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With macroeconomic headwinds persisting in the wake of cutbacks for many UK businesses, it’s clear that the pressure on companies to save money is not going away. But organizations must be wary of the temptation to reduce investment in data technology and analysis, as they risk losing a crucial competitive advantage. With data analysis and artificial intelligence (AI) growing in importance, almost half of businesses (44%) plan to push through data modernization efforts in 2024, according to PwC. Over half of organizations therefore cannot afford to turn their backs on technologies which can deliver key business advantages, such as improved customer experiences and enhanced product innovations. In the year ahead, the organizations that will be most effective at navigating the economic landscape will be those that focus on managing spend and increasing efficiency to drive better business outcomes. According to IDC, the world is producing more data than ever, as much as 181 zettabytes of data per year by 2025 or the capacity of 45 trillion data DVDs. Especially with the boom of generative AI, data will continue to be a key differentiator for those looking to capitalise on AI – the more diverse and comprehensive the data, the better AI can perform. For businesses to remain competitive, harnessing the power of data insights, along with effective cost management and planning must be front of mind for business leaders. Business value and transparency Achieving transparency on existing costs is the first step towards becoming data efficient. For data admins – someone responsible for processing data into a convenient data model – this means using their analytical skills to scrutinize existing workloads, allowing them to identify which are actually delivering valuable insights. From this point, they can take a view on whether to re-architecture, increase or decrease the usage of the workload, or even retire ones which are not delivering results. A full understanding of data lineage, including where data comes from and what happens to it, can also be a useful starting point to help establish cost controls, as well as pinpointing costly errors. Business transparency must also derive from the SaaS vendor and platform they select to use when it comes to spend. This enables businesses to understand what they are investing in each workload and weigh this up against return on investments. Understanding per-query costs can highlight the most expensive queries and allow admins or IT leaders to rethink them in terms of rewriting or refactoring. Increased visibility and control of spend will provide businesses with the best chance of maximising existing resources. Predicting future costs Only when businesses get hold of their data costs can they truly begin to predict future costs, and implement measures to keep spending as efficiently as possible. Many legacy data platforms are highly inflexible, with fixed cost pricing and long-term vendor lock-in contracts, making it harder to implement changes when times are tough, or even when scaling back requirements during quieter periods of data analysis. Such tools often require complex, time-consuming capacity planning in order to keep control of data costs, which can ironically prove expensive in itself. The costs of data processing, monitoring and control mechanisms cannot be an afterthought. Flexible scaling and consumption-based pricing models are a great way of avoiding unnecessary overprovisioning and paying for processing and storage that does not deliver for the business. A growing number of organizations are also choosing to set up budgets in advance, with spending limits, digital ‘guards’ against overspending, and daily alert notifications and warnings. This allows businesses to pinpoint where money is being spent, how much value it is delivering, and how it can be reined in. Modern data platforms built in the cloud provide an intuitive UI to examine usage and usage trends, with clear dashboards visualizing which teams, customers and cost centers are responsible for the bulk of spending. Rather than waiting for spending to go over budget, companies can get ahead of the game and see when spending limits are projected to be exceeded. In the long run, this will help technical leaders and CFOs reduce operational costs through more efficient usage. Tracking usage at a granular level — think account level, per user, or per task — will be a key differentiator. However, larger companies should also contemplate taking control at an organizational level. This can require restricting the actions of teams or individuals to perform credit-consuming resources, such as warehouse creation. Such capabilities also offer in-depth control over factors such as size and number of clusters, and offer granular control over when clusters are spun up, to help to control costs now and in the future. Per-job-cost attribution helps organizations manage department costs and maximize resources as they scale to more teams and jobs. Furthermore, auto-suspend and auto-resume capabilities can be enabled by default. This capability turns platforms off when they aren’t required, preventing paying for unnecessary usage and thus saving customers money. Harnessing data, controlling costs Even in tough economic times, organizations should not abandon ambitions to harness the power of data. For businesses in any sector, analyzing and understanding data has never been more important. The focus must instead shift towards changes that actually deliver results, such as moving from legacy on-premises platforms to modern SaaS data platforms that enable better transparency and planning on costs. Doing so will have a massive impact and empower businesses to take control of their tech investments, which can be a key differentiator in today’s challenging macroeconomic landscape. Businesses should avoid taking the self-defeating, retrograde path of cutting back on their data usage, and should embrace the potential of modern data platforms to maximize cost efficiencies and control, while still forging a path into a data-driven future. We've listed the best cloud management software. This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. 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Here are 5 trends that startups should keep an eye on ... https://www.snowflake.com/blog/five-trends-changing-startup-ecosystem/

