A data-driven company is an organization that relies on data to make informed decisions, drive strategy, and optimize operations across all aspects of its business. In a data-driven company, data is not just a byproduct of business activities; it is the lifeblood that fuels growth, innovation, and success. From customer insights to operational efficiencies, everything is guided by insights and analysis. In theory it may seem simple, but how to make it in practice?

The Three-Legged Approach

At Link Consulting, we believe it all starts with laying the right foundations, ensuring that the data is reliable, accessible, and can be effectively used to derive insights. Next comes Advanced Analytics, the application of sophisticated statistical, mathematical and computational tools to generate actionable knowledge. Finally, Artificial Intelligence means using customized and advanced models to solve real-world problems in all kinds of verticals.

Join us as we demystify some of these key areas and explore how Data Governance, Data Mesh and Data Lakehouse can propel your organization towards becoming a truly data-driven company.

Data Governance

Data Governance is the cornerstone of any data-driven company. It encompasses roles, processes, policies, and tools to manage the data lifecycle effectively.  Unlike in the past, modern Data Governance solutions are fully automated, drawing insights from diverse sources and providing a unified view of data from a single centralized location. It involves a range of essential concepts:

• Metadata Management: Collection, storage, and management of metadata (descriptive information about data assets). It includes details such as data definitions, structures, relationships, and usage, enabling to understand, organize, and effectively utilize data assets.
• Business Glossary: Centralized repository of business-specific terms, definitions, and descriptions used across an organization. It provides a common language and understanding, facilitating communication among stakeholders from different departments and domains.
• Data Profiling: Analysis of data to assess its quality, structure, and content. By examining characteristics such as completeness, accuracy, consistency, and uniqueness, it’s possible to identify anomalies, inconsistencies, and issues that may impact usability.
• Data Quality: Refers to the reliability and relevance of data for its intended use. It involves implementing processes, standards, and controls to ensure it meets predefined criteria and can be trusted for decision-making and analysis.
• Data Discovery: Process of exploring, identifying, and understanding data assets within an organization. It involves discovering sources, understanding their contents and relationships, and assessing their value for business use cases and analytics initiatives.
• Data Collaboration: Involves fostering collaboration and sharing of data assets, insights, and expertise across departments, teams, and stakeholders. It promotes cross-functional knowledge and innovation, enabling to leverage collective intelligence.
• Data Lineage: Refers to the documentation and visualization of the lifecycle of data, including its origins, transformations, and destinations. It provides a clear understanding of how data flows through various systems, processes, and environments, enabling organizations to trace data back to its source and assess its trustworthiness.

Why choose Link for Data Governance?

With a track record of more than 25 years in the market, Link Consulting has been a trusted ally in establishing robust data governance frameworks, working hand in hand with CDOs (Chief Data Officers), Architects and QAs to ensure there is a reliable and single source of truth. With our proven methodology and robust solutions like Microsoft Purview and Collate, we empower organizations to harness the full potential of their data assets.

Data Mesh & Virtualization

Data Mesh & Virtualization revolutionizes data management by democratizing access to distributed business-critical data for analytical purposes through a virtualization layer, involving:

• Data Mesh – Decentralized, distributed approach to optimize enterprise data management and help organizations get the most out of their data-driven investments.
• Data Virtualization – Solution that creates intermediate layers between data consumers and disparate data source systems, giving a unified interface to all data in the organization while leaving the data itself at the source.
• Data Products – Curated collection of purpose-built and reusable data sets with business-approved metadata designed to solve specific, targeted business problems.
• Data Federation – Approach that involves the creation of a virtual database that maps different sources and makes them accessible through a single interface.

Why choose Link for Data Mesh & Virtualization?

Our expertise in this area, coupled with an exclusive partnership with Starburst to implement and support its leading end-to-end analytics platform, ensures that your organization can leverage the power of data without technical barriers – another key step towards a data-driven company.

