2023 is the year to make sure your company has “healthy data” for business growth

Is data the new oil? Its value is definitely growing, as organisations recognise the benefits of data-driven business strategies and embrace digital transformation and cloud computing. Big data is key in driving changes around how businesses globally are accessing, processing, storing and analysing the sheer volume of information that is readily available today.

The benefits of being data-driven and ensuring data health and quality have never been as important as we head into a period of economic uncertainty, so we gathered predictions for 2023 from executives at Talend, a global leader in data integration and data management.

From data governance and collaboration for compliance to security and how data will have a tangible impact on culture, this is what they forecast for the year ahead.

Jason Penkethman, Chief Product Officer

•         The “Last Mile” of data will be a crucial priority amid economic downturn: The struggle to make business data actionable — finding success in the “last mile” — will continue to be a primary challenge in 2023. Ingestion is no longer an issue, but businesses are sitting idle with vast buckets of data, and do not invest enough to make it impactful. With a recession on the horizon, wasting resources on unhealthy, noisy data is an unacceptable oversight. Businesses must be more efficient in the face of a difficult economy, and having clean, purpose-driven data during the “last mile” will ensure money is being spent to drive legitimate outcomes and achieve business goals.

•         Data Governance will get a spotlight as privacy and security grow more urgent: In 2023, leaders looking to “recession-proof” their business will put a premium on data governance investment. Throughout this year, concerns and narratives surrounding personal data grabbed headlines, and regulations on consumer privacy will undoubtedly expand in the future. Data governance will be crucial to managing this constantly changing landscape, as it will be the only way to ensure expanding data volumes are kept in-check with evolving expectations. Additionally, investment in data governance will prove to be an investment in security. As the threat landscape grows more complex, confidence that one’s data is up to standard will be absolutely necessary.

Sam Pierson, Chief Technology Officer

•         CTOs and CISOs need to increase collaboration as privacy acts shift data governance strategies: Companies must prepare for data governance to become increasingly complex, especially as states develop their own privacy regulations. While these new regulations may come with potential roadblocks, in 2023 and onward, CTOs and CISOs will need to collaboratively make sure they’re meeting regulatory standards while also establishing best practices around efficiency and compliance internally and for customers. For example, include a steady cadence of meetings focused on maintaining compliance and aligning with legal to create an actionable roadmap for potential rising regulations. These collaborative efforts will ensure companies keep compliance on top of mind, even as more regulations crop up.

•         Data teams will find the “Aha moment” using engineering practices: According to Gartner, through 2022, only 20% of analytic insights will deliver business outcomes. Planning, processes and KPIs are the most frequent sources of data projects failures. For data leaders to succeed, they have to drive optimum efficiency and put in place the right measurement frameworks. For data practitioners and leaders to realize and demonstrate the value of their data investments, they will need to apply the same processes, rigor and metrics used by engineering teams. Machine learning and algorithms for greater automation, DataOps and DevOps to increase quality and reduce time to value or observability to pinpoint the problem faster will support data teams to get the job faster and maximize impact on the business.

Nick Vigier, Chief Information Security Officer 

•         In 2022, organizations focused on cloud security, but in 2023, they will shift their focus to data security: The last few years have been focused on infrastructure velocity with the cloud, infrastructure as code, and the shift left mantra. Tooling has been introduced to provide cloud posture management and attack surface monitoring in these high-velocity contexts. In 2023, leaders will turn a strengthened focus up the stack into data movement, provenance, health, and governance driven by an increasing focus on data sovereignty and upcoming data regulations and frameworks such as the European Health Data Space.

•         The CISO moves from technologist to risk advisor to top-line contributor: Businesses have been realizing that CISOs have a unique perspective on the business and its opportunities and risks. The CISO is there to protect the business and to enable informed decision making around holistic trade-offs. The CISO in 2023 needs to find ways to behave like the rest of the C-Suite, where it is not just about managing bottom-line impact but also about how top-line contribution can be achieved. Metrics will need to shift to how the CISO has influenced deal size, accelerated product releases, or enabled new lines of business to be created, while measuring and managing security risks.

•         Understanding data will have a tangible impact on culture – but only if it’s guarded: As executive conversations around data literacy skyrocket, those conversations must include the entire organization, especially security. A widespread understanding of data will have a tangible impact on your organization’s culture for the better – but only if it’s safeguarded. Looking ahead to 2023, those in leadership and in security departments should encourage employees to treat data like a currency, as it comprises key business information. To maintain the security of this valuable resource, creating a data culture, including controlled access, education programs to foster a greater sense of data responsibility, will be imperative.

•         A simplification and consolidation of security stacks will lead to more effective ongoing risk management by business owners: Security organizations will seek to consolidate their tooling and approaches to provide holistic end-to-end perspectives on security and risk. The last few years have been focused on infrastructure as code, shift left, automated integration and deployment, and security orchestration. Vendors have taken up niche footholds in the various areas of these tectonic shifts. The changes to the economic climate, where businesses need to closely evaluate their spending, a slow-down in free-money economics leading to overvalued start-ups, and decreases in staffing levels, means that the remaining solutions will consolidate. The winners will be the ones that can tell the start-to-end story around platform and product security to enable teams and executives to move quickly and with context. Gone are the days of individual point solutions with practitioners left to put the pieces of the puzzle together. Businesses will need to consolidate their storyline but will ultimately be left with a more consistent understanding of their risks and can then focus on how they make decisions – which will in turn greatly benefit the organization.