Data Lifecycle & Exchange
Yesterday I encouraged business leaders to engage with their data as a way to accelerate value in 2022. Today, I want to talk about two specific ways that you can do this.
Most data-driven companies are going through a similar evolution: they are moving from being application to platform companies. This doesn’t mean taking an application and moving it to the cloud, or breaking a monolith into smaller components, although those are often side-effects. Enterprise Data Platforms are the evolution of siloed applications, relying on ad hoc replicated data, into holistic services where data is being shared seamlessly between components within the platform, and exchanged bi-directionally outside the platform via APIs. Put more simply, EDPs provide a logical view of how data flows within your organization, and how data is shared between organizations.
This is a massive shift. I have argued that it represents a fundamental change in how we will work with data going forward akin to the shift that started 20 years ago for infrastructure. If that’s right, then you want to be onboard now. You will also want to think about how you engage platform data through two specific concepts.
The first is that data in an EDP has a lifecycle. In many environments today we tend to think about copies of data across services as disjoint knowledge, but really it’s the evolution of data. Data first enters your platform somewhere, typically from an application you host or from a third-party you partner with (make sure you know which it is!). Data will flow within your organization to serve new purposes, and eventually will flow out of your organization as individual, aggregated, derived or other forms of data. Understanding just a small piece of this lifecycle will arm you with knowledge to build better GTM and Partner motion anchored on trust and transparency, and will give you confidence about opportunities outweighing risk (more on that one later this week). Press on your teams to surface even the most basic view of lifecycle and you will be rewarded with stronger customer and partner engagement.
The second concept is that, by definition, the future of data will decentralized. I don’t mean that data will be stored in a decentralized database, or across cloud infrastructure within your organization. I mean that my data will be scattered across many organization’s EDPs, and instead of fighting this, companies should be leaning in and embracing on-demand portability between platforms. Data exchange ecosystems have a rising-tide effect that brings value to all participants, but that only happens if data can be exchanged without risk. So, you need to be engaging your users today and explaining to them the value of the outcomes they will receive by choosing to share their data. You also need to be anchoring partner and B2B relationships with a view of your organization being the best at data exchange. Drive your organizations to have a customer-centric, exchange-first view of data, and you will create more valuable experiences for your customers and partners alike.
The evolution to a data platform takes time. Some companies I’m working with are leading the way, and others are just starting to chart their journeys. I wouldn’t expect that most companies can produce a lifecycle view or present a holistic platform data exchange design on-demand. The best companies are working in that direction, and need guidance from business and market stakeholders for use-cases, as much as they need advice on how to build the infrastructure itself. This is a great time to have a 2-way discussion about how these concepts will drive the evolution of your business, and where you can start creating value even as core infrastructure underlying your platform is still emerging.
What are some key enablers to make these kinds of EDPs a reality? Tomorrow I’ll talk about two that I’m watching in-practice become critical on both the technology & GTM side of companies, which are helping to align teams around next-generation data platforms.
This piece originally appeared December 15, 2021:
