Do you have dysfunctional enterprise data? The symptoms are pretty easy to spot, including not having a single source of truth for customers, orders, inventory, etc. Or not be able to properly secure and govern the data, thus being unable to deal with regulations.
Many enterprises are taking their dysfunctional data to the cloud, and thus their limits and problems. But you don’t have to perpetuate that dysfunction in the cloud. Here are some ways to fix that dysfunctional data when moving to the cloud.
Option 1: Fix the data in flight to the cloud
As you move the data and data schemas, correct their issues. Take the time to redo structures, pick new databases, and whatever else it takes to ensure that you indeed have a common data model and can find a single source of truth in the data.
But this approach is nearly impossible to do without a lot of risk and cost because you’re changing platforms and databases, and the changes to the data affects the applications. It’s difficult enough to move to the cloud, let alone move to the cloud and change your data at the same time.
Option 2: Fix the data before moving to the cloud
You take the time to deal with data issues beforeyou move to the cloud, avoiding the risk of moving to the cloud and changing the data at the same time.
This is less risky, and it’s also typically less costly. But it does take more time—typically double—for the changing, testing, and then migrating.
Option 3: Fix the data after migrating
Migrating and then correcting the issues with the data and the applications that access it is the most popular option.
However, just like Option 2, it costs you time. Still, many enterprises find Option 3 to be the most effective because it gives the faster access to cloud-based database technology, governance, and security.
No matter which option you choose, it’s important that you pick one rather than do nothing or be ad hoc about it. The data situation out there is pretty poor, and having poor data will undermine the advantage of going to the cloud in the first place. Get this fixed ASAP.