Amazon Kendra is an intelligent search service powered by machine learning, enabling organizations to provide relevant information to customers and employees, when they need it. Starting today, AWS customers can use the Amazon Kendra Github SaaS connector to index and search documents from GitHub Enterprise Cloud data source. View the full article

AWS Marketplace introduces free trials for SaaS contracts so you can try products before you buy them. Previously, customers would either need to commit to a contract before trying the product, or go to third-party websites for free trials offered by software vendors directly. View the full article

The growth of SaaS—including IaaS—was phenomenal when it came and it has become somewhat pervasive. Today, there are SaaS tools in use at just about every business, large or small. From sales to marketing to customer management, there is a SaaS tool that does it affordably and well. For now. The same is true of […] The post Is Your Future in SaaS? Yes, Except … appeared first on DevOps.com. View the full article

Visibility, focus, and expertise, delivered as a service, guides SOC analysts to more efficient investigations with zero detection tuning or system maintenance required Santa Clara, CA, June 10, 2021 – Gigamon, the leader in cloud visibility and analytics, today announced ThreatINSIGHT Guided-SaaS NDR (network detection and response), which was purpose built to improve SOC (Security […] The post Gigamon Launches ThreatINSIGHT Guided-SaaS NDR to Improve SOC Effectiveness and Reduce Analyst Burnout appeared first on DevOps.com. View the full article

Responses from nearly 700 IT leaders and practitioners confirm organizations are embracing SaaSOps as a proven framework for their SaaS challenges NEW YORK, Oct. 7, 2020 /PRNewswire/ — BetterCloud, the leading SaaSOps platform for managing and securing the digital workplace, today released its first SaaSOps report: “2020 State of SaaSOps.” Among its many significant findings, the report found […] The post BetterCloud Report Reveals Operational Complexity and Risk Concerns as Organizations Reach Tipping Point in SaaS Adoption appeared first on DevOps.com. View the full article

Today we are excited to announce the preview release of AWS SaaS Boost. AWS SaaS Boost is an open source ready-to-use reference environment that enables Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) to accelerate the move to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). From small specialized software businesses to large global solution providers, AWS SaaS Boost helps ISVs rapidly migrate applications to AWS with minimal modifications. ISVs can build, provision, and manage SaaS environments with greater confidence based on AWS best practices and proven patterns from hundreds of successful SaaS companies. View the full article

The AWS SaaS Factory Program and AWS Well-Architected teams have combined their expertise in architectural best practices and knowledge of SaaS solutions to launch the new AWS Well-Architected SaaS Lens. View the full article

We are excited to announce the launch of AWS SaaS Factory Insights Hub, a growing library of business and technical content to help AWS Partners gain insights, make informed decisions, and enable themselves at any stage of the software-as-a-service (SaaS) journey on AWS. AWS Partners can search by topics most relevant to their business, content types, or specific business or technical role to find whitepapers, case studies, best practices, videos, and more. View the full article

Amazon Honeycode now allows you to integrate your existing workflows and data sources, such as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) applications or AWS services like Amazon S3, with Honeycode apps. Teams can build custom mobile & web apps that connect to their existing tools and data, enabling end-to-end solutions that solve the specific business productivity needs of teams. The connections between Honeycode and other tools are facilitated by Zapier or Amazon AppFlow, which are integration services that you can use with Honeycode. You can also use new Honeycode APIs to integrate with custom or internal tools that aren’t supported by either Zapier or AppFlow. View the full article

SaaS solutions are mainly built on two types of architectures: Multi-instance on one side and multi-tenant on the other. View the full article

Moogsoft today launched the Moogsoft Observability Cloud, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) instance of its existing platform for detecting anomalies and prioritizing alerts using AI via machine learning algorithms. Company CEO Phill Tee said now every IT organization can employ machine learning algorithms to better manage their IT environment without having to set up and manage an […] The post Moogsoft Unfurls AI Cloud Service for Observability appeared first on DevOps.com. View the full article

With the increasing demand from enterprise customers for a pay-as-you-go consumption model, more and more independent software vendors (ISVs) are shifting their business model towards software as a service (SaaS)... View the full article

Cribl today announced it has updated the Cribl LogStream observability tool in addition to generally making available a software-as-a-service (SaaS) offering dubbed LogStream Cloud. Nick Heudecker, senior director for market strategy and competitive intelligence at Cribl, said Cribl Logsteam provides the means to aggregate log data collected from multiple platforms and applications in a normalized […] View the full article