What is Data as a Service (DaaS)?

Over the past few years, there has been a significant surge in the amount of data generated by organizations, driven by the widespread use of digital devices, internet growth, and cloud computing. This has resulted in a complex and diverse distribution of data across various applications, databases, files, and geographical locations, posing a challenge for businesses to efficiently manage, process, and analyze this vast amount of data for informed decision-making. Organizations need access to this data in real time and on demand for effective decision making.

Data as a Service (DaaS) brings together data and presents it through APIs or services. It enables businesses to access data easily and quickly, as if it were on tap. Data is readily available when and where it is needed, simplifying access, and facilitating information driven decision making.

Benefits of Data as a Service (DaaS):

DaaS platforms typically provide organizations with effective data management solutions. The core principle behind DaaS is to improve a company's agility, productivity, and profitability by unlocking the full potential of its data.

Here are some benefits of using a DaaS platform:

1. Provides unified data, where different aspects of the data may come from different sources and devices.
2. Efficiently and rapidly integrate many legacy systems, new COTS (Commercial off-the-shelf) systems, files, and several other data sources.
3. Responsibly retire legacy systems in an orderly manner without disrupting the business.
4. Rapidly implement intuitive end-user centric 'For-Purpose' applications.
5. On-demand 'visibility' across the business processes with business intelligence (A / BI) and ML capabilities.
6. Ensures that data is consistent, accurate, and up to date, improving the quality of data-driven business.
7. By simplifying data access and analysis, DaaS platforms enable companies to rapidly develop API Factories and launch new products and services more quickly, giving them a competitive advantage.
8. With DaaS, businesses can scale up their data management solutions as their data volume grows, allowing them to adapt to changing business needs.

Challenges of Data as a Service (DaaS) platform:

Here are a few challenges that organizations may face when implementing a DaaS platform:

1. Integration with existing systems: Integrating a Data as a Service (DaaS) platform with existing systems and workflows can present challenges, particularly when dealing with legacy systems or COTs products with complex architectures. The successful integration of a DaaS platform requires the platform to be mature enough to handle these challenges and to provide tools that can address them effectively. In the absence of maturity, significant effort and resources may be required to ensure effective data integration and proper system configuration. Therefore, it is essential to assess the DaaS platform's maturity and the available tools to minimize the complexity of the integration and ensure its success.
2. Regulatory Compliance: Compliance with industry regulations such as ITAR, HIPAA, GDPR, or PCI-DSS is a significant challenge while selecting your DaaS provider. For instance, a company in the aerospace industry that handles sensitive military data must comply with ITAR regulations, while a healthcare company must follow HIPAA regulations, and a payment processing company must adhere to PCI-DSS regulations. Therefore, it is crucial for companies to ensure that their chosen DaaS platform meets the necessary compliance to avoid legal and financial penalties. For example, if an aerospace company selects a DaaS provider that does not comply with ITAR, they may face severe consequences such as legal action, fines, and loss of contracts.
3. Vendor reliability: Choosing a reliable DaaS provider is essential to ensure that the platform remains available and functional, and that data is stored and processed securely. Any disruption or downtime in the DaaS platform can have severe consequences, including production delays, revenue loss, and damage to the company's reputation. Therefore, it is crucial for businesses to carefully evaluate the reliability and track record of any potential DaaS provider before selecting one to ensure that they can provide the necessary level of service and support. Despite the importance of reliability, finding a trustworthy DaaS provider can be challenging, especially when dealing with smaller or less established vendors.

See the Low/No-code eQube®-DaaS Platform in action!

Connect with us at LiveWorx 2023 (Booth 1200), where we will demonstrate how our Low/No-Code eQube®-DaaS Platform creates Digital Threads.

Do attend our Breakout session, “Delivering Digital Thread leveraging API Factory & Common Data Model” by Dinesh Khaladkar, President & CEO, eQ Technologic Inc. Monday, May 15, 2023.

We also have an IgniteTalX session, “Building API Factory to scale your Enterprise.” by Mark Trammel, Director-Customer Engagements, eQ Technologic Inc.

Enrich your business with eQube®-DaaS Platform today.