The amount of data businesses are dealing with is rising rapidly—latest projections revealing that global data volumes are set to grow to more than 349 zettabyes (billion terabytes) by 2028 [Statista]. Driven by the pressure employees, clients, and regulators alike are placing on firms, good quality data is fundamental in satisfying these requirements and supporting firms in determining their competitive positioning and driving superior performance.
But in order to do this, firms need to be able to manage data growth and complexity with scalable solutions that grow with their business—here’s where Managed Data Services can help.
Understanding data growth and complexity as a challenge
While increasing volumes of data can signify a healthy growing business, data growth can also pose a variety of challenges to firms. Firms in a period of growth might find themselves overwhelmed with the copious amount of both old and new data they must manage, which could result in data silos. Similarly, with more data to handle, there’s increased opportunity for disruption, delay and slow data processing, particularly if a business does not have the capacity or budget to increase capabilities and resources to cope with rapid data growth.
Data growth can also make it difficult for firms to maintain data quality and security. Regulatory pressure is also increasing with several UK regulations requiring well-managed data, including the UK Data Protection Act 2018, The Financial Services and Markets Act 2023, as well as the FCA principles for businesses. Having strong data management processes is therefore crucial not only to help firms meet regulatory requirements, but also ensure that that they can effectively meet the client and the firm’s data requirements
With so many potential challenges to contend with, firms need to have scalable infrastructure that allows them to deal with business growth—and specifically the data growth that results from this. Ensuring your data growth is managed as you would with any other process or part of your business that changes rapidly, will also help avoid bottlenecks, and inefficiencies. Additionally, when you manage your data properly, you are better equipped to address compliance risks and mitigate non-compliance—and the consequences that come with that, including reputational impacts and penalties.
How Managed Data Services support data growth
Asset Managers are increasingly looking to focus on their investments business and with data demand growing rapidly any solutions to manage this pressure is attractive. As a result, the global enterprise data management market size that was estimated at $110.53bn in 2023 is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 12.4% from 2050-2030 [Global News Wire].
Outsourcing the management of data can benefit firms in the following ways:
- They offer scalable solutions: Providers cater for any requirements thereby removing any restrictions from managing data growth as a result of a client’s own infrastructure and resource limitations.
- They consolidate data into a single source: Managed Data Services help to eliminate data silos by integrating various data sources into one place, making data more streamlined and much easier to access.
- They are cost-efficient: In-house infrastructure can be expensive, but Managed Data Services can run on flexible, pay-as-you-grow models which can help to slash costs and align them with your actual usage.
- They enhance data protection: With correct handling of data, firms can help minimise non-compliance issues and the reputational and financial loss that comes with these.
- They can increase revenue generation: Providing better client insights can lead to higher client sales penetration and increased speed of creation of new products.
- They can improve data quality and operational efficiency: With better mastering of data, accuracy and consistency can improve significantly along with improved cross functional collaboration and less time and effort spent on data issues.
How to choose the right Managed Data Service provider
With the value of Managed Data Services becoming recognised, it is important that firms looking to outsource their data management know how to choose the right fit for their needs. Although every business has different requirements, some of the most common considerations firms have when choosing are:
- Data security and compliance: Checking the provider uses robust data security measures including encryption, firewalls, access controls and monitoring that protect sensitive data in line with regulations and customer expectations.
- Data management and quality: Ensuring the provider prioritises data accuracy, consistency and accessibility throughout its lifecycle, as well as the ability to integrate data across platforms and systems—particularly those with complex IT infrastructures.
- Scalability and flexibility: Your data needs to evolve with your firms, and therefore you should be able to scale to accommodate future growth and to meet future business requirements without disruption. They should also offer bespoke services rather than a one-size-fits-all solution.
- Service Level Agreements: Agreeing expectations and timelines prior to committing to a single Managed Data Services provider will ensure they align with your business for resolving data-related issues.
- Cost/pricing structure: Aligning cost and pricing model with the business’s budget—this could be based on data usage, number of users, storage needs, or some other metrics.
- Reputation and experience: Checking the provider’s experience and reputation within the industry—a provider with experience in your specific sector can offer more valuable insights and solutions tailored to your business’s individual challenges.
- Performance and reliability: Having a strong disaster recovery and back-up plan in place to ensure business continuity is crucial in case of system failures or data loss.
- Support and customer service: Ensuring you have round-the-clock support, and that the provider offers dedicated support teams to handle emergencies and routine maintenance. Similarly, that they offer onboarding and training for your team.
- Technology and tools: Utilising up-to-date tools and technology, and that if the provider does use cloud platforms, that they offer a variety of integration options in line with popular cloud environments (including hybrid-cloud, or multi-cloud options).
- Vendor lock-in: Knowing how easy or hard it’ll be to switch providers in the future will be crucial in case things don’t go to plan.
- Innovation and future-proofing: Your provider should be innovative and able to introduce new services, capabilities and technologies to keep your infrastructure up-to-date.
- Location of data centres: Latency, compliance, and disaster recovery planning can all be impacted by the physical location of your provider’s data centres. You might also want to ensure it aligns with your business’s legal requirements.
With so much to consider, it can be both difficult and timely for firms to meet these challenges, but to also know how and where to find the necessary providers. This is where having the support of a consulting team can be valuable as they understand the host of concerns that firms could have, including the above and beyond. They can then work with your teams to mitigate these challenges by selecting the right Managed Data Services provider for you.
With data being integral to virtually every part of your business and playing a central role in decision-making, efficiency, and overall success, it’s crucial that you’re properly managing your data—especially within the current environment where data volumes continue to grow exponentially
Here at Davies, our Asset and Wealth Management team are experts in Managed Data Services that can help you to handle and streamline your data growth to minimise downtime and enhance service level. If you are undergoing a period of growth, or simply need to better manage your data infrastructure, get in touch with us today!
