Ash Damle, Head of AI and Data Science at TMDC, explains how the company is humanising and democratising data access.
AI News: The Modern Data Company (TMDC) aims to “democratise” data access. What are the benefits to enterprises?
Ash Damle: Modern companies are data companies. When a data company’s best asset, its data, is only accessible by a handful of individuals, then the company is only scratching the surface of what data can do.
Democratisation of data enables every individual in the company to better perform, innovate, and meet business goals. Modern offers enterprises the ability to put data to work — that requires data to be available and to be trusted.
AN: Can you still apply different levels of access to data based on individuals/teams?
AD: You can absolutely still apply different levels of access to data within an organisation. In fact, our approach to governance is a key factor in enabling unprecedented levels of data access, transparency, and usability.
Our ABAC approach provides granular governance controls so that admins can open data to flow to stakeholders without risking privacy or security loopholes. Users can search for and see what data is available for use, while stewards can see who is using data, when, and why.
Regardless of business size or industry, it is fully scalable and allows the organisation to apply compliance and governance rules to all data systematically. This is an entirely new way to approach governance.
AN: What features are in place to ensure compliance with data regulations?
AD: Modern gives companies the flexibility to define and apply governance rules at the most granular levels. Our approach also enables admins and decision-makers to view their data ecosystem as a whole for critical governance questions such as:
- Who is using data and how are they using it?
- Where is data located and stored?
- Which business and risk processes does data impact?
- What dependencies exist downstream?
AN: Another key goal of Modern is to “humanise” data. What does that mean in practice?
AD: Being human involves intelligence and the ability to use that intelligence to inform and formulate dialog. DataOS gives data an organised “voice,” enabling users to trust data to inform their decision-making. It acts as a data engineering partner, allowing users to have a real dialogue with data.
AN: What are some of the other key problems with traditional data platforms that your solution, DataOS, aims to fix?
AD: Most data solutions look at a database like it’s just a box of data. Most also operate within a data silo, which may help solve one problem but it can’t serve as an end solution.
The challenge for enterprises is they don’t exist on just one database. DataOS accounts for that, offering a unified source of truth and then empowering users to easily act on the data — no matter the source — with outcome-based data engineering. A user can choose the outcome they need and DataOS will build the right process for them while ensuring that the process is compliant with all security and governance policies.
AN: How do you ensure your platform is accessible for all employees regardless of their technical skills or background?
AD: DataOS allows data access and use for individuals according to granular rules set by the organisation. How the company manages access often depends on particular roles and responsibilities, as well as their in-house approach to security.
AN: What data formats are supported by DataOS?
AD: DataOS deals with heterogeneous formats, such as Sequel, CSBS, Excel files, and many, many more. It also extracts data and allows enterprises to do more intelligent things with imagery, access essential data easily, and see metadata so they can leverage all data assets across the board.
AN: Bad data is worse than no data. How do you check and report the quality of data?
AD: With DataOS, organisations define their own rules for what to do with data before making it available. DataOS then automates enforcement of those rules to ensure they’re adhering to the right distributions and applying necessary quality checks. DataOS ensures that you’re always getting the best data possible and that you are always alerted of any data quality issues.
The Modern Data Company (TMDC) is sponsoring this year’s AI & Big Data Expo North America. Swing by their booth at stand #66 to learn more.
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