users know they can trust the data to be relevant and accurate,” he said.
