Cloudera, the data company for trusted enterprise AI, today announced the findings from its survey, Data Architecture and Strategy in the AI Era. 

Conducted on behalf of Cloudera by Foundry Media, the survey polled over 600 data leaders and senior IT decision makers about the state of modern data architectures and how the rise of AI is impacting data strategies. Most notably, the survey revealed that 90% of IT leaders believe that unifying the data lifecycle on a single platform is critical for analytics and AI.

The proliferation of generative AI is highlighting the importance of trustworthy data because AI insights are only as powerful as the data feeding them.

However, the survey revealed respondents face obstacles in their AI journeys due to the quality and availability of data (36%), scalability and deployment challenges (36%), integration with existing systems (35%), change management (34%), and model transparency (34%). This demonstrates that while many organisations may be investing in AI, there are foundational data roadblocks that must be addressed.

“As more enterprises look to transform their businesses to build digital and AI ready solutions for their customers, they are choosing a hybrid and multi-cloud strategy, which in turn creates ‘data sprawl and architectural overruns’ across LOBs, functional units, business applications and practitioner teams,” said Cloudera chief strategy officer Abhas Ricky.

He added: “In order for them to effectively leverage AI capabilities, organisations need to design and embed standardised, use case-centric data architectures and platforms that will allow disparate teams to tap into all of their data – no matter where it resides – whether on-premises or in the cloud.”

The survey yielded some insights for organisations striving to effectively integrate AI into their operations.

To begin with, establishing a modern data architecture is essential, one that is intricately linked with the organisation’s overarching business strategy. Central to this architecture is a unified data platform that seamlessly operates across both public cloud and on-premises infrastructure. Respondents particularly emphasised the benefits of modern data architectures, with 40% citing simplified data and analytics processes, closely followed by 38% highlighting the flexibility to handle various data types.

Furthermore, unified data management emerges as a critical priority for today’s organisations. They require adaptable and scalable cloud management technologies that enable them to derive actionable insights from their data. However, several challenges hinder comprehensive data management necessary for AI model development, including the volume and complexity of data (62%), data security (56%), and governance and compliance issues (52%).

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Looking ahead, organisations are advised to embrace versatile and secure data platforms that can accommodate both on-premises and public cloud deployments. This hybrid data management approach is increasingly favored as the optimal strategy for data and analytics. In fact, an overwhelming 93% of respondents agreed that multi-cloud/hybrid capabilities are vital for organisations to navigate through change effectively.

Abhas concluded: “At its core, enterprises want to achieve top-line results from their data strategy and supercharge their AI initiatives at a price point that is not prohibitive to the bottom line.

“Organisations that are looking to get the most out of their data need to rapidly build and deploy a modern platform and AI architectures that support that mission. Cloudera is committed to helping customers tackle their toughest data and AI challenges as the industry’s only hybrid, multi-cloud data platform for data anywhere.”