An Ultimate Guides to DataOps

Mahesh Sharma
7 min readOct 29, 2021

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A recent study about the big data issues facing businesses revealed shocking facts about the use of data. 38% of businesses “lack” a compelling business justification to make use of their data. 34% of the businesses didn’t have processes that are mature enough to handle large data technology and 24% are unable to make huge data accessible to their users!

To say that these results are shocking is an understatement. If the results of the survey are accurate that a significant portion of businesses don’t know what they could accomplish — and must using the information they currently collect data from their customers. They are at a significant disadvantage contrast to their competitors.

In a world of data-driven competition not taking advantage that data can bring, or the inability to tap its full value, will result in a devastating end for businesses. For sure, most of these organizations have a lot of data. They don’t to be aware of it or have the systems put in place to utilize the data.

One of the reasons is the old data pipelines. When data is moved from source to target within the process of data processing, each step has its own view of what the data is and how it could be utilized. This unconnected perspective of data renders pipelines of data brittle and resistant to change, making companies slow to respond to changes.

The answer to this problem is DataOps.

What is DataOps?

DataOps which is short for operationalization of data is a method of managing data that focuses on the integration, communication, as well as automatization of data pipelines in organizations.

In contrast to the management of data storage, DataOps is not primarily focused on storing the data. It is more concerned with delivery, i.e., making the data accessible, easily usable, and accessible to all stakeholders. Its aim is to ensure an efficient delivery system and manage the change of data, models, and other artifacts that can be used to increase value across the entire organization as well as to consumers.

DataOps accomplishes this through the use of technology to automate the creation of deployment, management and transfer of data to enhance its use and the value it provides. This allows everyone involved in data to gain access to the data. It also increases the process of data analytics.

By doing this, DataOps drastically improves the speed at which organizations respond to market trends and allows organizations to adapt to demands faster.

Challenges and Issues that DataOps Solutions

The main expectation of large data is speedy and reliable data-driven , actionable business insights — is not being fulfilled because of a variety of issues that can be classified into technical, organizational and human (people who are using the data) issues.

DataOps assists in overcoming these issues by blending the knowledge and techniques that are derived from Agile, DevOps, and Lean Manufacturing methodologies. These are the top issues DataOps faces with a single-minded approach:

  • Speed

Modern businesses depend on (at at the very least, have to depend on) information that comes from a variety of sources, and in various formats. Cleaning, enhancing, and finally utilizing the data is an arduous and time-consuming procedure that when the results which are derived from it, they’re no more relevant to the evolving business environment.

DataOps dramatically increases the speed with that insights are gleaned from data.

  • Data Type

Sometimes, the information gathered by companies can be unstructured formats, making it difficult to gain information from the data. It is entirely possible and likely that data sources could provide clues to the upcoming issues in the business. So, it’s not enough for organizations to analyze easily crunchable information in tables that are structured.

DataOps allows companies to discover, collect and utilize information from all sources of data that is available to them.

  • Data Siloes

DataOps dismantles data siloes within companies and consolidates all data. In the process it creates resilient systems that provide self-service to everyone who requires access to information. The systems are constantly evolving with changes inside the organization as well as beyond it, but they provide “data users” predictable ways to locate and access the information they require.

Business Benefits of DataOps

By overcoming these challenges, DataOps makes it possible for DataOps teams to provide information to all who need the information — including data engineers researchers, ML engineers as well as customers. They can all more quickly than ever previously. This feat unlocks a variety of advantages for companies that are driven by data. Here are some:

  • Maximizing Data Utilization

DataOps allows data to be accessed by every “users” of data, whether executives, analysts or even customers. It streamlines the delivery of data and, by doing so, allows every department to gain the most value from data. The result is increased effectiveness, quickness to change and a higher ROI.

  • Right Insights at the Right Time

The most common issue with large data has been the right insights arriving in the wrong place at the wrong timing. The insights that are not made available until too late are not useful. DataOps gives information to anyone who is in need of it swiftly. They can therefore make better informed decisions quicker than they have ever done before, enabling the company to adapt to market developments quickly.

