Taking advantage of your business and customer data requires a new approach to data structure and storage. Snehal Bhatia, Associate Solutions Architect with MongoDB, recently sat down with us to discuss how rethinking data can help to unlock a competitive advantage for your organisation.

A future-proofed business requires a flexible, scalable, globally-distributed data architecture. When computer systems and networks were located on-premises, they were designed to minimize the investment in hardware that would be required for data processing. But today, cloud systems have enabled virualised environments - and in order to take advantage of these virtualised environments, businesses need a new, flexible approach to data structure and storage.

Legacy systems that have been lifted-and-shifted to the cloud tend to be unnecessarily complex. They are customized to solve specific issues at a certain point in time, and then are rarely reviewed and optimized for simplicity and efficiency as other, more urgent needs take priority.

The challenges to unlocking data fall into three main categories: complex systems, siloed data, and a need for scalability. To solve the challenges, businesses need a centralized source of truth that serves the needs of a distributed workforce in real time.

An application data platform that serves these needs should include data management features that simplify data evaluation and archiving processes, while anticipating access and availability needs. These features include full-deck search, hot/cold data storage, and automated, customizable data archiving capabilities.

Additionally, the right data platform should serve your needs for security and compliance. This includes client-side encryption, which helps businesses in highly-regulated industries like healthcare and finance meet regulatory standards. Encryption by key, like that offered by MongoDB, also makes it easy to comply with the ‘right to be forgotten’ requests under regulations like GDPR. In the absence of a data-tied encryption key, a customer’s request to be forgotten would require combing through the database to find all instances. With MongoDB, however, destruction of the key results answers this need - with minimal effort required.

This is why companies like Traveler’s Insurance, Boots, and CNFT.io have left behind the traditional, relational database for MongoDB’s document-based database. For example, the team at CNFT.io knew that the rigidity and fragility of the tabular data model would slow their development lifecycle, and inhibit their ability to scale for growth and offer new platform features to users. To overcome these challenges, CNFT.io built their system with the help and support of MongoDB.

Updating solutions from niche, legacy applications to more modern, cutting-edge applications help to improve employee satisfaction as well. Top talent will be more interested and engaged in a position where they have the opportunity to learn and experiment with new techniques, helping both with attracting new employees and retaining current ones.

To meet changing customer expectations, businesses must devote their time and resources to differentiating rather than maintaining legacy applications. Creativity and innovation support differentiation, which is a competitive advantage in a crowded marketplace. Streamlining data management and improving data security help businesses move from a reactive, resource-intensive mode of maintaining legacy systems to a proactive approach that supports innovation and differentiation.