How to kick-start a modern data strategy in 2023

QA looks at how embracing Amazon Web Services (AWS) and combining it with our industry-leading training can build a robust data strategy and give your business a competitive edge.

The problems businesses face when gaining insights from data

Businesses with a data-driven approach are some of the first to discover the pitfalls of getting the most from their data.

Inaccurate, incomplete, and disorganised data make turning information into action a difficult task. And then there’s quantities of data to consider, jumping headfirst into swathes of information can overwhelm even the most forward-thinking organisations if they haven’t assembled a team capable of interpreting the numbers.

According to The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) 46% of businesses recruiting for roles requiring hard data skills struggled with their search. The UK’s growing digital skills gap may be the most significant difficulty of them all when it comes to turning information into action.

How AWS solves business’ data-related needs

Amazon Web Services or AWS, became the world’s most popular cloud platform in the fourth quarter of 2022. With a 32% market share, it offers one of the most complete sets of data management and analytics tools on the market.

 A starting point and solution for solving business’ data needs, AWS offers purpose-built databases to save on the time and costs associated with building and tailoring your infrastructure. A suite of business analytics, from dashboards and visualisations to predictive scaling, allow organisations to learn from their data like never before.

However, using analysis to stay ahead of the competition takes much more than signing up for the latest business intelligence tools. Without the right tech and talent for the task, businesses struggle to interpret numbers in a useful way. AWS may have the answers to many of your data engineering questions but businesses should be aware of the following to make the most of the game-changing software:

1. Think integration first

No two data strategies should be the same, thankfully AWS offers solutions as unique as your business. Its data integration tool, AWS Glue, allows companies to extract, clean and consolidate data at scale, which should be useful for the 32% of data-driven businesses that reported incompatibility between existing and new systems.

Along with a wide range of business analytics, AWS Glue offers tools to observe how data changes over time, transform data without writing code and automatically identify and mask sensitive data. The bespoke tool works alongside the platforms core offering to virtually guarantee that AWS meets your data needs.

QA’s Data Engineer Pathway trains delegates in the fundamentals of AWS to help you make informed business decisions, the pathway continues to teach the pros and cons of all 8 AWS databases to find the right service for you.

2. It pays to take a closer look

Research from the DCMS finds that 60% of workers who haven’t received data skills training don’t believe the upskilling can add any significant value. Interestingly, this figure drops to 19% among those who have received this type of training. The numbers suggest that those who understand data appreciate its value.

Perhaps the biggest obstacle to businesses using effective data analysis then, is ignorance. Companies that are serious about gaining a competitive edge should explore all the possibilities of data literacy to turn potential into profits.

Surprisingly, the problem isn’t confined to non-users and industries with low adoption rates, 27% of firms that identify as ‘data-driven' believe there’s an unclear business case for developing their data-driven technologies. Around 10% of data-driven firms cited an unclear business case for further development as the number one reason for limiting the use of data.

With advanced business analytics that help to visualise, process and interact with data, it seems that rather than offering limited benefits, AWS offers more benefits than users are aware of. Training staff is the most effective way to unlock the platform’s potential and deliver a strong ROI.

The Data Scientist Pathway from QA blends data best-practice with training in technical skills to bring the benefits of AWS to any business. The AWS Technical Essentials course could be the perfect starting point for SysOps administrators and Solution Architects.

3. AWS stays ahead of the curve so you can too

Successful managers understand the importance of moving with the times, it’s no wonder that 46% of workers polled by the DCMS said that the need for them to have data skills has increased over the past five years.

AI and augmented reality have become part of our everyday lives and shifted consumer expectations. Tools like Rekognition, available on AWS, automate image recognition and video analysis tasks for a more seamless customer experience. Whether it’s verifying online identities, detecting text in images or segmenting videos into smaller parts, the feature removes the legwork previously left to your employees. The result: users get more from their content and quicker and businesses free up their people’s time to work on more human-appropriate tasks.

The rate of change has hit regulation too. More than two-thirds (70%) of UK businesses identified a need for additional legal guidance on what they can and can’t do when collecting, using and sharing data.

Organisations using AWS for data can be confident that they stay compliant with new and changing rules through its monitoring and management features. Config is the platform’s go-to tool for assessing, auditing and evaluating your resources on AWS and other clouds and updates automatically so your business always falls on the right side of the rules.

Kick-start your data strategy by enrolling your teams on one of QA’s AWS courses.