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Digital-native businesses often find it difficult to overcome data security challenges due to the sheer volume and varied quality of raw data being generated every second. There is also a slight hesitancy in terms of changing data strategies and leveraging new technologies due to the huge cost involved. This in turn makes it difficult for companies to boost efficiency and speed, integrate diverse data sources and extract valuable insights for the long term.

YourStory, in association with Oracle, brought together industry experts from digital-native businesses across domains to discuss the transformative power of data and AI for business and how to navigate the data landscape to scale and prepare for long-term success. The round-table discussion, ‘Navigating Data and AI Integration for Optimal Performance,’ aims to address what processes, technologies and strategies companies can use to extract the maximum value from their data.

Karthigeyan S, Head IT, Whatfix; Ayan De, CPO, Zopper; Susnata Singh, Director, Fiserv; Avinash Bhat, Associate Vice President – Engineering, HomeLane; and Saikat Sarkar, Director – Data Science, AA and ML, IQVIA participated in the discussion, highlighting specific challenges such as data governance, security, and cost management.

Challenges in data infrastructure and AI integration

Struggling with efficiency in predictive analytics, one of the speakers said their company has been exploring AI investment for image processing, call insights and customer profiling to improve business outcomes. AI has immense potential to drive product features, innovation, and decision-making based on accurate data insights.

With a focus on data analytics, the participants mentioned how they analyse customer and employee data to improve sales and customer service in various industries. They also discussed the challenges of training AI models with large datasets, citing the high cost of inference and the need for simpler workflows. They stressed on the potential of natural language processing (NLP) tools like GPT-3, which can generate insights from data without requiring complex model training. Video analysis and the importance of questions asked during conferences and seminars have been found to be extremely helpful in understanding customer behavior and preferences.

Explaining Oracle’s approach to AI, one of the speakers emphasised the importance of not moving data unnecessarily and using AI services to run models where the data resides. He also highlighted the cost-effectiveness and resource optimization benefits of using Oracle’s converged database with built-in AI capabilities.

The speakers also exchanged views on cost efficiency and scalability in managing data infrastructure, particularly for startups and digital-native companies. The conversation includes the benefits of cloud services in providing scalability and elasticity, especially during peak periods. One of the speakers underscored the importance of cost per unit in cloud services, noting that while overall costs may increase, the per-unit cost decreases with scale.

Multi-cloud data management capabilities

Exploring multi-cloud environments is essential to stay competitive and avoid vendor lock-in. Oracle and Microsoft have a strong partnership, with Oracle running databases within Microsoft data centres. The partnership allows for seamless integration and low latency between regions, with options for using either Oracle or Microsoft databases.

The speakers further discussed how Oracle’s multi-cloud services allows customers to leverage best operating practices and cost competitiveness. Seamless migration between on-premise Oracle database and cloud services, with one-time migration and database-as-a-service options also available. Oracle offers database services within other cloud platforms like AWS and Azure, providing customers with the flexibility to use the best of both worlds. The discussion covered the competitive pricing and support rewards for moving Oracle workloads to the cloud, ensuring existing customers can leverage the latest technologies.

While the participants highlighted the benefits of using Oracle databases on various cloud platforms, they also brought to fore the challenges associated with migrating from traditional to cloud databases, including differences in pricing and investment.

Securing network configurations

The speakers discussed the importance of security policies in cloud computing, highlighting the need for a baseline security setup that is cost-effective and easy to manage. They also highlighted the challenges in managing data security and compliance across different cloud platforms and the need for better integration and governance. Oracle’s multi-cloud strategy addresses these challenges by providing secure and compliant solutions.

The discussion touched on the importance of having a robust security framework to protect data and maintain customer trust. The participants also emphasised the importance of data security, especially in regulated sectors like finance and healthcare, and the need for better integration and governance. They further raised concerns about data migration and quality, stressing on the need for AI to address data gaps and improve data quality during cloud migrations.