Your manager has requested an in-depth business analysis of the quarter's performance. However, before you can get started, you have to request access to several data sources before you can even get started. The deadline is by the end of the day. Does this sound familiar? Then continue reading.
As a data analyst, you often face several data challenges you have to deal with before starting your analysis. In this blog series, we will zoom into each of these challenges and how they can be overcome, in general, and by using the TENGU platform. Let’s dive right into part 1: overcoming the different challenges of data accessibility. This can mean multiple things, but generally speaking, we’re talking about having issues accessing the data relevant for your analysis.
Problem #1: Accessibility issues caused by regulations and measures.
First up is the most common type of accessibility issues: security regulations, data protection measures, and other data governance-related matters. Unfortunately, these are often a symptom of a slow-moving system, causing prolonged access requests that are by plagued too many meetings and service tickets before you can get started.
In the end, you spend too much time getting permissions to access the related data, prolonging the time-to-market and increasing the risk of missing valuable market opportunities or other significant business opportunities as you did not have insights into them.
The solution to problem #1: a unified platform with access management.
To enable yourself - as a data analyst - faster access through this process, you should use a unified platform allowing smooth data access. A unified workspace means data protection and governance roles can regulate access with keys and reduce the time required to fulfil access requests. This way, you have immediate access with safe data access keys.
💡 Our TENGU platform features a central workspace with secure access management on an individual level.
Problem #2: Data that is buried too deep.
On the other hand, you have issues with buried data: data that are hard to find or vaguely described datasets. This issue originates from an overload of data coming in with little to no metadata, tagging or grouping. If you’re looking for historical data with little or no directions, it’s like looking for a needle in a haystack.
The solution to problem #2: data cataloguing and use of metadata.
The solution is to either get an expensive data cataloguing platform or use a platform that organises your data resources based on the metadata. Consistent use of metadata might sound like much work but saves you time by helping you manage, navigate, and locate the data needed for your analyses.
💡 Our TENGU platform automatically organises your data environment based on the metadata of the different resources and shows dependencies and relations between them. On top of this, it enables you to navigate with custom filters based on tags, resource type, and groups.
Problem #3: the existence of silos in your organisation’s data.
Every team has its systems that produce or gather data, and other teams are mostly not aware of this data nor how to access it. This data could have different terminology other teams are not aware of. It’s important to tear down these silos, to avoid the risk of missing essential data or misinterpreting it for your analysis.
Silos also slow down access in two ways: it takes valuable time looking for those resources in a complex siloed environment. On top of that, it takes time to locate the owner before you can even request access.
The solution to problem #3: data centralisation
To battle the complexity of decentralised data, you can either use a centralised data lake, warehouse or data mesh that serves as a single source of truth or integrate siloed data in a centralised platform. This way, you can access all relevant data from one point, no matter the type of data or location.
💡 Our TENGU platform facilitates easy integration of data resources, supporting many different types of data storage, as well as data orchestration from a unified wokspace.
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