Tuesday, December 26, 2017

Word of the Day: data democratization

Word of the Day WhatIs.com
Daily updates on the latest technology terms |December 26, 2017
data democratization

Data democratization is the ability for information in a digital format to be accessible to the average end user. The goal of data democratization is to allow non-specialists to be able to gather and analyze data without requiring outside help.

When ownership of data is distributed among independent business functions, a sea change in corporate culture may be necessary before data democratization can become a reality. In some companies, managers may limit employee access to data because they are afraid that non-technical employees won't have the necessary skills to interpret data and apply it correctly. In such a corporate culture, internal data governance policies may be established to only grant access to executives, data scientists and information technology (IT) staff.

Even when an organization wants to embrace democratization, however, there can be impediments to making data freely available. Data may be stored in silos, making it difficult for employees in different departments to access data and view it in a consistent manner. Another problem that prevents the average end user from taking advantage of an organization's data is that even small data sets may have inconsistencies that have to be cleaned up and files may need to be transformed from one format to another before the data can be used.

Advances in virtualization are making data democratization much easier at the technical level, however, and negating the need for ad hoc, highly labor-intensive processes. Data virtualization software, for example, allows an application to retrieve and manipulate data without requiring technical details about the data, such as how it is formatted or where it is physically located.

Data federation software also facilitates democratization by aggregating data from disparate sources in a virtual database so it can be used for business intelligence (BI) or other analysis. The virtual database created by data federation software doesn't contain the data itself. Instead, it just contains metadata about the actual data and its location.

Cloud storage has proved especially useful for breaking down data silos by creating a central location for data to be stored. Database management system (DBMS) security features can mask or encrypt data to lower the risks associated with data democratization and self-service BI applications can provide non-technical end users with data visualization tools that make data analysis easier to understand. For example, online survey tools with data visualization and reporting capabilities have made it easier for marketing teams to gather and analyze consumer data and share actionable information in real time.

As online tools make data democratization easier to achieve, proponents of the concept believe it will narrow the playing field between big brands and smaller businesses. This, in turn, is expected to create new business models, open doors to new business opportunities and transform the way all businesses make data-driven decisions.

Quote of the Day

"At the core of the shift to data democratization is technology. Technological advances have allowed providers to create digital data gathering and analytics platforms that don't require data science expertise in order to gain valuable insights quickly from data." - Fr?d?ric-Charles Petit

 

Trending Terms

data visualization
alternative data
database management system
self-service BI
virtual database
smart city

 
Learning Center

How data democratization can enhance decision making
There are some rules to live by in creating meaningful access to data. An expert from Bluewolf explains how BI tool adoption enables data democratization.

Users discontent with data insights from analytics apps
Companies still struggle to get meaningful data insights from their analytics tools. Can Salesforce Wave fill the gap?

Understanding BI analytics tools and their benefits
Expert Rick Sherman examines the different BI analytics tools categories, the vendor landscape and how these tools are deployed.

Choose your weapon: top analytics strategies revealed
The best analytics strategies focus on fast-payoff data and applications and knowing how cloud, on-premises, embedded and third-party BI tools differ.

San Francisco data analytics early-stage firms point to third-wave BI
California start-up and early-stage data analytics companies are positing technologies that point beyond second-generation business intelligence, such as Qlik and Tableau.

Writing for Business

Although big data is getting bigger all the time, much of the data being collected ______ useless.
A. is
B. are

Answer

 

 

 

Stay In Touch
For feedback about any of our definitions or to suggest a new definition, please contact me at: mrouse@techtarget.com

 

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