Why a Cloud Data Warehouse is Worth Exploring?
Data warehouse architecture is changing rapidly. In the last two years, there has been a significant increase in the number of organizations relying on a cloud data warehouse compared to the traditional, on-premise architecture. In 2017, less than half (45%) of data workloads were in the cloud. By the end of 2020, it’s predicted that the cloud will host 83% of workloads.
What’s driving the shift?
In a previous article, I explained why having a centralized data warehouse is essential to any data-driven organization. In order to have a consistent and clean set of data to deliver valuable analytics, credit unions need a single source of truth and a centralized repository for all the data that has been collected and integrated from critical data sources across the organization.
As technology is evolving at warp speed, and the “cloud” matures, there’s a deeper understanding to the benefits cloud data warehouses can offer the credit union. The benefits of greater speed, reliability, security, affordability and ease of use are making cloud-based data warehouses outshine their traditional counterparts.
If becoming data-driven in a modern infrastructure is a priority for your credit union, should you consider investing in a cloud-based solution? Let’s take a closer look at the potential business benefits.
Cost Savings:
The biggest reason most organizations move to a data warehouse in the cloud is it provides a lower cost option. Storing data on-premise, in your own data center, can get very expensive. With cloud data warehouses, data is collected, stored, queried, and analyzed in a cloud environment, without the need for upfront investments in hardware or specialized IT staff and the cost to configure and maintain the infrastructure. Cloud data warehouse costs significantly less upfront since it doesn’t demand dedicated server rooms, hardware maintenance, and additional staff to hire and train.
Increased Scalability:
In comparison to an on-premise data warehouse, a cloud-based warehouse is quicker to setup and easier to scale. The volume, variety, and velocity of member data will continue to grow each day. The ability to quickly and affordably scale up (or down) is a tremendous advantage with cloud-based data warehouses. Plus, a cloud warehouse eliminates the need to purchase new software or hardware to accommodate growth. Most “cloud” vendors offer a self-service model and support various integrations and add-ons to scale data analysis as your credit union’s needs change.
Latest Capabilities and Technology:
Cloud-based data warehouses update automatically and make the latest technology available. You can also add new cloud services, without changing your architecture. With modern, cloud-built data warehouse technology now available, you can gather even more data from a multitude of data sources and instantly and elastically scale to support unlimited users and workloads.
Improved Security:
Many organizations are cautious about moving their data to the cloud due to underlying security concerns that persist. As the cloud technology matures and more sophisticated providers are developing the technology, the security has improved dramatically as data sovereignty and regulatory compliance concerns are paramount to these vendors. Cloud providers base their entire business model on protecting customer data and are constantly upgrading and improving their data security features.
Increased Speed:
Speed is important when accessing and processing data. Cloud data warehouses will help you get the fastest query times so you can get your data into and out of the solution. For credit unions that need to serve multiple locations and provide fast turnaround, the cloud is specifically designed to meet these needs. Going from launch to live has been shown to be much faster in the cloud versus on premises data warehouses, which could take months to implement and access.
To Cloud or Not To Cloud?
What will create the greatest business benefits and outcome for your credit union? As cloud-based technology continues to evolve and improve, and data volumes keep multiplying, cloud-base data warehouses are proving to provide the key benefits to credit unions that aim to be data-driven.
Need more guidance? The Knowlton Group is ready to help! Contact us today.