Data Lakehouse

Data Lakehouse is a data architecture approach for storing, managing, and analyzing structured and unstructured data in a single location. It combines the scalability of Data Lake with the structured querying and analytics capabilities of Data Warehouse, associating these and other concepts such as:

• Data Engineering – Enables to collect, store, process, and analyze large volumes of data.
• Data Science – AI tools to build end-to-end workflows, enrich data, and improve insights.
• Data Lake – Centralized repository that ingests and stores large volumes of data in its original form, the data can then be processed and used as a basis for a variety of analytic needs.
• Data Warehouse – Leverages database, analytics, messaging, data integration and business intelligence workloads through a shared experience.
• Real-time Analytics – Enables to explore and analyze large volumes of streaming data in real -time with high performance and low latency.
• Data monitoring and action – Allows to drive timely actions by creating automated monitoring systems to detect patterns and changes.
• Business intelligence – Turns data into visually immersive, interactive insights.

Why choose Link for Data Lakehouse?

Our seasoned consultants specialize in implementing Data Lakehouse solutions like Fabric by Microsoft, an AI-powered all-in-one modern analytics platform. Additionally, we leverage the power of Generative AI through tools like Copilot Studio to create conversational agents, build automated workflows and drive efficiency across organizations.

A data-driven company starts here

By unlocking the power of data and following a 360º appoach, you can transform your organization into a truly data-driven company. Ready to embark on your journey? Lean on our experts to guide you by contacting us today!

The strategic collaboration between Starburst, a leading platform in data lake analytics, and Link Consulting, a renowned technology consulting firm, has positively impacted the landscape of data analytics and virtualization. This successful partnership is now celebrated after the success of an exclusive webinar, where experts shared valuable insights on how innovation can be achieved in data management.

Partnership Drives Innovation in Data Analytics and Virtualization
This new chapter in the partnership between Starburst and Link Consulting marks a significant shift in how organizations can access and utilize data for valuable insights. By combining Link’s expertise in Data & AI solutions with Starburst’s advanced technology, companies now have access to a powerful combination of knowledge and technology to drive innovation in their data analytics and virtualization initiatives.

Webinar: “Accelerating Data Access with Data Products and Data Virtualization”
The exclusive webinar, held previously, was a resounding success. It offered an in-depth look at the strategies and technologies driving innovation in data management. Participants had the opportunity to explore real-world use cases, learn from industry experts, and discover how the partnership between Starburst and Link Consulting is shaping the future of data analytics and virtualization.

Next Steps: Turning Insights into Action
With the established partnership and knowledge shared during the webinar, companies can turn insights into action. Link Consulting remains committed to providing expert support, while Starburst offers its robust platform to accelerate access to vital insights across all data.

About Link Consulting and Starburst
Link Consulting is a leading technology consulting firm, while Starburst is recognized for its advanced platform in data lake analytics. Together, these companies are redefining industry standards and empowering other organizations to reach new heights of innovation and excellence in data analytics.

The partnership between Starburst and Link Consulting continues to strengthen, paving the way for an exciting future filled with opportunities for innovation in data analytics and virtualization.

Ready to accelerate your data journey? Contact us to learn how we can assist you on this exciting journey.

The new EU MED cloud based EMSA Maritime Digital Service went live on April 20^th and covers all the products certified (around 170,000) under the European Union Marine Equipment Directives, giving the relevant industry, e.g. shipyards, a reliable tool to check the validity of the certificates of marine equipment placed on the EU market.

No marine equipment can be installed on board of ships flying the flag of an EU country, Norway, Iceland without receiving the EU MED mark of conformity (also known as the “wheelmark”) and being made available in the new EU MED system.

The new EU MED cloud based digital service implementation relies on a headless CMS, exposed using a frontend built in Angular and using API Management for system-to-system integration with external entities. It follows a micro-services architecture, Azure Web Apps and Functions combined with containers, and also leverages Azure DevOps for provisioning, continuous integration and delivery.

According to EMSA, the new system achieves two main objectives: improved functionalities and user experience, including mobile App for easy data access, and being the first EMSA service fully developed, hosted and operated in the cloud.

The MED digital service is available to public access for free at: portal.med.emsa.europa.eu.

Based in Lisbon, EMSA “works on maritime safety, security, climate, environment and single market issues and tasks, first as a service provider to Member States and the Commission, but also as an innovative and reliable partner and knowledge hub for the European maritime cluster and potentially beyond as a reference internationally.”