  • Improved Data Productivity

DataOps utilizes automation tools that allow information delivery in a self-service. Thus, any inherent latency between the data request and data access is eliminated, which allows teams to take rapid decisions based on data.

DataOps is also free of manual changes management procedures. Instead every change to pipelines of data are simplified and automated to provide rapid, precise adjustments.

  • Data Pipelines Optimized for Results

DataOps integrates feedback loops in the data pipelines that allow diverse data consumers to pinpoint the data they require and get a customized insight from it. Each team is able to make use of these insights to cut costs, find new revenue streams, improve revenue and increase the company’s performance.

Principles of DataOps

In terms of technology, DataOps realizes one of the most significant developments for companies in making their data-related programs extremely scalable, without compromising the performance or quality of the data analytics. Because it takes the principles and techniques of DevOps, DataOps overlaps with the former in numerous important ways. This is evident through the three core principles in DataOps:

  • Continuous Integration

DataOps analyzes, collates as well as integrates and makes data available from various sources continuously. When teams create new sources of data to DataOps groups to work with, latest data is automatically added to the data pipelines and made accessible to various stakeholders via AI/ML tools.

Because of automation the entire process from data discovery through transformation, curation, and modifying insights can be completely simplified. Data transfer can happen through real-time streaming directly to the predictive algorithm that can instantaneous insights to the users, especially. the users.

A well-designed data integration process makes sure that there isn’t any time lost during the process of data exploration and use.

  • Continuous Delivery

Organizational information is only as valuable as the knowledge that are derived from it. The more teams are able to access the data, the more insight are gleaned from it. However, the accessibility of data has its own challenges with data governance. DataOps operates the data governance within the company while also democratizing access to data and improving the security and privacy of data.

Data is delivered to both external and internal data consumers in a way that is in compliance with internal quality of data and masking rules of data. Most often it is it is an “intelligent” data platform is utilized to achieve this goal. If the integrity, privacy and security of data is guaranteed, different parties can gain accurate insights from it without having think about the implications of data governance.

  • Continuous Deployment

Digital companies rely on a flood of applications that are based on data to take instantaneous decisions which have a profound impact on the future of the company. Critical functions like the detection of fraud, AI chatbots, sales and supply chain management and more, need the most current information available to make decisions. Continuous deployment ensures access to the latest information accessible to everyone.

DevOps Vs. DataOps

While DataOps is a borrowing of operations and expertise from DevOps The two are distinct from one another. The way to do this is:

  • The Human Factor

While DataOps participants might be technically adept but they’re more focused on developing algorithms as well as models and visual aids to data users. On the other hand DevOps users are actually software engineers who have an operational view.

  • Process

DataOps processes are defined by the data pipeline as well as analytics orchestration however there is no orchestration that goes into DevOps processes.

  • Testing

In contrast to DevOps, DataOps relies heavily on data masking to test purposes. Therefore the management of test data is essential. Additionally, DataOps typically tests and checks data through both analytics development and data pipeline processes prior to the deployment.

  • Tools

DevOps enjoys a mature tools ecosystem, esp. for testing. DataOps, which is a novel method, usually calls for teams to design tools from scratch, or modify DevOps tools to meet their requirements.

Evolution of DataOps Platform

In the beginning of data analytics ETL (extract transform load) tools became the most effective tools for handling large volumes (relatively talking) of data coming in. But as the range, accuracy and amount of coming data increased and the demand for scalability as well as high-speed data analytics becomes more important. The shortcomings of data connectors proved an obstacle too.

The rise of cloud computing will solve the issue of managing and ingesting data and analytics. If ETL tools were paired with cloud-based resources, it enhanced the efficiency of analytics. But, a major issue persists — data accessibility. It didn’t matter if the data was utilized to create insights, everybody should be able to gain access to these data.

Then, DataOps was born!

DataOps democratized data access. Instead of just a few individuals having access to information all stakeholders have access to secure, high-quality data, which is subject to an organization’s policies on data governance.

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Mahesh Sharma
Mahesh Sharma

Written by Mahesh Sharma

Mahesh Sharma – Digital Marketing Expert | 10+ Years | SEO, PPC, Social Media & Content Strategist | Boosting Brand Visibility & ROI with Data-Driven Marketing.

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