Maximizing Business Efficiency with A Self-Service Cloud Data Platform

Olga Grohmann, VP, Head of Data Access Layer at Allianz Global Investors

Self-service data platforms in the cloud are transforming the way organizations manage and use their data. By providing a centralized, scalable, and speedy platform for storing, processing, and analyzing data, these platforms enable organizations to quickly and easily access the insights they need to drive business decisions and growth.

One of the key benefits of self-service data platforms is their ability to support agile data management and analysis. With these platforms, organizations can easily integrate data from a variety of sources, such as internal systems or external market providers, and then use intuitive tools and interfaces to explore and analyze that data. This enables organizations to quickly gain insights from their data and make data-driven decisions without the need for specialized technical expertise.

In addition to supporting agile data management, self-service data platforms in the cloud also provide organizations with the scalability they need to support their growing data needs. As data volumes continue to increase, traditional on-premises data management systems can quickly become overwhelmed, leading to performance issues and data silos. By leveraging the scalability and elasticity of the cloud, self-service data platforms can easily handle large volumes of data and support the growth of an organization's data analytics capabilities.

While the benefits of self-service data platforms in the cloud are clear, it is also important to consider the importance of data governance in ensuring the integrity, security, and compliance of an organization's data. Data governance refers to the overall management of an organization's data, including the processes, policies, and technologies that are used to ensure the quality, security, and compliance of that data.
 By leveraging the scalability and elasticity of the cloud, self-service data platforms can easily handle large volumes of data and support the growth of an organization's data analytics capabilities. 
Effective data governance is critical for organizations that want to make sure their data is accurate, secure, and compliant with industry regulations. A centralized data platform can support data governance by providing features such as access controls, data lineage tracking, and data quality metrics. For example, access controls can be used to restrict who has access to sensitive data, data lineage tracking can help organizations understand where their data comes from and how it is being used while data quality metrics can create transparency about the quality of the data in the platform.

At Allianz Global Investors, we started implementing our internal self-service data platform 3 years ago. We built the platform in a fully agile setup, starting with a 3-months PoC and getting the first productive system after 9 months. Since then, we’ve been further onboardingvarious data sources, adding new features and tools to our data platform as well as promoting it further to various teams and colleagues across AllianzGI. Furthermore, we’ve started data community to give everyone in our company an opportunity to exchange ideas around data analytics, share insights and just ask questions about data.

In conclusion, a self-service cloud data platform is a powerful tool for organizations that want to manage and analyze their data more effectively. By providing agile data management, scalability, and support for data governance, these platforms enable organizations to access the insights quickly and easily they need to drive business decisions and growth. If your organization is looking to improve its data management and analysis capabilities, a self-service data platf