Cloudera: Unlocking Real Business Value from Data Analytics

AI is revolutionising how businesses interact with data, driving demand for robust data management solutions.

Data solutions from companies like Cloudera, for example, enable organisations to manage and analyse vast amounts of data across public and private cloud environments.

This capability is crucial for businesses worldwide as they navigate the complexities of big data and seek to derive actionable insights.

As organisations worldwide grapple with the challenges of data management and the rise of AI, Technology Magazine speaks with Shayde Christian, Cloudera's Chief Data & Analytics Officer at Cloudera.

Shayde's perspectives offer guidance for technology leaders seeking to leverage data for competitive advantage and innovation.

In this exclusive, he provides insights into the evolving role of Chief Data Officers (CDOs) in this AI-driven landscape, in addition to how this role changed during the pandemic.

His perspectives offer guidance for technology leaders grappling with data management challenges and the rise of AI, highlighting how organisations can harness data for innovation in the age of artificial intelligence.

How has the Chief Data Officer role changed in the wake of the pandemic?

 “The pandemic highlighted the critical importance of harnessing data to gain insights, allowing organisations to adapt to evolving market conditions and shifting customer expectations."

"This set a precedent: more than ever, enterprise data strategy is shaping corporate activity and stakeholders recognise the immense value of a robust data strategy as a powerful asset to improving their operations.”

 “Chief Digital Officers (CDOs) are at the forefront of this data revolution, making data-driven decisions which can have huge impacts on their organisations.”

“This is especially true with the emergence and widespread adoption of AI which requires strong data management.”

Why is the job role becoming more important?

“Data is crucial for modern organisations, but research shows that across EMEA they still struggle to use a third of their data effectively. So, having a person dedicated to overseeing the adoption of a data-driven culture, modernising technology, and creating an enterprise data strategy is essential.

"Without such a data champion, organisations will be less likely to discover integral data insights due to the overwhelming proliferation of data.”

 "CDOs lead their organisation's data strategy, overseeing how data is collected, managed, and utilised. They play a key role in accelerating digital transformation and boosting revenue through data-driven insights.

"While some believe the C-Suite is overcrowded, CDOs are essential for organisations to thrive in today's data-driven world.” 

You’ve spoken before about how businesses can struggle to unlock value from their data. Why do you think this is the case?

“In many organisations, data is still stored in silos – disparate repositories managed by different departments, closed off from the rest of the business. This makes it hard to access and draw actionable insights from data.

 “Security and governance are also major barriers to data usability – especially in highly regulated industries. These organisations tend to keep sensitive data on premises to maintain control and privacy, but this requires multiple environments to be tied together to extract the full value from data, which presents challenges.

 “To help optimise their data and democratise the sharing of information – while maintaining high levels of security and compliance – organisations must adopt a modern data architecture, underpinned by a unified data platform.” 

What are the key responsibilities/trends that CDOs must now focus on to ensure a clear data strategy?

There are five key responsibilities that CDOs need to focus on to drive full value from their data:

1. Establish a data-driven culture within the organisation: The CDO drives the implementation and use of tools and software to support a data strategy. They also shape the data strategy and vision, communicating this to key to stakeholders, including the board.

2. Inspire and motivate the data team to achieve business goals: Data teams without well-defined objectives set out by a CDO leave organisations unable to utilise data effectively. Leadership and motivation are therefore essential to the CDO’s role.

3. Aspire for concrete returns on investment: Data-related choices must always have Return on Investment (ROI) in mind. Without a CDO doing the heavy lifting, optimising ROI can be difficult to achieve and prove to leadership.

4. Take accountability for data success – and failure: As data now sits at the heart of operational strategy, having an individual to take accountability for data strategy and monitoring success is key for leadership to understand its value to the organisation. But CDOs also need to own failures and learn from them.

5. Improve competitiveness in the era of gen AI: AI is becoming crucial to the success of many organisations, and those that aren’t utilising it might soon be overtaken by competitors. To achieve success with AI, organisations need a robust data strategy to ensure models are trained on trusted data. This task sits with the CDO and their team.

As AI continues to proliferate, how can a CDO work to improve an organisation's competitiveness in this field? 

“AI is only as good as the data fuelling it, so making sure models have access to a complete set of trusted data is paramount.

"Implementing a modern data architecture is also vital, as it allows organisations to manage and bridge large volumes of structured and unstructured data from which AI models can generate accurate outputs.

Such accuracy might increase operational agility,  or predict organisational performance and customer behaviour, insights which can be embedded into new product features and services.”

How do you see the role of CDO evolving moving forward? What do businesses need to be mindful of?

“Most organisations now recognise the importance of dedicated data leadership, and the role of the CDO is evolving significantly. Once data management and compliance focused, they are now becoming integral C-suite members who drive the organisation’s enterprise data strategy."

"With data playing such a pivotal role in the direction of the wider business, the CDO is now a critical component to success by ensuring their organisation can drive full value from their most valuable resource – data.

 “As AI becomes more ingrained in processes, the importance of the CDO’s role will become even more pronounced. Their handiwork will become ubiquitous throughout organisations, embedding the outputs of their data strategy in day-to-day activities across every department.”

******

Make sure you check out the latest edition of Technology Magazine and also sign up to our global conference series - Tech & AI LIVE 2024

******

Technology Magazine is a BizClik brand