A light-weight way to solve heavy data problems

Most people want more from their data, but knowing how best to use it can be difficult. There’s always a question mark over whether the development effort will have a big enough pay-back. Smart leaders know that everything has a cost – in management attention and budget.

But doing nothing is not the answer. Data-driven organisations are out-performing those less skilled in data analysis. So, what’s the answer? 

At Anatec AI we are big fans of the proof of concept or prototyping. The idea is to do a relatively small amount of work that does a lot of heavy lifting. It might focus on analysing a limited amount of data to assess the data quality. Or it might be to test out a theory on how two data sources could identify patterns. Or it might be a difficult interface that absolutely has to work for the solution to be a success. Each project will be different, because each problem is different. The approach, however, is consistent: do a small amount of high-risk work that tells you whether or not you are on track. 

The cloud provides a great way of doing light-weight small projects – you don’t need to buy servers or install operating systems. You don’t need to commit up-front. You can just use the cloud’s in-built flexibility to do just as much as you need to do, then decide what to do next. This is a lot safer, and easier to justify than ambitious projects that can end in mediocre results.

Azure containers are a great fit for that way of working. They are reliable, whether running locally or in the cloud. And they can securely access data that’s held in databases, cloud storage, queues or APIs. Of course, containers are just one example of a light-weight approach to our small-project ethos, but they are a good example of how smart Azure technology can produce big results at a small cost. 

The Anatec AI design approach underpins everything we do when architecting modern cloud systems. Our solutions need to be reliable, portable, and consistent across environments - and developed one bit-sized step at a time. Because our clients need to be in charge of the direction of the project and the budget, not the technology.

Do you want to get more from your data without breaking the bank? As qualified Microsoft developers, we’ve got a whole toolbox full of Azure tools to engineer data-driven solutions. If you’ve got an idea for your data that might be a game-changer, get in touch to find out more about how we work.

Keywords: Azure, containers, proof-of-concept, cloud native, data analytics, Azure AI