Data management in the cloud might seem like a dry topic in some ways, but if you get it right, it can open up whole new avenues in customer engagement. That said, understanding cloud data management best practices is essential if you want to make it work for your business.

In this article, we’ll explore six core elements that are crucial to managing your data effectively and securely in cloud-based environments.

Let’s dive in.

How Cloud Data Management Enhances Customer Engagement

Cloud data management best practices offer a wide range of benefits that improve the ability of organizations to deliver the kind of customer experience that stands out as special.For instance, one major advantage of cloud storage is that it’s an excellent way of overcoming data silos. You can centralize all your data and, applying appropriate access controls, make sure it’s all fully integrated across the board. This lets you create genuinely personalized experiences for customers.But that’s not all. Here are a few more ways implementing cloud data storage helps give customer engagement a boost:

• Cloud security: Cloud-based data management platforms deal in vast amounts of vital client data, and so security is their number one priority. They use high-end encryption and carry out regular security assessments to guarantee your data remains safe. This is a key factor in building customer trust.
• Scalability: As circumstances evolve and business requirements change, being able to respond quickly is key to maintaining customer engagement. Using cloud storage solutions lets you add capacity fast so there’s no interruption to your service.
• Real-time data: In addition, being able to generate analytics consistently as the data develops can help optimize your lead response times. This means you’ll always be ready to give your customers the best possible experience and make a terrific first impression.
• Excellent customer support: Because your team has access to well-integrated data, they’ll be able to provide effective customer support, which is good news all around. After all, the faster you can resolve any issues your customers are experiencing, the happier they’ll be.

6 Best Practices for Cloud Data Management

When you decide to start using cloud infrastructure to store data, it’s vital to understand the main cloud data management best practices. There are a number of issues to take into consideration, including access management, governance processes, and regulatory compliance. Here are six of the most important factors to think about.

Ensure Data Security and Compliance

Dealing with potential security vulnerabilities and remaining compliant with the relevant legislation is a core responsibility of any modern enterprise. Organizations can only thrive when they make these top priorities, which goes double for those using cloud technology.

Fortunately, help is at hand. There are several bodies that offer support for businesses and other organizations looking to migrate data to the cloud. For instance, the EDM Council knowledge portal is produced by a global association that publishes guidance on topics such as conducting pre-switch readiness assessments and how to develop a robust cloud data governance strategy.

Following the advice these bodies produce will reduce the risk of your business suffering security incidents or having to pay regulatory fines for non-compliance with data privacy laws. It will also allow you to implement migration to cloud storage with minimal disruption to everyday operations.

Optimize Data Storage and Access

One key component of effective cloud data management is optimizing how the data is stored and accessed. This can be complex, particularly for multi-cloud environments.Take a cue from your compliance responsibilities. Use these to develop protocols for producing an up-to-date inventory of the data you collect. You should do this on a regular basis so that you’re always well-informed about which data is subject to data protection rules, and which data is used on a daily basis to meet your operational objectives.

Then, consider how best to implement access rights. It’s a good idea to formalize access governance frameworks to help guarantee the best balance between data security and ease of use. This allows you to make the most of your integrated data safely and deliver seamless service for customers.

Leverage Data Analytics and Insights

One of the benefits of cloud data management is that it allows you to make the most of data-driven decision-making. Since you have easy access to large volumes of data, you can be nimble with your analytics.

Many cloud platforms offer dedicated analytics tools that help you generate actionable insights that can give your company a competitive edge.

Let’s say you run a retail business. One of the big challenges most retailers face is being able to predict how much stock to have on hand at any given time. If you order too little, you could miss out on valuable sales during peak periods. But if you overestimate how much stock you need, you could be left with piles of goods you eventually have to discount to move.

Luckily, there’s an answer. If you switch to a cloud data management platform that’s tailored to the retail sector, you’ll usually be able to benefit from dedicated inventory management software to help you predict the ebb and flow of demand—wherever your warehouses (and customers) are in the world.

Enhance Data Quality and Consistency

High-quality data means data that is as accurate, consistent, and complete as possible. If your data is high-quality, it’s much easier to use it to generate genuinely useful data-driven insights. On the other hand, low-quality data can result in flawed analysis and poor decision-making that can prevent you from reaching your business goals and ultimately jeopardize your customer retention efforts.

So, how do you improve data quality? There are a number of approaches you can take, including:

• Regular data audits: Carry out checks on the health of your data so you can spot any issues and resolve them before they start giving you problems further down the line.
• Data lifecycle management: You don’t need to store all data in the same place forever. It’s a good idea to archive obsolete data to keep your system running efficiently.
• Role-based access: Restricting access to some business-critical data to a smaller subset of employees minimizes the risk of unauthorized personnel making modifications in error.

Prioritize Scalability and Flexibility

Using cloud services comes with the advantage that you can scale operations much more easily than you can with on-premises systems. That’s because if you use an on-premises solution, adding a significant amount of new data storage capacity necessarily means buying extra equipment. Not only is this expensive, but physical storage systems can also take time to install.

But with a cloud application, making large amounts of data storage easily available is a core element of the cloud service provider’s business model. This has important implications for how you approach data storage management.

If you’ve been using on-site storage, switching to a cloud environment requires a change in mindset. Whereas before, you may have prioritized specific business processes and protocols when considering how to store data, using a cloud-based system lets you zoom out to consider a bigger picture where flexibility is key.

You’ll probably discover that implementing a cloud data management strategy lets you find much more efficient ways to meet your business goals.

One way of doing this is to use enterprise resource planning software that creates a single source of truth, collecting all your data together in a centralized repository that can be updated in real-time. 

This represents the ultimate in flexibility and efficiency because it completely removes the problem of data silos, and integrates information coming from different sources—including different countries, languages, and currencies.

Integrate Data Across Platforms

The data silo problem can persist unless you develop a deliberate strategy to prevent it from doing so. That’s because most businesses use a variety of different tools and platforms in their day-to-day operations. For example, you might already rely on a CRM tool for customer-facing analytics, but if it isn’t well-integrated with the rest of your business data, you won’t feel the full benefit.

Being able to bring together different pieces of information from disparate data sources so they play nicely together is one of the biggest upsides to using cloud data storage. When all your data is well integrated, your business runs like a well-oiled machine. Not only can you derive even more nuanced insights from the complex datasets working in tandem, but you can also leverage those insights to achieve new heights in customer service delivery.

Key Takeaways

So there you have it. Six cloud data management best practices that can make all the difference if you’re looking to either switch to a cloud data management platform for the first time or overhaul your existing cloud assets.As long as you implement an effective data governance framework and well-thought-through access policies, you’ll be off to a great start. Make sure as well to take full advantage of the cloud’s potential for optimizing scalability and operational flexibility. There’s never been a better time to embrace the cloud; it gives you everything you need to take customer engagement to the next level.