The COVID-19 pandemic has introduced business challenges we have never had to deal with before. Experiencing the largest global recession since the Great Depression, companies across the globe are fighting for survival. Being over two months into the pandemic has taught us that a focus on efficiency is crucial today and that an increase in manual effort is one of the biggest data management hurdles in 2020. Performing everyday tasks manually, like you used to do before, feels like swimming against a powerful current. Not only does it affect overall productivity, but it’s also extremely challenging to perform well with everyone working remotely. According to Gartner, through 2022, manual data management tasks will be reduced by 45% through augmentation with smart metadata. Here’s how proper use of your metadata will help you come out of this situation on the winning side.
It’s high time we perceived metadata as much more than just a set of data containing information about other data, such as its source, context, or movement patterns. It’s a good starting point, but your metadata has so much more power than its ability to tell you a “once upon a time” story about your data. With a proper tool, such as a unified lineage platform, metadata can turn into an active driver, augmenting your data management so you can automate repetitive tasks and shift the resources you currently have to more urgent tasks.
To better frame it, think about what it is like driving a car today compared to how it was in the past. Nowadays, thanks to augmented reality, our cars give us a heads-up when the windshield washer fluid should be topped up or the oil should be changed, and so on. Brakes even activate themselves if there is an object in front of the car! All this is possible because of a “metadata processor” in your car that scans the car itself, its parts, and then the environment and uses advanced intelligence to help you with various routine yet critical tasks.
Let’s get back to business. We have observed three major areas where automation is far superior to manual processes.
Why do organizations struggle to put metadata to good use and deprive themselves of the opportunity to quickly pivot their efforts during uncertain times? Typically, it is due to a lack of proper metadata and only using it for specific tasks. This makes it difficult or impossible to reuse it for other projects. Luckily, a proper automated lineage platform can help you overcome these obstacles. Here’s how it’s done.
Most organizations know that their data is extremely valuable and that having it under control is the key to proper data management and making informed decisions. It is too bad that most of them only focus on current databases and structural metadata. Structural metadata shows how data sets are organized and sorted, but it does not provide information on how current data values are derived. The only way to get a full picture of the data environment and its true value is by implementing data lineage to show all the real sources and the changes made to the data you are working with before it reached its current state.
How can an organization deal with this situation when its data environment is huge, consisting of many technologies and platforms? Decoding lineage would simply require too much time, money, and resources. MANTA connects to various sources and transformation processes in your environment, gathers all the metadata, and reconstructs complete lineage. (You can find a complete list of supported technologies here.)
Implementing a tool that uses metadata harvested from multiple technologies and applies it to a variety of tasks will save you significant time and resources. MANTA gives you a hand here too. Using MANTA Visualization, you can manage lineage at the level of detail that meets your users’ needs. They can search through all the lineage, focus only on selected parts, review previous versions, share lineage views with others in the organization, and a lot more. Let’s take a closer look at a few data management domains and what wonders augmentation can perform for them.
One lesson learned from human history is that a lack of understanding and trust causes huge inefficiencies. It pops up in many different ways—data engineers can’t find data they need, data analysts hesitate to use data because they do not trust its quality or sources, or managers question reports that should support their daily decision making. The list of such examples is endless. But it doesn’t have to be this way. A properly managed unified lineage platform allows you to:
Think of staying productive during the pandemic as driving on an icy road for the first time. You are driving an old-school car without an anti-lock braking system (ABS). It starts to skid, and you are trying to control it. It’s not impossible, but the likelihood of an accident decreases when your vehicle is equipped with ABS and you can just hit the brakes, instead of figuring out the braking pressure.
Working in the pandemic puts our productivity to a test that none of us have studied for. The true power of augmentation is revealed when the human factor and leveraging known patterns both cooperate. Advance your data management with automated lineage that accelerates time-to-market, saves money, and uses the potential of the human brain to fully blossom and respond to unusual situations like the one we find ourselves in.
Has the COVID-19 disruption introduced new data management challenges for your organization?
Watch our webinar where MANTA’s CEO Tomas Kratky addresses current challenges.
Reach out to us at manta@getmanta.com so we can find a solution together.