In the enterprise data world, one can scarcely say “data democratization” without running into a product that claims to “break down data silos” and solve the data siloing problem in your enterprise.
For those unfamiliar with the enterprise data siloing problem, it is this:
- Data is distributed across the various functions and organizations, each of which ‘owns’ that data
- There is much business value to be unlocked by using data across organizations
- It isn’t happening.
Why not? Let’s look at a few reasons.
Incompatible Tooling: Each organization (business unit, function) makes different technology choices. Sharing data between two different enterprise data platforms is not a trivial exercise: A data pipeline needs to be setup, which means help-desk tickets must be filed against an overloaded IT/Data-Engineering team …. you can see how this ends.
Compliance, Privacy & Security: Privacy is important and data can be sensitive. The potential benefits from sharing data can be great, but are often dwarfed by the risk of a privacy violation or a data breach. Therefore, any sharing that happens must happen without compromising privacy and while maintaining the highest security around the shared data. Easier said than done.
Lack of Incentive: This, is a factor that is rarely discussed in literature, yet is very real and the main focus of this article. The problem stems from the fact that in most cases, the benefits of data sharing flow in one direction, from the sharer to the sharee. The sharee stands to gain that key insight and unlock millions in business value. The sharer gets a … thank you.
We believe the solution to this specific problem is actually quite simple and found all around us in capitalistic markets. Less abstractly, one must ask “Have enterprises previously solved the problem of incentives when one organization needs the help of another to succeed?“ The answer is “Yes, with chargebacks”.
To apply that solution to our problem, one must model data as a service that the sharer is providing to the sharee. And just like Enterprise IT charges a department for a service rendered, the ‘data service’ rendered must be metered and fed back into a chargeback model that credits the sharer for it.
Of course, this calls for a data sharing platform with a set of capabilities that makes this possible. Data owners, who typically are non-technical people, should be able to share their data ‘as a service’ across platforms without IT or Data Engineering, while still complying with privacy and security needs. Furthermore, the sharing platform should be able to ‘spin the meter’ as the data is used, all while keeping a detailed record of exactly who used which data, when, where and why.
For that, and more, you need Elten. Find out more at www.elten.io – Enterprise Data Sharing done right
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