Managing big data in the era of cloud computing

Company CTOs are increasingly considering more robust, holistic solutions to their company’s data management needs. With the move to cloud storage and access, there are now new challenges regarding data security, access, analytics strategies and IT service delivery.

Computacenter is one company that is tackling this from the top down, with services to help companies overhaul or upgrade their backend systems for a secure front-end management by staff and customers alike. The European General Data Protection Regulation has recently placed further responsibility on companies to meet compliance for securing personal data. This downloadable white paper explains the steps towards compliance and approach to big data management.

Computacenter has assembled a team of highly experienced experts in data system design, cloud security, and analytics architecture, to ensure that a company can rely completely on IT systems to deliver their service seamlessly. With business now reliant on multi-device access, and the demand for real-time analysis of procedures, as well as having customer and client details on record and exposed to potential hacking, the need for a professionally managed solution has become a ‘no brainer’.

Aleem Cummins, CTO for the data analytics group at Computacenter says; “The more we use data to understand customer interactions, the more effective we will be in terms of our engagement around customers’ actual needs and wants, not what we ‘think’ we should push to them.”
The way forward, he says, is to demonstrate what that common good is: what business value will a data analytics solution bring to the wider organisation? The immediate question he gets is; who’s paying for this? But the benefit is a company-wide one justifying the investment. “Data analytics is about democratising and sharing data, exposing actionable intelligence and empowering users for the common good, not just for individual business streams,” he says.

However, a further question is; can you afford not to have secure and efficient big data management? Recent examples of embarrassing hacks and leaks have had catastrophic impact on some companies. Computacenter recommends a 10 point compliance program to meet EU laws. Conversely, others are finding that the analytics available to keep ahead of market trends is giving them the edge in a competitive business environment.

The white paper released by Computacenter cites a well-known London retailer that is using advanced IT systems to target customers in their stores using hotspots in order to deliver relevant promotions to their social media on hand devices for a more effective point of sale promotion. Such examples demonstrate the extreme uses of a complete IT solution to make the most of available data.

Another popular demand is coming from the strategic planners in some enterprises, those in need of up-to-the-minute analytics to make timely decisions and assess trends or performance without disrupting the recording or access of the transactional data that staff are constantly accessing.

The message is clear; a large business reliant on IT systems ought to be auditing their big data management. Contacting Computacenter to discuss your systems is a prudent action. Download the full pdf guide Digital Gateway: Information, Big Data and Analytics.

Contact Information

Alex Brooks

Account Director

Octopus Group

computacenter@weareoctopusgroup.net