In the digital economy, having instant access to operational data at the right time is a critical success factor, akin to driving a high-performance race car with real-time telemetry and a top-notch pit crew. To compete and win, you need real-time data to navigate the hairpin turns and tight corners of digital transformation. This is where operational data fabric shines.
Having a robust operational data fabric architecture is essential for scaling robotic process automation (RPA), intelligent document processing (IDP), workflow orchestration, and artificial intelligence (AI) to outpace competitors. In this article, we’ll explore what an operational data fabric is, how it differs from data fabric, how it drives operational excellence, and why it’s the future of enterprise data management.
[ Learn more about solving common data silo problems in the eBook: The Data Fabric Advantage. ]
What is an operational data fabric?
An operational data fabric focuses explicitly on integrating and managing disparate data in the context of operational systems and processes. It’s tailored to meet the needs of operational data management, often in real time or near real time, to support business operations. Let’s break down some key features of operational data fabric:
Real-time data integration: Prioritizes integrating and managing real-time or near-real-time data streams, ensuring timely and accurate data for operational processes.
Operational efficiency: Enhances operational efficiency by providing up-to-date, reliable data to operational systems, such as enterprise resource planning (ERP), customer relationship management (CRM), and supply chain management (SCM) systems.
Event-driven architecture: Leverages an event-driven architecture to respond to operational events as they happen, enabling immediate action and decision-making.
Scalability for operational data: This approach focuses on scaling to handle the specific demands of operational data, including high velocity and volume.
Support for operational workloads: This position handles everyday business activities like processing transactions, monitoring disparate systems, and analyzing real-time data.
To fully appreciate the transformative power of operational data fabric, it’s important to understand how it compares to data fabric. Although they are related, each solution serves distinct roles in data management. Let’s explore the differences between operational data fabric and data fabric solutions.
Operational data fabric vs. data fabric: What’s the difference?
Picture your business data as a city’s transportation system. In this analogy, data fabric is the entire network of roads, highways, bridges, and tunnels connecting different neighborhoods. It ensures that vehicles (data) can move seamlessly from one place to another, regardless of where they start or where they need to go. It handles all kinds of traffic, from buses and cars to bicycles and pedestrians, ensuring everything runs smoothly and efficiently.
On the other hand, operational data fabric is like a fleet of delivery trucks operating within this transportation system. These trucks deliver goods (real-time data) quickly and efficiently to specific facilities and systems—like hospitals, power plants, and schools—that need them immediately.
While the entire road network (data fabric) supports various types of travel, the delivery trucks (operational data fabric) focus on the timely and efficient delivery of critical items to keep the city's operations humming.
Understanding how these two frameworks operate individually is essential, but the real power lies in how they work together. Let's explore how operational data fabric and data fabric complement each other to create a seamless and efficient data management system for your organization.
[ Are you connecting data or just collecting it? Read our related article: Data Fabric vs. Data Mesh vs. Data Lake.]
Operational data fabric and data fabric complement each other
Just as the transportation system and the fleet of delivery trucks serve different purposes within the city, data fabric and operational data fabric have distinct data management roles that complement each other. Let’s delve deeper into what differentiates these two data management systems.
Scope:
Data fabric: Manages the integration and movement of all data across the organization, much like a city’s comprehensive transportation infrastructure.
Operational data fabric: Focuses on the immediate and efficient delivery of real-time data to support critical business operations, similar to a dedicated delivery service.
Use cases:
Data fabric: Supports a wide range of use cases, including analytics, data science, reporting, and operational needs, similar to how road networks support all types of travel.
Operational data fabric: Primarily supports operational use cases, ensuring timely data availability for business operations, much like delivery trucks ensure timely deliveries.
Technology focus:
Data fabric: Utilizes various technologies to integrate, govern, and automate data across disparate environments, just as the transportation system incorporates roads, traffic signals, and bridges.
Operational data fabric: Emphasizes real-time data processing and event handling technologies, similar to how delivery trucks use GPS and route optimization for efficient deliveries.
Data handling:
Data fabric: Handles all types of data, including structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data, like a transportation network accommodates various vehicles.
- Operational data fabric: Focuses on actualizing data, building applications with it, ensuring it’s available in real time for business processes, much like delivery trucks focus on transporting goods promptly.
Understanding these differences helps you appreciate how each framework supports your business uniquely, ensuring that all your data needs, from comprehensive integration to real-time operational efficiency, are met effectively.
Now, let’s shift gears and delve into the seven game-changing benefits of operational data fabric, which revolutionize enterprise data management.
[ How do data integration tools fit into a modern automation strategy? Get the Gartner® Report: Top Strategic Trends: Hyperautomation.]
7 game-changing benefits of an operational data fabric
1. Real-time insights and decision-making
Operational data fabrics enable real-time integration and management of data from various sources, allowing business users to access operational data live for faster and more informed decision-making processes. This capability leads to data-driven insights that empower users to make strategic decisions and optimize business operations.
2. Improved operational efficiency
By providing seamless data integration across your operational systems, an operational data fabric enhances the efficiency of your business processes. It ensures that data from different departments—like sales, finance, supply chain, and customer service—is integrated and easily accessible. This reduces redundancies, minimizes errors, and speeds up workflows, ultimately leading to cost savings and improved productivity.
3. Enhanced customer experience
Today's customers expect personalized, convenient, and timely interactions. You must gather and analyze customer data in real time to better understand their needs and preferences. This also enables your customer support team to provide more tailored services, resolve issues faster, and improve overall customer satisfaction.
4. Scalability and flexibility
As your business grows, so does your data. An operational data fabric is designed to scale with your organization's needs, handling increasing volumes of data without compromising performance. It also offers flexibility, allowing you to integrate new data sources and technologies as they emerge.
5. Streamlined compliance and security
Maintaining compliance with industry regulations and ensuring data security are top priorities for any organization. An operational data fabric excels in these areas by providing robust governance and security frameworks that effectively manage and protect your data.
It ensures compliance with standards like GDPR, HIPAA, and CCPA through comprehensive security protocols and automated checks, helping you avoid fines and legal issues while building customer trust.
Additionally, features like encryption, access controls, and real-time monitoring safeguard against unauthorized access and data breaches, quickly detecting and addressing vulnerabilities.
6. Cost-effective data management
Operational data fabrics optimize using your existing IT resources by integrating and managing data more efficiently. This reduces the need for extensive infrastructure investments and lowers overall IT costs. Additionally, automating data processes and reducing manual interventions minimizes operational expenses and maximizes the return on your data management investments.
7. Future-proofing your business
In an ever-evolving digital landscape, staying ahead of technological advancements is crucial. Operational data fabric positions your organization to leverage innovations, such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, to enhance your operations further. Adopting this forward-thinking data management tool ensures your organization is prepared for future challenges and opportunities.
Embracing the future with an operational data fabric
In the fast-paced, AI-driven digital economy, operational data fabric goes beyond analyzing data to actualizing data and building applications with it. Unlike traditional data fabric tools, the best operational data fabric tools enable you to go seamlessly from analyzing data to building applications with it.
By seamlessly integrating real-time data and supporting critical business processes, operational data fabric enables you to make informed decisions, enhance operational efficiency, and provide superior customer experiences.
Moreover, leading operational data fabric tools offer robust governance and security frameworks to maintain compliance and safeguard your data against breaches. They also offer the scalability and flexibility you need to sustain future growth.
In short, operational data fabric is more than just a technology upgrade—it's a strategic enabler for operational excellence.
[ Want to learn more about the inner workings of data fabric? Get the eBook. ]
