Data is everywhere, and there’s a lot of it. Unfortunately, most of it is ignored or unusable. This is about to change. A relatively new approach to data gathering, visualization and monetization is poised to change the world. Known as “data fabric,” the strategy or framework consists of a single, unified architecture with an integrated set of technologies and services designed to deliver enriched data at the right time, in the right method and to the right data consumer.

Why Data Fabric Is Important

The world we live in today generates a lot of data. In fact, according to Statista, data creation will grow to 180 zettabytes (1 trillion gigabytes) by 2025. Within all this data lies the answers to some of the world’s most pressing questions. Businesses struggling with everything from manufacturing, supply chain management, sales, marketing and support could derive new solutions, opportunities and optimized routes to market by harnessing the unlocked potential in their data. Industries such as healthcare are embracing data fabrics with predictive analytics and machine learning to provide new insights to shorten drug development cycles and develop the cures of the future.

Data growth is ubiquitous; however, only a minority of an organization’s data is well-defined, easily accessible and provide value. Estimates are that 80% to 90% of all data is unstructured. It’s not surprising, then, that Forbes shared that 95% of businesses cite the need to manage unstructured data as a significant business challenge.

With so much unstructured data available across all industries, it’s time to begin making sense and use of it.

Why You Should Offer Data Fabric Solutions

The need for turning raw data into actionable intelligence is very real. NewVantage Partners, strategic advisors to Fortune 1000 companies, shares that 97.2% of leading companies are investing in big data and AI initiatives. To remain competitive and drive innovation, organizations from small to large must invest in a data-centric strategy.

Organizations building data fabrics can make more informed business decisions and gain real-time insights into their operations. In addition, clean enriched data is reusable across business units, allowing wisdom to be shared companywide and giving decision-makers unparalleled business agility.

The Data Fabric Model Explained

Data fabric combines vital data management technologies such as data catalog, data governance, data integration, data pipelining and data orchestration.

Logically, the data fabric begins with the sources of data. Today, data resides everywhere from multicloud solutions, data centers, the edge and even the far edge. All this data can be collected securely and brought into a data lake (a centralized data store housing raw data in its native format).

From there, various platforms (on-premises and cloud-based platform as a service) can be used to harvest the full potential of the data. Platforms include:

The organizational benefactors of a data fabric are cross-functional and include business decision-makers, application developers and software services whose unique data needs can be met.

How to Get Involved with Data Fabric

Data fabric concepts were once the exclusive domain of expensive teams of data scientists, programmers and analysts. However, through innovative low code software, automation, cloud-based AI/ML and data warehousing, providing data-driven insights is becoming more affordable and accessible to all. Ingram Micro’s VARs and MSPs should consider building these high-value and strategic data management services into their offerings.

Ingram Micro offers its partners access to a leading portfolio of products and services that can help democratize your customer’s data access across their organization and gain critical advantages over your competition by putting data at the forefront of your IT modernization, data fabric and digital transformation strategies.

Contact your Ingram Micro representative today to get started with your data-driven business strategy.

This guest blog is part of a Channel Futures sponsorship.